by The Troutist, June 22, 2011

Macks Lure Company has come out with a new product called the Smile Blade Fly. This is a modified Woolly Bugger with a smile blade propeller located at the front of the hook to serve as an attractor. The flies come in a variety of color combinations as do the blades which are interchangeable and can be ordered separately. This fly is designed for trolling and cannot only be used on a fly rod but also a spinning rod, either with gang-trolls, flashers, or by themselves. Macks Lure Company has several products on the market but their most famous and well known one is the wedding ring, which I’m sure all of you anglers have heard of.

I was talking with Bob Loomis the Sales Manager of Mack’s Lure Company the other day about this new product and he graciously agreed to send me a few samples to take out and put them to the test. So over these next few articles I will be taking different anglers out with me that have varying skill levels as an angler. We will then work different lakes in western Washington in different conditions and will report back to you on our progress. As always we will troll them on a full sink fly line, “Blue Collar Fly Fishing” as it is called. I hope you will enjoy our fishing reports on the different lakes and our product reports in the next few issues. I know I’m looking forward to this experience myself.

May 31st I found myself to be the lone angler for the first day of this experiment. Mason Counties Lost Lake, surface water temperature holding steady at 59 degrees, overcast, dark and rainy. Lost Lake has not been kind to me so far this year so it seemed a great lake to start on. Hit the water at 9am worked it until 12:30pm. On this day the trout surrendered to the olive and green, model #60231 trolled on a full sink fly line. Hooked and released 6 in the 12-13 inch range and kept 2, one at 15½ and the other at 16-inches. Which is better than my last trip there a few weeks ago, water is still a little high. Over all the Smile Blade Fly is off to a good start with me.

June 1st Once again I was hitting the lake by myself to continue putting this product to the test. Mason Counties Spencer Lake, the surface water temperature was holding at 60 degrees, over cast with partial sun breaks, and very windy. Spencer Lake is one of my favorite Mason County trout lakes and I have always done well here. I decided that if I could control my boat in these high winds it just might be worth the effort and possibly the opportunity to battle a few trout. Normally I wouldn’t even have bothered to launch but it seemed appropriate to put this product to the test. I hit the water at 9am and worked it until 12:30pm. Black has always been a good color here so I put the black and pearl model #60233. In spite of high winds and not really being able to control my boat the way I wanted to, the smile blade fly once again produced trout. There were times I would hook-up and the wind would blow me right back into the fish but I was still able to bring them boat side. One 13-inch trout hit it so hard it broke the plastic beads at the front of the hook. I hooked and released 6 and kept one. It seems to work well in adverse conditions can’t wait to see what it will do with good weather.

June 6th Guest angler Verle’s Pro-Staffer Walt Harvey. Mason Counties Island Lake was the testing ground on this day. Surface water temperature was at 64 degrees, overcast early with sun hitting the water about 11am. Slight breeze early with afternoon winds hitting about noon. Hit the water about 8am and worked the lake until 12:30pm. Two other boats made an appearance later in the morning. Water was surprisingly higher than I expected, trout were all over the screen from 6 feet to the bottom. We kept waiting for some kind of a hatch to take off but it never happened.

Walt started out with the purple and black model #60232 and had the first couple of hook-ups. I started out with olive and green model #60231 and played my share out also. After hooking and releasing a few, losing a couple, and keeping five over the course of the day. The bite seemed to slowdown for both us so we tied on the brown and bronze model #60235 and picked up where we left off. This is as close to great angling conditions that I have come upon lately. What we both enjoyed was when the trout hit they slammed it and there was no doubt you had a fish on. Walt stated that he really enjoyed how hard they hit this fly. The trout ranged in size from 12 to 15 ½ inches. When I got them home I discovered that four out of five were holdovers with pink to bright red meat. These new flies performed magnificently today and I can’t wait to hit a Thurston County lake this week.

June 8th Once again I am all by my lonesome putting this product to the test. Thurston Counties Hicks Lake was our testing grounds on this day. Weather was less than ideal once again, overcast and very windy. Surface water temperature was hovering at 63 degrees all the time I was on the water. On this day the trout were definitely not where I was at. I worked the whole lake from 9:30am until 12:30pm and I was only marking a few here and there scattered from 6-feet all the way to the bottom.

I started with the olive and green model #60231 and circled the whole lake with nothing. I then switched up colors to black and pearl model #60233 and landed two 10-inch cutthroat. I proceeded to work the whole lake with nothing I couldn’t even locate them on my fish-finder. As I was getting ready to call it a day and head for the ramp I switched to brown and bronze model#60235 and picked up a very feisty 14-inch rainbow. This was a tough day fighting the wind and had very little control of my boat’s direction or speed. But once again when the trout hit, they just hammered it. Again I am pleased with their performance and felt lucky to get what I got. Like all spinner type lures every once in a while you will end up with twisted leader. Next column I will introduce a new swivel that takes care of this problem and how I utilize it. It is called the invisaswivel by the AquaTeko Company. So until next time may your next trout be your trophy mount.

The Troutist "Uncle Wes" Malmberg Columnist, Northwest Sportsman Magazine Columnist, Outdoors Northwest Columnist, WashingtonLakes.Com Pro-Staff Angler, Mack's Lure Company Member, Northwest Outdoor Writers Association Member, Trout Unlimited.

Column courtesy of Outdoors Northwest