My long time friend and fellow elk hunter of years past, Ben Hanson, lives at Magna Bay on Shuswap Lake. Late April and early May, in good years, sockeye fingerlings in their millions, migrate from feeder streams into Shuswap Lake. Large resident rainbow trout eagerly await the arrival of the newly hatched sockeye. They chase the young salmon at creekmouths with wild abandon, often splashing at the surface in a feeding frenzy! This is the time and place to cast or troll a fly imitating the sockeye fry as they emerge from the creeks. This year Ben tried a couple of times to catch a rainbow or two but perhaps fewer fall spawners or lower water levels this spring made the catch more difficult. Regardless, a few nice trout were caught as shown in the photo below. I gave my friend a couple of flies including the Magna Bay Special that we will examine in this month's fly tying article.
Below is a late April 2024 Shuswap Lake rainbow trout.
Tie in a short golden tail with an up and down appearance. Next, wind silver chenille hook bend to hook eye followed by a silver tinsel tube drawn over the full body. If you have it, use minnow tubing with stripes, if not, mark in stripes with a permanent marker pen. Then tie in top blue and bottom silver flashabou wings at the hook eye. Gold flashabou is an option for the lower wing. The final step is to figure 8 a silver dumbbell at the hook eye and mark eyes on each side. An alternative as shown, is to build up a bit of a head at the hook eye and apply stick on eyes there. Cement, tie off and then look for those big rainbows feasting on sockeye fry!
Monthly Fly Tying Articles from November 1996 |
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