First Smallmouth Of The Year On The Fly

[Buzz]

I haven't been able to get out and fish for the last two weeks and it's really been bugging me ( pun intended). Anyway, I got off work pretty early so I decided I would hit a little creek near the house, but this time I would leave the spinning rod at home and only use the fly rod, which is the same way I broke myself of it for trout too. Don't get me wrong, I've cauaght quite a few Smallmouth and largemouth on the fly rod, but I just lost a little confidence in it lately.

On with the fishing. I knew I only had about 45 minutes to fish before I had to meet my wife for dinner so I didn't have too much time to play around with a lot of different flies. As luck would have it, just as I was getting the rod laced up I saw a nice smallmouth chasing minnows in the shallows. So I tied on a small Clouser and made a few casts. On the third or fourth retrieve I had a decent brownie follow it in, but didn't take it. I flipped it back out ahead of him and watched as the fly disapeared. A nice 12 inch brownie and my first on a clouser minnow. Very cool.

After a few more casts without any hits I decided it was time to try a new fly that I had tied a few months back, but had yet to try. It was an olive colored Kreel Craw-Dad. After about 3 casts I finally figured out how to work the bait and how to read the line for a bite. I caught 3 nice goggle-eyes pretty quick. I then decided it was time for the smallmouth, so I made a much longer cast to a tree limb near the edge of the bank and caught a small 10 inch SM that jumped clean out of the water when I set the hook on him. After a few more casts I caught another Sm that was a little bigger. Now I'm starting to like this fly. After a few more casts with no more action I decided to move upstream a bit. After about 10 casts I hooked into the biggest fish of the day. I didn't measure it but did get a quick pic with my cell phone.

If you guys like bumping the bottom with flies you should look into the Kreel Craw-Dad. It's an easy tie and it does produce.

I think I've gotten my confidence back.

[Wheatenheimer]

Great report Buzz! Way to go, Brother! Not too shabby for such a short amount of time!

[denjac]

If that was me supper would have had to waited. She would understand.

[Zack Hoyt]

I would take a SM over a trout any day of the week. As a rule, 90% of the time I am fishing for SM I am fishing off the bottom. It seems in my experience I get alot more action that way. I will not discount the popping bugs and terrestrial action though. Nothing like seeing a fish busting the water to take your fly. Congrats!!

[DaddyO]

Buzz, is that a fish or a football? Congrats!

[Buzz]

Thanks guys. It was fun and I'm looking forward to more of the same. The fish in the picture pulled like a horse and made several good runs. It is understandable why people love to fish for smallmouth with a fly rod. I can't wait to hit a few different creeks this summer. It is definitely addicting.