Mike Schmidt's UV Candy: Exploit The Sweet Tooth

Dublin, Ohio fly tier Mike Schmidt has built quite a reputation for his Meals-on-Wheels, full-course-dinner brown-trout streamers. His signature baitfish patterns sport names like the Meal Ticket, Red Rocket, Voodoo Squatch and Stinky Mayo, so you can only imagine the strike: An obese butter-belly lunges from a logjam at the chance for a steak dinner served with sides and desert. The energy is bone-crushing.

These flies are big, as in 4 to 7 inches big, and they're meant to draw the attention of that sulking and ornery fatboy not interested in slurping appetizers or eating fondue.

This particular streamer, aptly named UV Candy, can also be very effective on just about any aggressive trout in search of a big meal – even those small- to medium-size trout that are barely twice as big as the fly.

It'll surprise some to hear this, but fishing large streamers for trout can at times be a highly overlooked option. Sometimes we as anglers get keyed in to all the insect hatches and try to take in as much topwater action as we can. We figure streamers have already been fished up and down the river, so we continue to downsize. Instead, think opposite and go big.

Today I carry two rod setups to cover both situations, and when the dry fly and droppers don't produce, the streamer usually saves the day.

If you're already a fan of big streamers, you'll enjoy this UV Candy – the latest creation from Angler's Choice flies. For a glimpse of Mike Schmidt's other fly patterns for big brown trout, please visit AnglersChoiceFlies.com.

Schmidt’s UV Candy
Thread: UTC140 denier
Hooks: size 1 and 2 Gamakatsu B10S
Tails: white schlappen feathers
Body 1: white bucktail and EV pearl polar chenile
Body 2: white/pink/blue bucktail and UV Pearl polar chenille
Connection: 19-strand .018" Beadalon with size E beads
Eyes: 3D epoxy super pearl

Step 1: With a Gamakatsu B10S size 2 in the vise, start the thread and wrap to the midway point of the hook shank. Tie in a pair of schlappen feathers, with tips together and extended about 3 1/2 inches off the rear of the hook. Wrap down the butt ends and wrap the thread back to above the point of the hook.

Tie in a piece UV pearl polar chenille and palmer it forward, taking care not to bind down the fibers. Tie off the Polar Chenille about an 1/8-inch in back of the hook-eye.

Step 2: Tie in a clump of bucktail on top of the hook shank and right behind the eye. There should be a little less than a pencil-width of bucktail behind the hook-eye, and the bucktail should be tied in with its tips extending off the front of the hook.

On the bottom of the hook shank, tie in a second clump at the same tie-in point.

Step 3: Use a tube or an ink-pen shell to push the bucktail backwards. Secure the bucktail in this reversed position with a dozen or so wraps of thread at a position an 1/8-inch in back of the hook-eye. Hit the wraps with a brush of superglue, then clip the thread.

Step 4: Place the size 1 Gamakatsu B10S hook in the vise, then attach the rear hook using 4 inches of 19-strand .018" Beadalon. Thread the Beadalon through the rear hook-eye with three size E beads as spacers. Tightly make crossing wraps forward and back along the front hook to lock the connection in place.

Step 5: Tie in a Schlappen feather on each side of the hook shank to help hide the connection point. The tips should extend just past the thread wraps on the rear hook. Next, advance your thread to the hook eye to bind down the butt ends. With the feathers in place, move your thread to the rear of the shank, attach a piece of UV pearl polar chenille and palmer it forward like on the rear hook.

Step 6: Tie in a clump of bucktail on top of the hook shank and right behind the eye. To make the fly in the colors of the "cotton-candy rainbow" as shown, first tie in a pinch of light-blue bucktail, followed by some light pink directly on top of it. On the bottom of the shank tie in some white bucktail, making sure the tips stay even with the light-blue and pink tips.

Step 7: Again use a tube or ink-pen shell to reverse the bucktail and force it to point toward the read of the hook. Secure the bucktail in this reversed position with a dozen or so wraps of thread at a position 1/8-inch in back of the hook-eye. Hit the wraps with a brush of superglue, then clip the thread.

Step 8: Use Loctite Gel to secure a super-pearl 3/8" 3D epoxy eye on each side of the fly. The eyes should be just behind the wraps of thread. Hold them in place until you feel the heat from the gel, then release the pressure. The fly is now ready to fish.

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