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Notes: This fly was developed by Milt Jensen, a local guide out of the Lake Almanor area. Milt developed this pattern for the Butt Valley Reservior which receives water through a turbine generator from water in Lake Almanor. The water that flows from Lake Almanor brings freshwater pond smelt to the turbine which also knocks them out from lack of oxygen. The smelt end up floating in front of the turbine's tailwater bringing the large Rainbows and Browns to feed on them. Float Tubers will use Milt's pattern to simulate one of these dead smelts. The closed foam underbody helps to maintain the proper floatation necessary. There is a similar pattern designed by Hal Janssen called the Janssen Minnow or the Epoxy Minnow since it was coated with a layer of epoxy. It was introduced in the late 1990's. The shape of the minnow was maintained by Zonker tape (leadtape) secured to the hook shank. Phil Rowley created a floating minnow called the Foam Minnow around 2010, based on Janssen's design, using closed foam for the underbody. I believe Milt's floating Pond Smelt was before that time period, sometime in the late 1990's. Originally, I used closed foam packaging material back in 2005 but the available foam material has improved and 3mm foam is usually used to provide shape for the pattern. | ||
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Milt's Pond Smelt  Tying Instructions |
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