Coming Spring Small Mouth Fly Fishing

[DoctaJ]

Okay guys, I need some help. I have been using baitcasters and spinning tackle to fish for smallies in the meremac with good success. Most of my success comes in the summer when the river is down and wadable. However, the guys I work with at Bass Pro convinced me to try fly fishing. So I bought my equipment. I have improved dramatically with my cast but still no where close to being distinguished. Steve has taken me to cardiac and we have fished the springs. He was showing me for trout to throw up stream and mend the line to get a natural float. It worked for the trout, we caught several. The first decent fish on the fly rod was amazing.

However, trout isn't really my game just yet. I still enjoy smallie fishing. I read in a book winter smallie fishing with a fly rod is dooming yourself. What do I need to do? What flies should I use? Do I need a sinking line or a sink tip when the river is up? Do I fish the current for smallies just like I did with trout? I tried last summer to fish for bass by casting out and just stripping my line in. However, I don't think my fly was getting deep enough and my cast doesn't have enough finesse yet to not splash the water with my heavy streamers and such. I caught one little bass on it last year and was dissapointed with my results. I also fished an 8 acrea pond with a guy in a boat and he out fished me, of course I was using the fly rod. I still caught fish but no where near the number he caught. Currently I have a 7wt 9ft rod and line. I bought the seven for big bass, and bigger trout.

So for such a long post, what are the right techniques for the seasons. I know where to target the smallies but what rig I need is unkown. My family has a farm against the meremec right in the middle of the scotts ford area. The river from last years flood has left some really deep holes and it's getting harder to wade. I know how to attack with my baitcasters but not my fly rod. Any advice would be appreciated! Has anyone used a belly boat in the river? I wasn't sure if the current would be too strong to get around with flippers. Thanks again!

[fishinwrench]

I'll unload what I consider useful info regarding Smallies on flies. It is probably only worth what you are paying for it though, so all I ask is if you learn something to the contrary of what I'm about to tell ya'....Please set me straight ASAP

I'm not gonna bore you with where to fish for them....pretty sure you already got a grip on that.

First off, realize that you'll hardly ever catch as many Smallies with hair, feathers, and fly gear as you are used to catching with soft plastics and spinning gear, unless you get on a good topwater bite. If your buddy fishes spinning gear while you are flyfishing...you're probably gonna get spanked.

I do pretty good with #2 - 4 marabou muddlers in spots where I could kill'em with jerbaits. I tie them weighted, and in bright colors so I can see them...and fish them FAST. What you're looking for are reaction bites, if the fish has time to look it over good they will turn away more times than not. You'll see alot of fish but won't hook many unless that muddler is going somewhere quick.

Clousers get a ton of press, everyone talks about them and no magazine article fails to recommend them as the #1 smallie fly, but honestly they do nothing but frustrate me with repeated missed bites....the ol' suck and spit, if you happen to be tight to the fly when they bite it you MIGHT get him stuck...for a second or two. If you need to fish a "jig" put down the flyrod and pick up the spinning gear.

Pine Squirrel is the best material I've found for Smallies when they are deep. Slumpbusters and the like are deadly....find a size and weight that you like and stick with it in all types of water. (don't switch from light to heavy ones or vice-versa) you'll understannd why after you fish them a bit. Fish'em on a controlled swing, Somedays fast, other days slow. And don't get too "jiggy" with it, just play whatever current is there. Or fish it with slow and steady strips in stillwater areas. Instead of going heavier to get deeper, go to a longer or lighter tippet.

Once the fish start showing up shallow go to hair strip muddlers (4" rabbit strip with a muddler head), they fish just like a Zoom Fluke and will catch fish sitting still.....marabou muddlers won't.

I continue to experiment and play with a bunch of patterns, but those three (Marabou muddler, Slumpbuster, Fur strip muddler) are the only flies I fish subsurface when I'm serious about catching Smallies on the fly. If you can get a topwater bite going that's where the flyrod really excels for smallmouth....but it'll be awhile (usually May) before stream smallies start hitting topwater bugs very consistently....and they usually aren't too picky.

Gavin might pitch in and tell us both how he pulls it off with Coffey's Sparkle Minnows.....I can tie good ones, but I don't get bit on them like I know several other guys do. Possibly it is the rivers I frequent....as every stream seems to have it's favorite fly, when it comes to Smallmouth.

[DoctaJ]

haha, I will never tell anyone they are wrong when I'm asking the for advice. Thanks for the information and experience, I appreciate your time. I will def be trying that! Even if smallies are harder to catch on the fly rod, I would almost bet there is nothing like it.

[fishinwrench]

haha, I will never tell anyone they are wrong when I'm asking the for advice. Thanks for the information and experience, I appreciate your time. I will def be trying that! Even if smallies are harder to catch on the fly rod, I would almost bet there is nothing like it.

It is great. But it's hard to stick with it when the bites are coming slow and you KNOW a worm and spinning gear will hammer'em. Especially bad when your partner is throwing tubes or something, and catching 10 to your 1.

[Gavin]

Sparkleminnows...

http://www.ozarkflyfishers.org/fly/spminnow.html

Here's the recipe that I wrote up for the Ozark Fly Fishers newsletter a couple years ago...and the brown/orange thats shown is probably the best color on the Meramec Drainage when its low and clear, followed by Olive, and Pearl...Black, Chartruese, and Pearl seem to work best when the water has some stain to it. They available commercially from Montana Fly Company dealers.

My friend Greg Coffey from Lincoln, IL is the guy who developed it and showed my how to fish it on a trip to a heavilly spring fed Meramec River tributary a couple years ago..He cleaned my clock with one on our wade upstream in the AM...Then I cleaned his with a sneaky pete when it warmed up that afternoon......

Greg designed it to fish like a tube..and thats how it works best...Make a long cast upstream past a good looking piece of rock or wood. Aim that cast high and overpower the cast so the fly tucks back under the line before it hits the water, let it sink and retrieve some slack line to maintain a loose tension on the fly as it drifts back towards you and give it a little hop with the rod tip occasionally. Sometimes you see the flash as a fish hits, other times you'll see some tension form in you leader. or it might jump, or your instinct will tell you to set the hook. Hook sets are free.

A long leader helps, I usually fish one about 10-14' long made of 3' of 25-35lb mono for the butt section followed by a piece of straight 10lb flouro...It also works when stripped on a shorter leader like FW's muddlers...short erratic 3-4"strips usually work a lot better than the long leasurely strips most folks use to fish streamers.

My other favorite...The Gaines Sneaky Pete in size two...Fish it on a tapered leader 3' butt section of 25-35lb mono and a O-3x 9' tapered mono leader. Long cast up toward cover and dead drift it...Make sure the rubber legs arent fouled, because its worthless if they are. Sometimes a twitch gets em to eat it if they nose up to it and start to lose interest. The downside of the Petes is that they are fragile and the fish bust em up when they are really on a top water bite. You know its a good summer evening when the fish shred 5-6 of them. It helps to debarb them, and buy and use that little yellow hook out from Gaines, makes em last a bit longer if your not twisting the cork body when you remove them from the fish.

Those two flies account for probably 80% of my smallmouth....but there are others...If you want some more ideas... a copy of Tim Holschag's Fly Fishing for Smallmouth book...I think its the best one out there at the moment. Cheers.

[creek wader]

Good advice fishinwrench. I have to agree with you on it being frustrating. Nearly every winter I start tying smallie flies and practice my casts on urban winter trout lakes. I start getting all geared up for fly fishing streams for smallies. Every spring by the 3rd or 4th trip out, I get frustrated. I put up my fly rod and grab my spinning reel and soft plastics, then proceed to catch smallies. I'll catch a few smallies on the fly rod. Always small and far and few between. I catch more trees and bushes, though. The streams that I fish are of the smaller variety. So it's tight quarters and the roll cast is usually the only option. By the end of each day, I'm usually down to a popper, trying for sunfish. But, once again, I've got the fever and I'm going to start the spring off, with the fly rod. ... Good luck DoctaJ. My best advice is to stick with it. When you catch that 18" smallie (always eludes me) on a fly rod. It'll all be worth it. .. Wader