Flyfishing for

Small-Mouth &  Spotted Bass

 Notes on Smallmouth:

Steve Ford Tubing

 Dr Polly & Robert flipping poppers.

 It is important during the spring that you release your fish. The females should be allowed to lay their eggs and males should not be taken off the nesting beds for very long because they are protecting the fry. If you plan to keep fish for the frying pan, be sure to keep the small ones not the mature adults that can reproduce. It is important that we keep our Smallmouth population healthy.  

Fish the whole water column. Poppers and top water flies are and important part of any Smallmouth fly box. From there fish the middle with streamers patterns. Be sure and try the bottom with crawdad and sculpin patterns.  
 

A good selection  

TERRESTRIALS 

Late Summer & Early Fall is a great time to fish with terrestrials. No, I don't have any alien fishing buddies. I'm talking about land born critters that end up accidentally in the water. Grasshoppers, beetles, ants, katydids and such. In the hot, dry days of the sunny months, terrestrials are plentiful and are a major part of any fishes daily banquet. Grasshoppers are a favorite of many fishermen. Flyfishers have classic patterns from long ago such as Letort's Hopper, Joe's Hopper or even an Elk Hair Caddis. Over the last decade Dave's Hopper by Dave Whitlock ( an Okie by the way ( another story)) has always been one of my favorites. Ray at Elk Creek makes a no name bug from foam that works wonders on the bream and Griff makes a "Crippled Hopper" that is getting great reviews for catching smallmouth. I know of several people that fish live grasshoppers with fly rods and have great success. Live or imitation, you can fish grasshoppers with a spinning rigs using a "bubble" on the line to give you weight for casting.  

Find a nice quite nook with plenty of depth, maybe under the shade or the edge of some grass, cast to make a "splat". If nothing happens give it a gentle "twitch" and HANG-ON!!! 

These are just a few notes on fishing for smallmouth bass. Check this page for additions. 

Trout fishers get in the habit of  just about standing on the fish because of the way we fish a riffle or a small deep pool. Lake fishermen run full blast to the next hole. You just can't do that to a smallmouth bass in the river during the beginning of the aluminum hatch. (beer cans and canoes) You have to be a little sneaky. 

Wear shirts that blend in to the background. Tan, green and brown work well. Use the golfers "90 degree rule" when approaching that good looking spot. Walk on the path not splashing through the pool. Plan your movement where you are going upstream. Most fish in moving water face upstream when feeding. From behind they can't watch you coming. Use lures that are a bit more realistic you might hold off on the hot pink lizard. 

Mostly try to be quite and not so noisy, be sneaky!

To help build confidence and to help improve your fishing abilities,  locate a place you can go to often. Traveling to different fishing locations is fun and educational, but a new place is usually the least productive. Changing fishing destinations can be a lot like changing girlfriends. (You have to start from scratch and you have to be careful of comparisons.) Fish one "place" long enough to learn where the fish are hiding, why they like certain spots and the conditions that change their moods.  LC

One of the things you can do to improve your fishing is to become more "touchy-feely". Cast, close your eyes and  "feel" the force. Well, maybe just your fishing line.  

Sometimes the fish take the lure so softly you can easily miss it. It's more so with long single hook flies where the material extends a good ways past the hook. Lots of the smallmouth streamers that I like to use are made that way and I have learned to "feel" for the take. With a fly rod there is an advantage in that I have contact with the line in my fingers all the time. 

In fact it's easier to teach this technique to someone who fishes wiggle tail / single hook grubs a lot, than to a trout fisherman who is use to "seeing" the take. 

Work on it. Close your eyes, keep your line tight and learn to feel the take. Is it a fish or just a rock? You can now tell your wife you've been working on your sensitive side. 

One of the givens in fishing is that in order to move the lure you have to have a tight slack-less line.  An advantage of fishing with conventional tackle over flyfishing tackle is that the reel does this for you as soon as you start cranking in line.   

When flyfishing with bass type flies and regular streamers it is important to keep the slack out of the line in order to feel the strike.  

An easy way to help yourself to do this is to practice keeping your rod tip down. Unless you are fishing a dryfly or an indicator "rig", as soon as your fly touches the water you should bee removing slack and lowering your rod tip. Think about it. If your rod tip is high then you have less contact with your fly. Measure and if your rod tip is up then you have 4 to 6 feet of slack between the end of your rod and where it line contacts the water. Get in the habit to cast, drop and keep your rod tip down.