I heard they were in but practically no cars in the lot. Couple of guys in the downstream corner on our side of the river. A couple of guys in a boat anchored across from me casting plugs. After not getting anything for hours I knew plugs would be more likely to break through than the relatively subtle jigs I was drifting.
A big fast fish took a plug, leaping and racing around the pool before breaking off. A couple more hours laterI tied on a big Size #1 Opal Minnow Jig I had tied for Salmon this past fall. I moved up to the faster snaggy difficult water upstream. Second cast the bobber went down, my drag was set too tight, he turned and ran breaking off. I had one more big Opal Minnow Jig. A few cast later I started reeling it in fast as it swung over a shallower rock garden and she took it. I waded through the basketball sized boulders to beach her down stream.
This Opal Minnow jig is tied to balance hang and swim horizontal under a bobber of a strike indicator. The weight forward design works well for all species that eat minnows when fly casting using a rip and fall retrieve. Opal Mirage Flashabou moves through the water as bright as silver but with those great pearly colors. This more sparse, more subtle Salmonoid version only has 2 shot strands for the tail and 1 long strand folded around to each side of the wing. For other predators I put a total of 8 long strands, 2 folded to each side of both the wing and the tail. Opal Flashabou is plenty strong flowing freely in a wing or a tail but is always easily cut by trout teeth when wraped for a body.
- Opal Minnow Jig
- Hook: 60 or 80 degree Jig or Down Eye Fly Hook as desired
- Under Body Thread: 210 Denier Fluorescent Yellow Chartreuse
- Tail: 2 short Opal Magnum Flashabou strips
- Body: 2 strand Opal Magnum wrapped forward
- Rib: Fine silver wire counter wrapped to protect delicate body tinsel
- Collar Thread: 140 Denier FlyMaster+ Fire Orange
- Wing: White Bucktail Tied behind the bead up in the gap medium sparse
- Wing Flash: One Strand Magnum Opal folded on to each side of wing, more strands on predator patterns.