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MikelC

Smallmouth Buck Tail

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Over the past summer, I have been tearing up the local smallmouth population in the local river. I started out spin fishing for them using a Rooster Tail inline spinner, but lost the most effective one on a rock. I decided to try and imitate it with a buck tail streamer, this is what I came up with:

post-47712-0-58130000-1383350788_thumb.jpg

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It's tied on a #8, 3x streamer hook. I started with a white buck tail with silver crystal flash tail, added a silver tinsel body overlaid with silver wire (for durability), tied in an underwing of white buck tail, a little more silver crystal flash, and a black buck tail overwing. I finished with a little clear fingernail polish on the head for more durability. I fished it either across and down or down and across, depending on the cover and how much brush and trees were behind me (ha ha), with short, erratic strips. I have since tied some variations, black and gold, olive green, chartreuse and gold, and brown and yellow with gold (baby smallmouth?). All of them have caught fish, but the black and gold, and black and silver seem to be the favored patterns.

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Very nice-- at times nothing beats a bucktail for smallies. A suggestion- instead of thinking in the way of "imitating" a Rooster Tail with a fly, think of using your flies to suggest a food source for the bass. Hardware spinners have a whole different set of possible triggers (noise, vibration, rhythm, etc) which are difficult or impossible to mimic with flies. I make and use my own spinners all the time, so I'm not suggesting flies are "better" but sometimes they are more effective. Black and silver suggest the vast majority of most smallmouth forage fish. I've probably caught more fish of a whole bunch of species on a silver/black Rapala than any other lure or fly. That color combo just works everywhere.

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Ya great start, maybe try using a little less material tho, the hair doesn't really collapse under the water pressure so even with little material the body holds it's shape. I also feel it adds to the illusion of transparency.

Miles

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Some of my best patterns years ago were attempts to translate what worked in lures to flies... In salt there are even well known patterns named after the lures they were trying to match (the Mirrolure fly is an example). That transference works both ways. Bob Clouser's famous Deep Minnow has long been the starting point for a whole series of saltwater "clousers" that never saw a smallmouth but are used for everything from bonefish on up....

Tight lines

Bob LeMay

(954) 435-5666

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You can also add a spinner to a clouser pattern. Is called a coyote. Mimics a Road Runner jig. "sort of" Its number 11 in the picture.

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Thanks, guys, for all the comments. I have since given up on trying to "imitate" the spinner, and my latest efforts have quite a bit less material then the originals (lost quite a bit of the crystal flash, added a little less buck tail, and made the tail a little more prominent). Don't know if the smallies notice, but they look a lot cleaner, and last a little longer.

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MIke, back in the 60's or 70's I believe it was, there was a pattern called the Integration Bucktail, which was black over white bucktail. Good basic baitfish pattern. Joe Brooks also had a black over white bucktail pattern in his Blonde series that was called the Integration Blonde. So, in your attempts at imitating that lure, you've really only rediscovered an old fly pattern. That happens a lot I think. Nothing wrong with bucktails for bass or any other fish species that eats smaller fish. At one time either a feather wing style pattern or a bucktail was the streamer styles used for anything that swims, simply because the materials available were that limited. Now, there's a myriad number of materials used for tying streamers & numerous types of streamers.

 

If you still like the idea of a spinner, as others have mentioned, it can be done a couple of ways. There are inline spinners that can be attached to a fly, and used with a fly rod or an ultra light spinning rod. A spinner blade & folded clevise can be added on the tippet ahead of a fly too, or either a spinner or propeller blade can be incorporated into the fly. All of these work, but may have specific conditions that each might be better suited.

 

In the case of adding an inline spinner, a hook with a straight eye is probably a better choice than a down or up eyed hook. For adding a spinner to your tippet, a stouter tippet is a better choice than a lighter one, and a bead or even a few beads (plastic, glass or metal) between the knot & clevise aids in protecting the knot & provides a "bearing" surface for the clevise to turn against, rather than the knot, which often doesn't work well. A prop blade also usually needs a bead as well.

 

Here's an inline style blade I like to use for panfish. The idea can be adopted to many other types of flies & species.

100_4614.jpg100_4610.jpg

 

Also, check out Cowens Coyote fly pattern, by Henry Cowen. It uses a spinner incorporated into the fly, and is an excellent bass fly.

http://www.henrycowenflyfishing.com/Henry_Cowen/flies.html

 

Here's a typical example of a fly with a prop blade added.

http://flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw/022100fotw.php

 

As you can see, there's often more than one way to get a desired result when it comes to flies. smile.png

 

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