Floating Bait Fish Flies

A Floating/Feeding Minnow lurks, waiting for a bass.

Sometimes bait fish are suspended in the water feeding near the surface. This is when they are most vulnerable to feeding game fish, not when they are hiding near the bottom. Startled bait fish that panic and race across the surface are often eaten by larger fish out of reflex.

Floating/Feeding Minnow patterns are designed to be fished with a floating line in the surface film. To make them most effective, make them dart around like they are feeding or are wounded and then let them rest suspended at the surface. You will be amazed at the strikes you can get from a variety of game fish. In rivers the Floating/Feeding Bait Fish patterns can be retrieved with very fast strips which will make the fly wobble like a swimming fish.
The Floating/Feeding Minnow can also be fished with sinking lines and are best retrieved with a strip-pause motion to simulate a bait that is crippled in the depths.

Fly Pattern	Size	Price
Floating/Feeding Smallmouth Fry	4	$2.75
	Smallmouth Bass are notorious cannibals. On a recent float down the John Day River we witnessed several little bass being eaten by larger bass. We fished this fly with a floating line and 6' leader. Retrieve it fast and watch the action. Hang on.

Fly Pattern	Sizes	Price
Floating/Feeding Shad	2	$2.75
Floating/Feeding Shad	6	$2.75
	This fly simulates a number of feeding baitfish. Juvenile shad, shiners, stickle backs and trout often hang suspended just under the surface feeding on tiny emerging insects etc. While in this mode they are extremely vulnerable to attack from below.

Fly Pattern	Size	Price
Floating/Feeding Bluegill Fry	4	$2.75
	Young bluegills often school suspended on the edge of weed beds and dart after small insects and water fleas. Big trout, crappies and bass often ambush them. This can be a deadly Smallmouth fly.

Fly Pattern	Size	Price
Floating/Feeding Rainbow Trout Fry	4	$2.75
	Big trout and bass eat little trout.

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