The Blacknose Dace is one of my favorite streamer patterns for northern Wisconsin trout streams. It works when nothing else seems to produce and the larger trout definitely get aroused when the black-stripped dace pattern is swimming by. I have many fond memories of swinging the Blacknose Dace pattern under alder branches hanging over the stream banks and watching a dark shadow lung at the streamer.

Blacknose Dace, which is party of the Rhinichthys species, is a very common minnow found in many freestone streams across the North America. They range from 2 to 3 inches long at maturity and have a distinct black lateral line that goes from their nose to the start of their tail. They have a brownish color across the back and silver-white in the belly. In late Spring (May/June) during spawning the male dace may show orange or red colors on some of the fins and underbody.

This extremely popular streamer pattern I believe was first tied by Art Flick back in the 1950′s. The pattern has been used successfully to catch many freshwater species and should be in every fly fisherman’s streamer box. It’s a great searching pattern and has often saved the day for me when nothing was hatching on the trout stream.

The Blacknose Dace streamer pattern is also simple to tie. The original was tied with white, black and brown bucktail with a short, red yarn tail and silver tinsel body. For the above pattern I substituted polar pony body hair for the brown bucktail. I also mixed black bucktail with a little dark olive bucktail for the middle stripe. I also added a small amount of white bucktail underneath the the hook along with some red hen hackle fibers. For the body I like to use flat silver tinsel and I sometimes add oval silver tinsel as a ribbing. For the eyes I either paint on the eyes and then apply fingernail polish over the painted eyes or I use jungle cock nails. (I don’t believe the original pattern had either.)

One note: the polar pony body hair seems too me to be pricey for what you get, $5.20 for a small piece. Plus, the hair isn’t as long as I would it to be. The guard hairs are longer but relatively sparse. The above streamer pattern was tied on Mustad 3665A size 4 streamer hook. The polar pony hair was fine for that length hook. But if you want to tie longer streamer patterns the pony hair won’t be long enough.

What I do like is the pony hair should add some good movement to the dace pattern as it’s swimming through the moving water.

From the book Streamer Fly Tying and Fishing by Joseph Bates, Art Flick’s original pattern called for (p. 231): “A small bunch of white polar bear hair or bucktail, over which is a small bunch of black bear hair or black hair from a skunk’s tail, over which is a small bunch of brown bucktail. The black hair is a little shorter than the brown and white. Care should be taken to use small bunches of hair so that the fly will not be overdressed.”

This is similar to the original pattern, but I used all bucktail since I don’t have black bear hair or white polar bear hair. It is a simple pattern to tie but very effective.