Fed’s Lake Shasta Smelt Variants

Fed’s Lake Shasta Smelt Variants

Fed’s Lake Shasta Smelt Variants offer anglers effective, modern takes on one of Northern California’s most important baitfish patterns. Drawing from the classic FFI Fly Pattern Encyclopedia entry by Robert Meuschke, the Fed presents two tailored versions — one for freshwater and one for saltwater — each designed to match local smelt with lifelike flash and profile.

What Is the Classic Lake Shasta Smelt Pattern?

Lake Shasta, tucked away in Northern California, is a prime water not only for trout and bass, but also for mimicking one of the lake’s most important forage species: the smelt.

At its heart, the Lake Shasta smelt is a streamer designed to imitate the slender, shimmering minnow that prowling predators love to eat. The traditional dressing (as described in the FFI encyclopaedia) includes:

  • A long-shank hook — gives the profile of a slim baitfish.
  • Body: white or pearl (to reflect that translucent, silvery smelt look).
  • Wings: several colours of bucktail — typically white, yellow, blue, and red — layered to produce a subtle, natural minnow silhouette.
  • Topping: strands of peacock herl to add depth, iridescence, and a hint of a dark back.
  • Lateral line: highlighted with a strip of pearl crystal flash to mimic that thin, shining stripe along the sides of a smelt.
  • Hot spot / gill: a small red feather or red thread is tied in at the gill area to give a little “strike point.”

These materials combine to give the fly a realistic, flashing appearance in the water — especially when stripped or swung under tension.

Fed’s Freshwater Variant

For Lake Shasta, where freshwater trout and bass patrol shallows and drop-offs, the Fed’s freshwater version remains very close to the original.

Materials

  • Hook:3x size 8
  • Thread:White woolly nylon
  • Weight:8 turns .02 lead free wire
  • Tail:White poly-yarn
  • Body:Pearl crystal chenille
  • Wing:Pearl Lureflash and crystal soft EP like fibres
  • Gills:Red Woolly Nylon thread
  • Eyes:Crafters Choice Bling – coloured black with a Sharpie pen
  • Head:Thread coated with UV resin
0.3mm lead free wire
0.3mm lead free wire
Red woolly nylon
white woolly nylon
White woolly nylon
Crystal pearl tinsel
Crystal pearl tinsel
White poly-yarn
EP Fibres - white
EP Fibres – white
Crafters Choice Bling
Crafters Choice Bling
Crystal pearl chenille
Crystal pearl chenille

Tying Instructions

Hook shank covered in thread with lead-free wire wraps visible, stopping one eye-length behind the hook eye.
  1. Add lead-free wire to the hook, stopping about one eye-length short of the front.
  2. Cover the entire hook shank with thread.
  1. Tie in the tail material, using roughly a hook-gap length.
  2. Tie in the chenille and wrap it forward to just behind the eye.
Tail material tied in at hook bend and chenille secured and wrapped forward along the shank, ending just behind the hook eye.
Wing material tied in to match tail length, with a neat, formed thread head built at the front of the fly.
  1. Tie in the wing, matching the length of the tail.
  2. Build a neat, well-shaped head and whip finish.
  1. Add three tight wraps of red thread directly behind the head and whip finish again.
  2. Tie all flies to this stage before adding eyes.
Tying three tight wraps of red thread placed directly behind the head, ready for whip finish.
Completed fly shown at the stage before adding eyes and resin, each with tail, wing, chenille body, and red thread wraps.
Small drops of UV resin applied to each side of the head to secure stick-on eyes in place.
UV resin being layered and shaped around the eyes, forming a smooth, rounded head.
Curing the resin to harden and finish the head.

Head & Eyes:

  1. Apply a small drop of UV resin to set an eye on each side.
  2. Use UV resin to shape a clean, smooth final head and cure thoroughly.
Completed Lake Shasta Smelt - freshwater variant

Saltwater Variant

In more brackish or coastal waters, or when targeting species that respond to smelt-like saltwater forage, Fed’s saltwater variant adds a couple of killer touches, most notably a fish mask, while retaining the core of the original pattern.

The fish mask gives the fly a more realistic baitfish head profile. This “mask” can also help protect thread wraps and blend the head into the body.

You can make the hot spot\gills slightly more pronounced in the saltwater version (e.g., with brighter red material), since in saltwater, visibility and contrast can be more critical.

Materials

  • Hook:Firehole wide gape size 4
  • Thread:White woolly nylon
  • Weight:6 turns .03 lead free wire
  • Tail:White poly-yarn
  • Body:Pearl crystal chenille
  • Wing:Pearl Lureflash and crystal soft EP like fibres
  • Gills:Red Woolly Nylon thread
  • Eyes:Crafters Choice Bling – coloured black with a Sharpie pen
  • Head:Fish mask #4 with 4mm living eyes
firehole 419 size 4
firehole 419 size 4 hook
white woolly nylon
White woolly nylon
0.3mm lead free wire
0.3mm lead free wire
Red woolly nylon
Crystal pearl tinsel
Crystal pearl tinsel
White poly-yarn
Fish mask #4 with 4mm living eyes
Fish mask #4 with 4mm living eyes
Crafters Choice Bling
Crafters Choice Bling
EP Fibres - white
EP Fibres – white
Crystal pearl chenille
Crystal pearl chenille

Tying Instructions

Hook shank covered in thread with lead-free wire wraps ending one eye-length behind the hook eye.
  1. Add lead-free wire to the hook, stopping about one eye-length short of the front.
  2. Cover the hook shank with thread.
  1. Tie in the tail material, using approximately a hook-gap length.
  2. Tie in the chenille and wrap it forward to just behind the eye.
Tail material tied in to a hook-gap length, with chenille secured and wrapped forward to just behind the eye.
Wing tied in to match tail length and a solid, tapered thread head built at the front of the fly.
  1. Tie in the wing, matching the tail length.
  2. Build a solid, tapered thread head and whip finish.
  1. Add three tight wraps of red thread behind the head and whip finish again.
  2. Tie all flies to this stage before adding heads and eyes.
Thread head finished with three tight wraps of red thread directly behind it, whip finished and ready for resin.
Light UV-resin coating applied over the thread head and cured with a UV torch to create a smooth base layer.

Head & Eyes

  1. Lightly coat the thread head with UV resin and cure.
A fresh coat of UV resin applied; the fish mask is pushed onto the hook and cured to secure it firmly in place.
  1. Apply a fresh coat of UV resin, slide the fish mask onto the hook, and cure to secure it in place.
Additional UV resin being applied to fill the back of the fish mask, with slight red tint visible as the thread color bleeds into the resin.
  1. When filling the back of the fish mask with additional resin, be aware that the red thread wraps may bleed slightly into the resin.
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Julian Tapping

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