The smallmouth streamers with which I catch most of my bass are flies I’ve developed myself. I grew up on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River. To use for live bait, I caught live minnows here and on Stoney Creek. I knew where the various minnows lived and how they acted in the stream. This made it easy to know what my completed minnow should look like. The time I spent chasing them down to catch them showed me how they acted in the stream. Now onto tying bass streamers that looked and acted like the real thing.
Know my fly tying materials, I was easily able to tie streamers that looked like the minnows. I quickly learned that it was very important how these streamers acted in the streams upon further testing.
I went back to my fly tying desk and redesigned my streamers using different materials. Then I tried ostrich herl, natural animal fur and other soft materials that could be made to move like the real minnows in the stream. Today my hog suckers, dace, sculpins, madtoms, shiners, and chubs are very productive.
It is easy to develop your own minnow imitations and very gratifying with the success they produce.