Southern Trout Magazine Issue 26

When fishing for trout and smallies I've had my most consistent success with a dead drift presentation but in a pond with no moving water slightly different approach is needed. Let your fly sit motionless for at least thirty seconds then ever so slightly twitch it. Just enough to nudge the fly and give the rubber legs a little motion.

Largemouth will look at the fly and as soon as you nudge it they will crush it.

I have some patterns I have created that have served me well for imitating hoppers, crickets and beetles that evolved from a foam slider pattern that I use for smallmouth bass. The original slider was a modified version of a very unimpressive fly I found on the internet that was called simply “Foam Slider”.

I tied up a few with materials I had on hand, substituting some materials for others and making some modifications.

When I fished them, much to my surprise they were very productive. Over time clients started saying “Let's try your fly” or “Is this your fly” After a while I just started calling it “My Fly”.

64 l August 2016 l Southern Trout l www.SouthernTrout.com