Over the past summer, I have been tearing up the smallmouth bass on the local river. I started out spin fishing for them with Rooster Tail inline spinners, but lost the most productive lure on a rock. So I decided to try and imitate it with a streamer. Here’s what I came up with:
I used white buck tail fibers with a little gold crystal flash for the tail, gold tinsel overlaid with gold wire (for durability) for the body, white buck tail with gold crystal flash for the under wing and black buck tail for the over wing. I added clear fingernail polish to the head for hardness and more durability. I’ve also made some variations with different colors of buck tail and crystal flash. Black and white with gold works well on cloudy days, black and white with silver seems to be the ticket on sunny days. The other combinations are green and chartreuse with pearl, and brown and yellow with gold (baby smallie/baby brown trout?).
Sorry, forgot to mention the hook size. I tie them in several different sizes, this one was on a #4, 3x long streamer hook. I also tie it with a #6 and a #8. Sometimes the smallies want a smaller mouthful. Also, I usually work them across and down and/or down and across, depending on the structure, the bank foliage, and the reactions of the smallies, with a very short (about 1-2 inches), erratic strip.
