Sight Fishing For Trophy Smallies With The 5Wt Fly Rod

[ColdWaterFshr]

Sheat!

Been looking for hooks like that to tie up a pattern called the meatwhistle. Where'd you find them? I've had good luck with PMS and smallies, but that one might just be the perfect smallmouth version. How did you fish it? Let it sink the bottom and twitch it from there?

Nice work. Need GPS coordinates, or at least some hints. Promise to only eat a couple.

[flytyer57]

Flytyer57,

See this link for the pattern:

http://ozarkanglers.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=339&Itemid=74

Thanks, but I decided to try a Google search for it and found it already.

What I could use though is some nice marabou and some olive pine squirrel strips. Got any of them?

[Bman]

Hey, I recognize that boulder! No, not really. Nice fish, and even more impressive on the fly! I'm a little skeptical about a 23 incher, but it's certainly not impossible. I don't think they make too many of those 'round these parts...hope to prove myself wrong one day. I'll bet you had a blast casting to those fish with bated breath. Well done, sir.

I don't blame anyone being skeptical, I would be too. I've seen a good number of 20" Smallies this year. I know Mitch saw a 21" brought to hand by the Guru this year. I saw two yesterday that dwarfed all others. After releasing a 17" yesterday, and watching it swim back into the area with these others, I got a good perspective.

Mitch f was right in his comment," There's probably only a handful of days in your fishing life like that one!" That's exactly what I was thinking at the moment. You never know when you are going to get hit by one of those golden moments. Too bad I couldn't bring one to hand for a quick measurement, and too bad my best fishing buddy my son wasn't there with me. I will be back, soon. I just hope someone doesn't discover this spot and clean it out.

[Bman]

Been looking for hooks like that to tie up a pattern called the meatwhistle. Where'd you find them? I've had good luck with PMS and smallies, but that one might just be the perfect smallmouth version. How did you fish it? Let it sink the bottom and twitch it from there?

That fly came straight from leonards hand, so direct any questions to Leonard who posts mostly on the Tanneycomo section of this web site. He invented it, he tied it. This version was something I requested.

[Mitch f]

I don't blame anyone being skeptical, I would be too. I've seen a good number of 20" Smallies this year. I know Mitch saw a 21" brought to hand by the Guru this year. I saw two yesterday that dwarfed all others. After releasing a 17" yesterday, and watching it swim back into the area with these others, I got a good perspective.

Mitch f was right in his comment," There's probably only a handful of days in your fishing life like that one!" That's exactly what I was thinking at the moment. You never know when you are going to get hit by one of those golden moments. Too bad I couldn't bring one to hand for a quick measurement, and too bad my best fishing buddy my son wasn't there with me. I will be back, soon. I just hope someone doesn't discover this spot and clean it out.

That was a beautiful fish indeed! I lost one about 19" at the boat the cast before that.

[zipstick]

Good stuff, Bruce. Sounded like a great board meeting for the big smallies. Twice in 25 years I've seen big schools of strem bass in MO, and both times I was only able to catch one as the rest of the school scattered during the initial fight.

I have been doing pretty well fishing this summer, but the topwater (walking lure bite) has been slow. My torn up A is still the king of my topwater box. Temps came down to 77 yesterday, but the smallies need fattening up. I think lots of legal bass hit the skillet this year, as I'm not catching near the 13-15 inchers of last summer. Still a good number of 18-20 inchers going. Been averaging 2 or 3 per day mainly on the A and on the Superfluke. Water seems to have a gray cast to it, and that's got me a bit concerned, as does the seeming lack of baitfish in the shoals. What bait I'm seeing is pretty little as well. This could explain the poor condition of the bass, but I expect to see skinny ones in late summer often with the increased matabolism of the fish.

Mitch is perfecting a really good small jig, and yesterday the results were encouraging so I'm already getting fired up about the cold weather bite.

Just returned from Minnesota. Great angling in places on the Mississippi R., but some of the stretches are so weed choked that the jets can't run a lick. We were forced to throw flukes in areas because of the amount of weeds drifting in the current. Those smallies up there are definitely on steroids both in fight and in girth. Saw the two biigest of my life, and they are still swimming. Hope you enjoyed the stretch of cooler weather we brought back! Keep in touch.