Lastly, baitfish are a vital part of a smallmouth’s diet, and a variety of streamers work to catch smallies. Slim bucktails and traditional streamers are a good choice when you wish to imitate baitfish like shiners, dace, and chubs, which can suspend themselves in the water column. Yellow, chartreuse, and white are some of the best colors for smallmouth bass streamers simply because they are more visible to fish. Use weighted patterns with large deer-hair or wool heads to catch smallmouth that are keyed in on bottom-oriented baitfish like sculpins and round gobies.
Smallmouth Foodstuffs
What’s great about smallmouths is they’re typically not picky, and you don’t need to create precise imitations to fool fish. Using something that has the approximate size, silhouette, and action of the meals smallmouths have on their minds is much more important than making sure your sculpin patterns match the exact mottled color of naturals in the stream. But there are a few other keys that can help you find great smallmouth bass flies.
First, think about how well the fly’s size will attract bass. Consider your favorite plugs and lures that catch a lot of smallmouth bass. They’re probably about two to four inches long, easy for fish to see, and large enough to draw strikes from several feet away. The best smallmouth flies should follow suit, and you should try to tie patterns in the same size range.
Weight is a second consideration when selecting smallmouth flies. The Zoo Cougar is a great sculpin imitation, but it is usually tied with little or no added weight. Instead, Kelly Galloup designed the pattern to be presented on a sinking fly line. If you don’t fish with a sinking fly line, you’ll need to add a couple of split shots to your leader to get the fly down to where sculpins actually live. When adding weight to your leader, be sure to spread the split shot about 12 to 24 inches above the fly so it doesn’t impede the fly’s action. On the other hand, much of the allure of fishing traditional streamers or bucktails rests in the way the materials pulse and flutter in the current. Adding weight to a pattern like a Zoo Cougar may alter or altogether eliminate the fly’s action. Decide how you will fish the water column from top to bottom before you sit at the vise or head for the fly shop; then select patterns that will allow you to cover all depths.
Finally, remember action trumps imitation on the bass stream. Clouser Minnows have probably caught more smallmouth bass than any fly on earth, yet a Clouser in the vise doesn’t really look like anything a bass would eat. It’s the fact that a Clouser dips and dives and never stops moving that really convinces bass to strike. Be sure that your flies behave the way you want them to. Soft hackles, long bucktail, rubber legs, and marabou are all very attractive materials with lots of action. Weighted flies jig and dart like baitfish, drawing strikes from curious bass. Whether you’re drifting nymphs or stripping streamers, you’ll catch more bass on flies that have an inherent action than you will with stiff, “anatomically correct” patterns.
Nymphing Bronzebacks
So, exactly how do you catch smallmouth bass with a nymph?
We already know riffles are nymph factories and bass hang out in deep runs, waiting to pick off drifting nymphs and other morsels. But what’s the best way to target them without actively retrieving the fly, like a streamer?
Try setting up a nymphing rig with a high-action nymph pattern like a small Woolly Bugger, Murray’s Hellgrammite, or Girdle Bug below a small yarn indicator. Get into position below a riffle or alongside a run. Cast into the outflow of the riffle, just above the point where the riffle begins to transition into deeper water. Allow your fly and indicator to drift through the tail end of the riffle and into the deep run. Don’t worry if your indicator sinks so long as you can still see it; truth be told, it’s a good thing if it sinks because it means your nymph is getting down to the bass. Follow the indicator as it drifts through the run and be sure to set the hook at the slightest hint of a take. Bass can take a fly into their mouths and expel it in a split second, so don’t hesitate.
Another great indicator method for riffle-runs, as well as deep spots like plunge pools and below dams, is to present a small streamer beneath a floating indicator. I like little Clouser Minnows, about 1½ to 2 inches long, tied with bead-chain eyes that aren’t as heavy as dumbbell weights. Just like the float-andfly method that spinning anglers use to catch smallmouth in big Southern U.S. reservoirs, this technique allows you to hang a big meal right in front of a bass where it’s hard to resist. In my opinion, it’s hands-down the best way to hook smallies when the water is below 50 degrees F. Use an indicator that’s buoyant enough to suspend the streamer and set the depth so the fly drifts just off the streambed.
Once the water warms up, try targeting cover like fallen trees, sunken logs, and overhanging brush with a streamer. Cast near cover that is likely to hold fish; then actively retrieve the streamer as close to the lie as you can. Be sure to animate your fly with an active retrieve when it is in the target zone. You can cover a lot of water by hitting each likely spot with two or three casts, then moving on to the next lie if you don’t have any takers. Fly fishing for smallmouth bass is not a one-dimensional sport. While crayfish imitations hopped along a rocky bottom certainly catch plenty of bronzes, there are other methods that can catch fish, possibly with more efficacy. Be sure to try out these flies and techniques the next time you hit your favorite smallmouth stream. You may discover a secret sweet spot that other anglers simply walk past on their way to the next crawdad hole.
Nathan Perkinson lives in northeastern Indiana with his wife and two sons. He spends most of his time fly fishing for trout and warmwater species in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.