JP’s Trout Snack
The Trout Snack a great fly for trout. I started tying
this fly to imitate trout and salmon fry. I live on a
great brown trout stream that has good natural reproduction.
I also lived on a very good spring creek where brown trout
flourished along with a good population of brook trout and
some rainbows. One day I was watching a couple very small
trout fly chasing midges as they hatched in some very shallow
water. Suddenly, a very large brown trout came charging out
of some weeds and ate both of the fry. It was the largest
trout (resident fish) I had ever seen in my local waters.
I knew one thing, I wanted to catch that fish. That night
I began experimenting at my tying bench. I wanted to come
up with a good imitation of a trout fry. After some trial
and error I came up with the Trout Snack. Two weeks later
I was back fishing that same stretch of water and was having
some success with the fly. I walked down to the next pool
and laid out a 40 foot cast with my 3WT, placing the fly right
up against the opposite bank near some blow down. With two
quick strips that huge brown blasted up through some weeds and
engulfed my fly. I was way under gunned with my little 6.5 ft
3WT. 25 minutes later after going into my backing twice I
landed the largest resident (non-migratory — ie. Great Lakes)
brown trout I had ever seen. That fish is still the largest
resident fish I have taken to date. Another gentleman assisted
me with landing the fish and measuring it. It was a stocky 26
inch brown trout that must have weighed around 7lbs. The fish
was quickly admired and then released.
Since that memorable experience (I was 15 at the time) I have
taken several more large trout on the Trout Snack as well as
some impressive steelhead and Lake Ontario Brown Trout. Fish
it like you would any streamer. It also does a pretty good
job of imitating a sculpin and has been a good smallmouth fly
for me as well.
Materials
Hook: R74 (Mustad Signature Series Hook)
size 2, 4 or 6 Substitute’s - 80400BLN, 79580, 9672.Thread: 8/0 dark brown.
Tail: Wood Duck Flank - 2.
Body: (in order of attachment)
Partridge SLF Master Class Cinnamon Brown.
Bucktail dark brown/olive.
Starling breast feathers w/ white tips - 2.
Grizzly hackle - 2.
Gills: Islantic Sheep, Red.
Eyes: 2mm prismatic stick on eyes.
Originally published December 18, 2000 on Fly Anglers Online by Jeff Pierce.