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Smolt of the Month December
Fellow smolt enjoyers, we’re coming to you again with small news of the best kind! After heated arguments in the situation room and over email threads, we’ve come to a majority decision for the December Smolt of the Month contest.
The December Smoltie goes to… Juan Kindelan and this massively tiny minnow from the wilds of Arkansas. Happy anglers make for the best contestants, and Juan is beaming with enthusiasm with this miniature catch.
Juan writes: “Saturday, October 26 was a cloudy, gloomy day on the Smolt River, Arkansas. We had thrown every fly Mark Crawford, our guide and friend had, to no avail. Toward the end of the day, this little shiner minnow got the skunk smell out of the boat. I carefully put her back in the river so she could grow to be a big shiner minnow, sadly rainbows did not cooperate much that day.”
Above: Juan Kindelan with the December Smolt of the Month, a massively tiny Arkansas shiner minnow. Photo: Courtesy Juan Kindelan
We’re sending pint-sized congratulations to Juan; enjoy those minnow-sized bragging rights, and keep the stoke burning bright. Go smolts! And remember: treat the fish kindly, this year’s smolts are next year’s hawgs.
All monthly winners are eligible to win a grand prize package from Decked—including a full set of their D-Co Cases (valued over $900)—as well as a trophy custom-made by The Flyfish Journal staff, in May 2025. Monthly winners receive prize packages including a Stealth Work Station from Patagonia Fly Fishing and good goods from The Flyfish Journal.
And, of course, those minuscule bragging rights..
A big thanks to our prize sponsors Decked and Patagonia Fly Fishing.
Head to the the main Smolt of the Month contest page for more information on how to enter your enormously small catches and review past Smolts of the Month. Each monthly contest entry window will be open for the duration of each month, so go small or go home and get after it!
We’ve also compiled a runners-up list with a few outstanding entries in no particular order:
Above: Mike Spinney’s weedy wonder. Photo: Courtesy Mike Spinney
Mike Spinney writes: “Heard a rumor of big bass in weedy Smolt’s Pond in Smoltminster, Mass, and checked it out for myself. I’m surprised I had enough strength to lift this brute over the gunwale after the fight it put up. I still haven’t recovered.”
Above: Jennifer Davenport’s Chilean Chinook charmer. Photo: Shane Mahoney
Shane Mahoney checks in from the other side of the earth: “There we were, fishing the Rio Smòlt, just barely upstream of the Chilean border in Argentina the day before Christmas, 2024. My wife let out the telltale “Whoop!” that signifies she’s come tight to a fish. No, not the 28” brown she’d caught the day before, but this absolute unit of a Chinook (for real)—her first salmon of any kind, and on a purple bead head Frenchie. The guides at the lodge, and all the guests, were beside themselves with jealousy.”