SmallMouth Bass – A Great Fight
If you are looking to have some fun try fly fishing for Smallmouth, what a fight and after a couple you will know your arm and risk have been in a battle.
Where To Find The Smallmouth Bass
If you have a lake with Smallies in it then you will find them feeding in the gravel or rocks. So find a shallow bay with this type of bottom structure. The Smallmouth Bass will be there feeding on spiders, dragonflies, and crabs. On a calm day where the water is motionless you should be able to see the Bass hitting the surface, so work slowly and be ready for a fight.
The water depths I like to focus on are two to five feet with most of my strikes in ~3 feet of water. The challenge is keeping the Bluegills and Crappies from hitting your dry fly, so I try to stay out deep casing in toward the gravel shorelines or rock piles, stay away from the weedlines.
Which Dry Fly Works Best For Smallmouth
I have found the Brown Spider (Dry Fly) with white legs to work great, but have also caught them on Green and Black body spiders. When fishing for Bass I use my larger homemade Spiders, which use a size 10 Aberdeen Light Wire Panfish hook.
How To Handle A Smallmouth Bass On A Fly Rod
When using a Fly Rod for Bass I use the same rod and leader I use for catching Bluegills. The leader I use is not tapered, but just a three foot piece of 6 or 8 lb monofilament line. The key for handling the Smallmouth is; do not horse them in, let the fly rod do the work and wear the fish out. And do not try and lift them out of the water with your fly rod, but rather use a net or grab them by the lip while their still in the water. This should minimize any risk of breaking your leader.