Inside the Box: Rainbow Smelt Clouser

The Rainbow Smelt Closer is an easy to tie and efficient fly when swinging large amounts of water in the fall or spring when water temperatures are still above their winter time lows. When water temperatures have drooped searching deep slow pools is no problem for this heavy weight. The fly is tied sparse with hot or krazy glue securing the lead head. “In an analysis of food ingested by biomass the bulk of steelhead diet was mostly fish. Smelt was the greatest item by weight…” NYSDEC Lake Erie Coldwater Task Group Report 2004 Here's what you need to get started. It takes seven wraps to find the placement of the lead head. Use Krazy or hot glue to secure the lead head. Figure eight wraps will cinch it tight. Get yourself a good hair stacker, one of my most used tools. Make four tight wraps just behind the lead head to secure the deer hair to the shank of the hook, advance the thread in front of the lead head. Leave enough excess on the back end to secure the head. Make four tight wraps in front of the lead head pulling the deer hair tight. Trim excess. Use sixteen strands of krystal flash, eight white, eight blue and tie in just below the front of the lead head useing four tight wraps. Trim excess and whipfishing head. The Rainbow Smelt Clouser can be left as is or a pink thread head can be added. Pink head