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The Silicon Smelt made famous by Louie DeNolfo. |
The Silicon Smelt mostly in the central North Island for smelting rainbows. The pattern was popularised by Louie DeNolfo who in the early 1990s was a top professional trout fishing guide who operated around Lake Taupo, the Tongariro River and the Rotorua lakes - his particular speciality being trophy trout at Lakes Otamangakau, Okataina, Rotoiti and Aniwhenua. There are many uses for the silicon smelt when ever trout are feeding on whitebait. In the Tongariro Delta they can be used in tandem with the infamous Glo Bug. It is deadly fished right on the bottom with a super fast sink shooting taper.
Silicon smelt can be combined with a weighted nymph and indicator rig this works wonders dead drifted in the Tailrace Canal, or anywhere around smelting fish. Or just retrieve it as you would any wet fly. It also works well when harled.
Louie said that he got the inspiration for his silicon smelt version from local angler Murray Spaulding back in the early 1980s who had been smearing silicon window sealer on various smelt flies such as the Doll Fly in an attempt to make it more smelt-like.
Louie's recipe is as follows: Take a Kamasan B830 or B200 hook, tie in one flat piece of silver tinsel or perl Flashabou as the tail. This should be no longer than the hook shank. Cut the tail to a point at the end.
Wrap the body with white acrylic yarn. I use ordinary white sewing cotton as the tying thread. Tying off leaves a white head to which a black eye can be painted on later with marker pen or paint.
There are numerous variations of this pattern including adding a luminous strip of Aurora skirt (available from good fishing tackle stores) and Flashabou in various colours. White yarn as a base gives the best looking whitebait smelt patterns.
Having tied the fly the next step is to apply Vaseline to the hook bend in preparation for siliconing. Prepare a working surface by stretching a plastic bag over a flat surface and lightly apply Vaseline. The larger the surface the more flies you can make in one go.
Next comes the fun part. Squirt a 25mm strip of silicon sealer on to the surface and spread it along about 50mm with a trowel made of plastic or stiff card. Spread the sealer thinner at one end. This will give you the taper for the tail.
Stick down your fly into the smear with the tail at the thin end. Apply silicon over the fly and spread again with your trowel to smooth the surface. You can also add glitter to the surface of the silicon between the two layers.
Now it is just a case of waiting about eight hours for the silicone to set before peeling your flies off the plastic bag sheet and trimming them to shape with a pair of sharp scissors.
See also
Silicon Smelt - Rubber Trout Flies with Allan Burgess
See also tying other central North Island trout lures including: Ginger Mick, Taupo Tiger, Parsons' Glory and Yellow Lady. Also: Trout Fishing in Lake Rotoma. Return to: Feathered Lures for Trout Fishing and Trout Fly Fishing in New Zealand |
