There are many fine books that address how to go about flyfishing for Smallmouth bass in rivers. Will Brantley's Smallmouth Strategies For The Flyrod, Bob Clouser's Flyfishing For Smallmouth, and Harry Murray's' Flyfishing For Smallmouth Bass are all required reading for the flyfishing Smallie fanatic. All of these have good general information to cover a lot of conditions, but I haven't read too many words addressing how to catch our Ozark "Brown Bass" on the fly gear specifically. Sure, Smallmouths are Smallmouths no matter where they live, but every region has it's variations in forage type and/or color, not to mention the differences in weed, wood, and rock cover that vary from one drainage to the next even within a small area. Here in the Ozarks, this can be pretty dramatic when you pay attention. For example, if I go fish the Finley near my house it's a typical slow moving, gentle Ozark stream with moderately clear water, with mixed rock and cobble but lots of wood cover. By contrast, Bull Creek is only a few minutes drive to the south of the Finley, but it runs much faster and is crystal clear, there's a little wood cover but most good fish will be found near rocky cover of some kind, and it's a much smaller stream. This is a major reason when some one asks what rod/reel combo to use for Smallmouths they receive so many different answers.
( By the way, for the rest of the article, I'm going to assume you already know how to cast a fly rod a little, understand how to tie basic knots and such. Not a total newbie, in other words. If you are a total "noob", you need to go back to casting little poppers to sunfish until you can get that down. No tantrums allowed because if you skip this you'll be frustrated for years, or quit. I mean the whole deal, too: Casting without getting "wind knots" too often, hooking, fighting, letting the little buggers swim away unharmed, repeated about a couple of hundred times. That's a minimum, more will do you well. Think of it as training wheels until you can ride like a big boy. As the late Sheridan Anderson would say, it's not only good practice, it also builds character.)
TACKLE:
What line weight rod you'll want to use depends on what flies you want to cast. A good 8 1/2- to 9-foot rod in 6- to 8-weight is a the place to start. I know there's someone out there that goes by the screen name "4weightfisher" on a message board somewhere shaking their head right now, but I'm talking about seriously pursuing decent sized Smallies, and to catch good sized bass you usually need to use good sized flies. Remember, the bigger, more wind resistant, or heavier the fly, the heavier line weight needed to cast it. The two I use most frequently are 6- and 8-weight. I split the difference with an old 7-weight on occasion, and honestly, if I only had one rod for Ozark Smallmouths, it would be a 7 weight, so if you start shopping for a dedicated Smallie rod start there. The 6-weight is for clear water, small creeks, or just fun fishing. I've caught some nice fish on it, but if I have my game face on, I'm breaking out the 8-weight. Most fly anglers in the Ozarks have a 8 1/2- or 9-foot rod in 5- or 6-weight already, and that'll do for starters, you just won't be able to cast larger flies, especially poppers, but it'll get you stared just fine. Match the rod with a decent reel, but don't go overboard. I'd scrimp on the reel to get a better rod and fly line.I've had good luck with plain old weight forward line from about everyone who makes one, and haven't seen much improvement by switching to a "Bass Bug" tapered fly line, at least when it comes to Smallmouth-sized flies. You might, so test cast a different line weight (or type) if you don't like the feel of a certain rod, sometimes manufacturers over- or under-rate their rods. I have an older 6-weight Fenwick that's really a 5-weight, and a rod I built on well known makers blank that's rated as an 8-weight, but doesn't come to life until you put a 9-weight on it. It's often recommended that you "overline" any rod you intend to cast bass bugs on, but I don't necessarily agree with that. I have a nice little 6-weight that casts smaller bugs and streamers beautifully, but when you put a 7-weight line on it just slows down and becomes a real dog to cast. Anyway, don't try something then get frustrated at the first kink. Experiment a little. Pester a buddy or try your local fly shop and see if they'll let you try out some of their test cast lines, or better yet, try several out before you buy that shiny and expensive new Smallmouth rod.
FLIES:
I have caught a few nice Smallmouths on smaller flies and poppers intended for panfish, but only a few. It may not even be the size of the fly that matters so much as the mindset of going out to catch a good fish, but I think the two are interrelated. I don't mind catching "bonus" sunfish, but to target nice sized Smallmouth you need a basic size to start from. This doesn't mean you have to use bass bugs the size of a starling, there are limits on both ends of the scale. I see many more folks using small flies versus large, so that's something to think about. For light (5- or 6-weight) rods, the hardest problem will be casting decent sized poppers, or heavily weighted subsurface flies. I'm not going to suggest a certain size fly for anyone, because everyone has different casting styles, and hook sizes aren't standardized anyway. The easiest but most time consuming method to find out if a certain fly is "castable" is to buy one, just one, and try it out. If it works (and hopefully catches fish) you can go back and order in bulk.
I've whittled down the numbers and types of flies I use though the years, and settled on 3 basic types to cover the water column, from top to bottom. They are topwaters, divers and streamers, and bottom bouncers.
Topwaters are probably the classic Smallmouth fly, and why not? There's nothing quite like a nice Bass exploding on a surface "bug" where you can see everything happen. There's something a little goofy about bass bugs, but I like making them almost as much as using them. Maybe it's growing up and seeing all the covers of sporting magazines where a bass bug is about to be engulfed by a large, evil looking bass. Like many clichés', it has some truth to it: Sometimes a surface fly will get attention when other lures couldn't buy a hit. I've seen this over and over again, and besides, they're fun to fish. So which surface flies to start with? There are so many, it's hard to sort though all of them. For sheer nostalgia, it's hard to beat a good deer hair bug. They can be expensive, and the best versions are pieces of true folk art. (Even if they may have been tied in Indonesia.) For practicality, foam bugs are very nice and sturdy. I can't say which is better. The classic "bug", whether hair or foam is still great in any slower water, any ambush spot. Eddy behind root ball of downed tree? Sure. Slick, still water in midstream behind a boulder? Oh yeah. Slower water flowing over submerged timber? Perfect.
As much as I love the classic popper, it shouldn't be the only topwater in your arsenal. The slider and pencil popper have their place, too. One of the favorites in this area is the "Sneaky Pete". This fly has a tapered, pointy head that is the exact opposite of a popper, or actually the same head as a popper, just reversed. When the water is low and clear this fly really shines, and it's easier to cast, too. The pencil popper is another easy casting fly, and like the Sneaky Pete can be worked a little faster than a regular popper, which makes them easier to fish in current. I do better with baitfish or bright colors for these two types of topwaters, but you can always experiment to see what works for you. Sometimes an all black pencil popper works better than anything, I still haven't figured that one out. A really simple leader for topwaters is get some bulk monofilament like Berkley Big Game or even Wal-Mart Shakespeare, and for 6-weight rods try this: 3-foot each of 20-, 15-, then 10-pound test, tied together with blood knots. Tie a Perfection loop on the big end to go to the loop on the end of your fly line. For an 8-weight try 25, 20, and then 15. I use these all the time, and have good luck. You can experiment with the lengths to get what you want. One of the most useful websites for learning knots is HERE:http://www.animatedknots.com/indexfishing.php
For the heavier tippet, I like to use a Rapala knot for a little better action of the fly.
For times when fish aren't hitting topwaters, there are several flies that you can use. I tend to fish divers more under the water than on top, so I don't really classify them as topwaters. An erratic, fast retrieve with a diver can make fish hit it, much like a jerkbait or crankbait. The only problem with divers is they are hard to pick up during the retrieve to cast again. You basically have to retrieve it all the way in to cast it again. The Clouser Deep Minnow, usually just called a "Clouser Minnow" or even just a "Clouser", is one of the few flies that was made just for Smallmouth Bass. Now there are saltwater Clousers, tiny little "Crappie Clousers", and giant Pike or Striper Clousers. What we are talking about is the original. There's a column in Fly Tier magazine titled "Getting It Right". Going to the original fly and seeing the design of the fly, and what it was meant to be. The original Clouser was a topic of that column, and it was a revelation. Most Clousers you see for sale look nothing like the original. Lead eyes too far forward, tails too short, and wrapped wrong around the eyes. The original "glides", the copies "jig." The original isn't a small fly either, it's about as long as a dollar bill, but still casts well. You must have some in your box if want to catch Smallmouth.
Here’s a real Clouser, as tied by Mr. Clouser:http://www.freewebs.com/reelwomen/photo%20of%20clouser%20with%20IOTF.jpg
Here’s a horrible copy:
http://www.flyline.com/fly_patterns/streamers/clouser_minnow/cl_mnnw.jpg
Here’s a nice one, tied by Art Scheck, complete with great tying instructions:
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw2/112403fotw.php
The "dumbbell" eyes are the real key to the Clouser, making the hook ride point up during the retrieve, keeping off most snags, and hooking fish right in the top off the mouth most of the time. Even the bad copies catch fish, it's just such a great fly. Heavier ones are great for deeper or faster water, and lightly weighted ones are good for colder weather and slow retrieves, much like a suspending jerkbait. You simply can't go wrong with a Clouser, a friend of mine was once asked where to cast a Clouser for bigger fish, and his sarcastic answer was "in the water". There are other subsurface flies like Wooley Buggers and various streamers that people swear by, but to make things easier, just think about it like this: If it looks like a baitfish, a Smallmouth will probably hit it at one time or another, you'll just have to find your own favorites. I like using a longer leader when fishing streamers, somewhere around 12-foot or so. Your tippet should be no smaller than 3X, and fluorocarbon 2X is better most of the time. Don't be afraid to step up to stronger. I was buying some 1X fluorocarbon tippet one day when another shopper commented "Geez, fishing for Sharks?" "No, bigger Smallmouth than you'll ever see. And mind your own business." He walked off in a huff, but seriously, 1X fluorocarbon tippet from Orvis or Rio is the same diameter as most 10-pound test monofilament people use on spinning reels. Who thinks of that as "heavy" tackle?
Fly choices for bottom hugging fish brings us to one of the most interesting sagas of all flyfishing, and that's the attempt to imitate a crawfish. There are more crawfish flies than you can imagine, and most don't work all that well. If you look at conventional tackle, there are very realistic soft plastic crawfish on the market, but do most anglers use them? No, most serious Bass fishermen use a jig and trailer that doesn't exactly look like a crawfish. The key is that they have the suggestion of a crawfish, and that seems to be good enough. As you might guess by now I don't use super-realistic crawfish flies, instead relying on the general suggestion theory, and do pretty well when I actually use them. To tell the truth, most of my flyfishing for Smallmouths is casting a topwater or my back up for when they don't want a topwater, the Clouser. I would rather not dredge the bottom unless nothing else is working. I've done it often enough to know it can work, it's just not my preferred method. I've experimented with nymphing for Smallies and that can work too, but I just prefer to use the faster "power fishing" stuff when I'm slinging the fly line around. This doesn't mean you shouldn't do your own thing out there, I know one Smallmouth fanatic who would rather fish a heavily weighted leech fly slowly in deep pools like a plastic worm more than anything else. Some people recommend a sink tip line and short leader when using deep flies, but I hate to cast them. I'd rather use a longer 12- to 15-foot leader to get down there.
WADE, FLOAT OR BOAT?
One of the hardest lessons for me to learn was that although it's not impossible to control a solo canoe or kayak in current and cast a fly, it's close. You have the paddle, (best operated by both hands) and the fly rod (ditto) and even the most basic math shows you've just ran out of hands. If you have a good fishing buddy and a tandem canoe, the world is truly your oyster. There are few luxuries I enjoy more than having a good paddler chauffeur me around as I cast a fly. Maybe an ice cold adult beverage and a hot shower, but I digress. That's the way to go though, change every other fish, every 30 minutes, whatever. If the company's good, I enjoy the paddling as much as the fishing. Most of my flyrodding for Smallies is done these days by wading. I may have paddled to get to the spot, but standing and covering water carefully usually gets more fish. After a few floats on a stretch of river, you'll learn where the good "get out and wade" spots are. I sometimes use these spots as a break from sitting and fishing in the solo canoe, and if I'm going to stretch my back and legs, I might as well try to put a bend in the fly rod as well. There are other places where wading is the best way to get around, or you just want to keep it simple. Little creeks and headwaters of bigger rivers are really the same thing, and you'd be amazed at how many nice Smallmouth can live in a section of small creek nobody messes with. I recommend Ozark Hideaways, by Louis White, to get you jazzed up about little creek fishing in the Ozarks. His book is part fishing guide, part travelogue, and just plain good. Some of it's getting dated, but it's still an excellent read. If someone out there wants to run me around on the bigger rivers with a jet powered john so I can cast big streamers on my 8-weight, just email me, because that's the one way I haven't fished for smallies yet. I've used regular tackle in that situation, but not fly gear. It should be a blast, but like I said, I just haven't done it yet.
STRATEGIES:
Most fisherman who already fish for Smallmouths with conventional tackle already have some idea where to cast and how to position themselves, but in flyfishing they key is backcast space. I have a buddy who calls it "being cleared for take-off." If you can't make the backcast, you can't make the forward cast. Everything else is about the same as conventional tackle. Smallmouth like current, but not too much current. Eddies and slower water just out of the current, especially if there is some type of cover, are what you are looking for when the water is warm, and deep slow pools when it's cold. Some days the fish seem to prefer wood cover, the next it's rock, or no cover, just faster water or current seams. There are some methods you can use that should be familiar to all flyfisherman. The wet fly or streamer "swing" is a great way to cover moderate to fast current areas. It's as simple as casting across the current and letting it swing your fly in a quartering downstream arc, sometimes feeding line, sometimes adding twitches or otherwise adding action with your line hand. When the swing is done, you step downstream a few feet and repeat. A Clouser minnow drifted this way has accounted for untold numbers of big Smallmouth for me. When late summer/early fall arrives, if you aren't casting a topwater on your fly rod you just don't know what you've been missing. Some days the ticket is a popper cast tight to cover and twitched almost in place. Other days a pencil popper or slider popped, skipped, and darted as fast as you can retrieve it draws smashing strikes. You just have to experiment.
If you're floating with a buddy you can easily carry two rods. I like to keep them in a 2-piece rod-on-reel case (Why aren't they called a "reel-on-rod" case?), only having one out at a time. I usually rig the heavier rod with a topwater, and the lighter one with a Clouser. When the other person paddles and controls the boat, it's just easier to put one rod back in the case and get the other out rather than cut your line and switch all the time. The rod-on-reel cases are a great investment, it's much better than letting the rods bang around in the bottom of the canoe to be stepped on. When I'm floating by myself in my solo canoe, I carry only one fly rod, usually rigged with a topwater of some kind, resorting to spinning tackle for deeper presentations.
When I first moved to the Ozarks, I was really into exploring every little nook and cranny of what could be waded, hiked and fished within about a two hour drive of the little duplex I rented in Springfield. I was really busy wading, canoeing, just exploring. I had a copy of the Conservation Atlas in one hand and Louis Whites' Ozark Hideaways in the other, and was trying to find the edge of the map. At the time I was looking for quiet, peaceful fishing, but was also trying to catch the biggest Smallmouth I could on fly tackle, and was probably a boorish snob about the last part. These days, I realize there are times and places where flyfishing works as good or better as conventional tackle, and times when it's the opposite. I have come to terms with that, and I have more of a fondness for flyfishing than ever before, but have dropped any pretense I may have had about it. It's just another way to catch fish, and if you like it, cool. If you don't get a kick out of it, well, maybe it's just not for you. Just don't be a quitter because of other people. I know a couple of "bass fishermen" who think I'm a "flyfisherman" and "flyfishermen" who think I'm a "bass fisherman". Whatever. Itty bitty minds gotta put things in itty bitty boxes so they can understand them. Do what you want and have fun, respect the fish and their habitat, help protect them, then help someone else learn, too.
I know trout get the most attention from flyfisherman around here, and I'm totally fine with that. I mean, I love fishing for them too, but most of these bright late summer days I'll be wading a little stretch of river and casting a popper I tied the night before, catching Smallmouths with no one else in sight.
( By the way, for the rest of the article, I'm going to assume you already know how to cast a fly rod a little, understand how to tie basic knots and such. Not a total newbie, in other words. If you are a total "noob", you need to go back to casting little poppers to sunfish until you can get that down. No tantrums allowed because if you skip this you'll be frustrated for years, or quit. I mean the whole deal, too: Casting without getting "wind knots" too often, hooking, fighting, letting the little buggers swim away unharmed, repeated about a couple of hundred times. That's a minimum, more will do you well. Think of it as training wheels until you can ride like a big boy. As the late Sheridan Anderson would say, it's not only good practice, it also builds character.)
TACKLE:
What line weight rod you'll want to use depends on what flies you want to cast. A good 8 1/2- to 9-foot rod in 6- to 8-weight is a the place to start. I know there's someone out there that goes by the screen name "4weightfisher" on a message board somewhere shaking their head right now, but I'm talking about seriously pursuing decent sized Smallies, and to catch good sized bass you usually need to use good sized flies. Remember, the bigger, more wind resistant, or heavier the fly, the heavier line weight needed to cast it. The two I use most frequently are 6- and 8-weight. I split the difference with an old 7-weight on occasion, and honestly, if I only had one rod for Ozark Smallmouths, it would be a 7 weight, so if you start shopping for a dedicated Smallie rod start there. The 6-weight is for clear water, small creeks, or just fun fishing. I've caught some nice fish on it, but if I have my game face on, I'm breaking out the 8-weight. Most fly anglers in the Ozarks have a 8 1/2- or 9-foot rod in 5- or 6-weight already, and that'll do for starters, you just won't be able to cast larger flies, especially poppers, but it'll get you stared just fine. Match the rod with a decent reel, but don't go overboard. I'd scrimp on the reel to get a better rod and fly line.I've had good luck with plain old weight forward line from about everyone who makes one, and haven't seen much improvement by switching to a "Bass Bug" tapered fly line, at least when it comes to Smallmouth-sized flies. You might, so test cast a different line weight (or type) if you don't like the feel of a certain rod, sometimes manufacturers over- or under-rate their rods. I have an older 6-weight Fenwick that's really a 5-weight, and a rod I built on well known makers blank that's rated as an 8-weight, but doesn't come to life until you put a 9-weight on it. It's often recommended that you "overline" any rod you intend to cast bass bugs on, but I don't necessarily agree with that. I have a nice little 6-weight that casts smaller bugs and streamers beautifully, but when you put a 7-weight line on it just slows down and becomes a real dog to cast. Anyway, don't try something then get frustrated at the first kink. Experiment a little. Pester a buddy or try your local fly shop and see if they'll let you try out some of their test cast lines, or better yet, try several out before you buy that shiny and expensive new Smallmouth rod.
FLIES:
I have caught a few nice Smallmouths on smaller flies and poppers intended for panfish, but only a few. It may not even be the size of the fly that matters so much as the mindset of going out to catch a good fish, but I think the two are interrelated. I don't mind catching "bonus" sunfish, but to target nice sized Smallmouth you need a basic size to start from. This doesn't mean you have to use bass bugs the size of a starling, there are limits on both ends of the scale. I see many more folks using small flies versus large, so that's something to think about. For light (5- or 6-weight) rods, the hardest problem will be casting decent sized poppers, or heavily weighted subsurface flies. I'm not going to suggest a certain size fly for anyone, because everyone has different casting styles, and hook sizes aren't standardized anyway. The easiest but most time consuming method to find out if a certain fly is "castable" is to buy one, just one, and try it out. If it works (and hopefully catches fish) you can go back and order in bulk.
I've whittled down the numbers and types of flies I use though the years, and settled on 3 basic types to cover the water column, from top to bottom. They are topwaters, divers and streamers, and bottom bouncers.
Topwaters are probably the classic Smallmouth fly, and why not? There's nothing quite like a nice Bass exploding on a surface "bug" where you can see everything happen. There's something a little goofy about bass bugs, but I like making them almost as much as using them. Maybe it's growing up and seeing all the covers of sporting magazines where a bass bug is about to be engulfed by a large, evil looking bass. Like many clichés', it has some truth to it: Sometimes a surface fly will get attention when other lures couldn't buy a hit. I've seen this over and over again, and besides, they're fun to fish. So which surface flies to start with? There are so many, it's hard to sort though all of them. For sheer nostalgia, it's hard to beat a good deer hair bug. They can be expensive, and the best versions are pieces of true folk art. (Even if they may have been tied in Indonesia.) For practicality, foam bugs are very nice and sturdy. I can't say which is better. The classic "bug", whether hair or foam is still great in any slower water, any ambush spot. Eddy behind root ball of downed tree? Sure. Slick, still water in midstream behind a boulder? Oh yeah. Slower water flowing over submerged timber? Perfect.
As much as I love the classic popper, it shouldn't be the only topwater in your arsenal. The slider and pencil popper have their place, too. One of the favorites in this area is the "Sneaky Pete". This fly has a tapered, pointy head that is the exact opposite of a popper, or actually the same head as a popper, just reversed. When the water is low and clear this fly really shines, and it's easier to cast, too. The pencil popper is another easy casting fly, and like the Sneaky Pete can be worked a little faster than a regular popper, which makes them easier to fish in current. I do better with baitfish or bright colors for these two types of topwaters, but you can always experiment to see what works for you. Sometimes an all black pencil popper works better than anything, I still haven't figured that one out. A really simple leader for topwaters is get some bulk monofilament like Berkley Big Game or even Wal-Mart Shakespeare, and for 6-weight rods try this: 3-foot each of 20-, 15-, then 10-pound test, tied together with blood knots. Tie a Perfection loop on the big end to go to the loop on the end of your fly line. For an 8-weight try 25, 20, and then 15. I use these all the time, and have good luck. You can experiment with the lengths to get what you want. One of the most useful websites for learning knots is HERE:http://www.animatedknots.com/indexfishing.php
For the heavier tippet, I like to use a Rapala knot for a little better action of the fly.
For times when fish aren't hitting topwaters, there are several flies that you can use. I tend to fish divers more under the water than on top, so I don't really classify them as topwaters. An erratic, fast retrieve with a diver can make fish hit it, much like a jerkbait or crankbait. The only problem with divers is they are hard to pick up during the retrieve to cast again. You basically have to retrieve it all the way in to cast it again. The Clouser Deep Minnow, usually just called a "Clouser Minnow" or even just a "Clouser", is one of the few flies that was made just for Smallmouth Bass. Now there are saltwater Clousers, tiny little "Crappie Clousers", and giant Pike or Striper Clousers. What we are talking about is the original. There's a column in Fly Tier magazine titled "Getting It Right". Going to the original fly and seeing the design of the fly, and what it was meant to be. The original Clouser was a topic of that column, and it was a revelation. Most Clousers you see for sale look nothing like the original. Lead eyes too far forward, tails too short, and wrapped wrong around the eyes. The original "glides", the copies "jig." The original isn't a small fly either, it's about as long as a dollar bill, but still casts well. You must have some in your box if want to catch Smallmouth.
Here’s a real Clouser, as tied by Mr. Clouser:http://www.freewebs.com/reelwomen/photo%20of%20clouser%20with%20IOTF.jpg
Here’s a horrible copy:
http://www.flyline.com/fly_patterns/streamers/clouser_minnow/cl_mnnw.jpg
Here’s a nice one, tied by Art Scheck, complete with great tying instructions:
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw2/112403fotw.php
The "dumbbell" eyes are the real key to the Clouser, making the hook ride point up during the retrieve, keeping off most snags, and hooking fish right in the top off the mouth most of the time. Even the bad copies catch fish, it's just such a great fly. Heavier ones are great for deeper or faster water, and lightly weighted ones are good for colder weather and slow retrieves, much like a suspending jerkbait. You simply can't go wrong with a Clouser, a friend of mine was once asked where to cast a Clouser for bigger fish, and his sarcastic answer was "in the water". There are other subsurface flies like Wooley Buggers and various streamers that people swear by, but to make things easier, just think about it like this: If it looks like a baitfish, a Smallmouth will probably hit it at one time or another, you'll just have to find your own favorites. I like using a longer leader when fishing streamers, somewhere around 12-foot or so. Your tippet should be no smaller than 3X, and fluorocarbon 2X is better most of the time. Don't be afraid to step up to stronger. I was buying some 1X fluorocarbon tippet one day when another shopper commented "Geez, fishing for Sharks?" "No, bigger Smallmouth than you'll ever see. And mind your own business." He walked off in a huff, but seriously, 1X fluorocarbon tippet from Orvis or Rio is the same diameter as most 10-pound test monofilament people use on spinning reels. Who thinks of that as "heavy" tackle?
Fly choices for bottom hugging fish brings us to one of the most interesting sagas of all flyfishing, and that's the attempt to imitate a crawfish. There are more crawfish flies than you can imagine, and most don't work all that well. If you look at conventional tackle, there are very realistic soft plastic crawfish on the market, but do most anglers use them? No, most serious Bass fishermen use a jig and trailer that doesn't exactly look like a crawfish. The key is that they have the suggestion of a crawfish, and that seems to be good enough. As you might guess by now I don't use super-realistic crawfish flies, instead relying on the general suggestion theory, and do pretty well when I actually use them. To tell the truth, most of my flyfishing for Smallmouths is casting a topwater or my back up for when they don't want a topwater, the Clouser. I would rather not dredge the bottom unless nothing else is working. I've done it often enough to know it can work, it's just not my preferred method. I've experimented with nymphing for Smallies and that can work too, but I just prefer to use the faster "power fishing" stuff when I'm slinging the fly line around. This doesn't mean you shouldn't do your own thing out there, I know one Smallmouth fanatic who would rather fish a heavily weighted leech fly slowly in deep pools like a plastic worm more than anything else. Some people recommend a sink tip line and short leader when using deep flies, but I hate to cast them. I'd rather use a longer 12- to 15-foot leader to get down there.
WADE, FLOAT OR BOAT?
One of the hardest lessons for me to learn was that although it's not impossible to control a solo canoe or kayak in current and cast a fly, it's close. You have the paddle, (best operated by both hands) and the fly rod (ditto) and even the most basic math shows you've just ran out of hands. If you have a good fishing buddy and a tandem canoe, the world is truly your oyster. There are few luxuries I enjoy more than having a good paddler chauffeur me around as I cast a fly. Maybe an ice cold adult beverage and a hot shower, but I digress. That's the way to go though, change every other fish, every 30 minutes, whatever. If the company's good, I enjoy the paddling as much as the fishing. Most of my flyrodding for Smallies is done these days by wading. I may have paddled to get to the spot, but standing and covering water carefully usually gets more fish. After a few floats on a stretch of river, you'll learn where the good "get out and wade" spots are. I sometimes use these spots as a break from sitting and fishing in the solo canoe, and if I'm going to stretch my back and legs, I might as well try to put a bend in the fly rod as well. There are other places where wading is the best way to get around, or you just want to keep it simple. Little creeks and headwaters of bigger rivers are really the same thing, and you'd be amazed at how many nice Smallmouth can live in a section of small creek nobody messes with. I recommend Ozark Hideaways, by Louis White, to get you jazzed up about little creek fishing in the Ozarks. His book is part fishing guide, part travelogue, and just plain good. Some of it's getting dated, but it's still an excellent read. If someone out there wants to run me around on the bigger rivers with a jet powered john so I can cast big streamers on my 8-weight, just email me, because that's the one way I haven't fished for smallies yet. I've used regular tackle in that situation, but not fly gear. It should be a blast, but like I said, I just haven't done it yet.
STRATEGIES:
Most fisherman who already fish for Smallmouths with conventional tackle already have some idea where to cast and how to position themselves, but in flyfishing they key is backcast space. I have a buddy who calls it "being cleared for take-off." If you can't make the backcast, you can't make the forward cast. Everything else is about the same as conventional tackle. Smallmouth like current, but not too much current. Eddies and slower water just out of the current, especially if there is some type of cover, are what you are looking for when the water is warm, and deep slow pools when it's cold. Some days the fish seem to prefer wood cover, the next it's rock, or no cover, just faster water or current seams. There are some methods you can use that should be familiar to all flyfisherman. The wet fly or streamer "swing" is a great way to cover moderate to fast current areas. It's as simple as casting across the current and letting it swing your fly in a quartering downstream arc, sometimes feeding line, sometimes adding twitches or otherwise adding action with your line hand. When the swing is done, you step downstream a few feet and repeat. A Clouser minnow drifted this way has accounted for untold numbers of big Smallmouth for me. When late summer/early fall arrives, if you aren't casting a topwater on your fly rod you just don't know what you've been missing. Some days the ticket is a popper cast tight to cover and twitched almost in place. Other days a pencil popper or slider popped, skipped, and darted as fast as you can retrieve it draws smashing strikes. You just have to experiment.
If you're floating with a buddy you can easily carry two rods. I like to keep them in a 2-piece rod-on-reel case (Why aren't they called a "reel-on-rod" case?), only having one out at a time. I usually rig the heavier rod with a topwater, and the lighter one with a Clouser. When the other person paddles and controls the boat, it's just easier to put one rod back in the case and get the other out rather than cut your line and switch all the time. The rod-on-reel cases are a great investment, it's much better than letting the rods bang around in the bottom of the canoe to be stepped on. When I'm floating by myself in my solo canoe, I carry only one fly rod, usually rigged with a topwater of some kind, resorting to spinning tackle for deeper presentations.
When I first moved to the Ozarks, I was really into exploring every little nook and cranny of what could be waded, hiked and fished within about a two hour drive of the little duplex I rented in Springfield. I was really busy wading, canoeing, just exploring. I had a copy of the Conservation Atlas in one hand and Louis Whites' Ozark Hideaways in the other, and was trying to find the edge of the map. At the time I was looking for quiet, peaceful fishing, but was also trying to catch the biggest Smallmouth I could on fly tackle, and was probably a boorish snob about the last part. These days, I realize there are times and places where flyfishing works as good or better as conventional tackle, and times when it's the opposite. I have come to terms with that, and I have more of a fondness for flyfishing than ever before, but have dropped any pretense I may have had about it. It's just another way to catch fish, and if you like it, cool. If you don't get a kick out of it, well, maybe it's just not for you. Just don't be a quitter because of other people. I know a couple of "bass fishermen" who think I'm a "flyfisherman" and "flyfishermen" who think I'm a "bass fisherman". Whatever. Itty bitty minds gotta put things in itty bitty boxes so they can understand them. Do what you want and have fun, respect the fish and their habitat, help protect them, then help someone else learn, too.
I know trout get the most attention from flyfisherman around here, and I'm totally fine with that. I mean, I love fishing for them too, but most of these bright late summer days I'll be wading a little stretch of river and casting a popper I tied the night before, catching Smallmouths with no one else in sight.
