Big appreciation for Smallies

Any experienced angler will attest to the fact that, pound for pound, small mouth bass are one of the most tenacious-hard fighting fish in fresh water. I have always been one of those trout rule bass drool guys but the drought conditions this summer have forced me to reexamine my angling values and give smallies another shot.

Fishing the past two weeks has changed my paradigm. I have targeted smallies in rivers, something I would never do as a rule but, things are shaking out to my advantage. I have found they readily take a black bugger so "match the hatch" is not a requirement and a one pound smallie in moderate riffles will put a good bend in a 5wt. rod.



Yesterday I got into a bunch of 3 and 4 pounders (sorry no pix) and put the 8wt. away in favor of the 5wt. Gearing down will test your limits and keep you sharp. 



When clients call I am going to encourage them to take a trip for smallies. I’m sure they won’t be disappointed.

Client Trip - Friday, July 6 -

I fished with Jim this morning.  He did really well for probably one of the toughest days of the year.  Jim picked up a rainbow from the river first thing this morning then I took him into the woods for some brook trout and he caught his first ever brookie from a very technical situation.  Well done Jim!  We worked like hell for a brown as the morning wore on but were denied the triple.  Water conditions were our limiting factor.

Conditions are SUPER BONEY DRY.  WE NEED RAIN. 

I have resolved not to trout fish until we get some serious precipitation. 

The browns are schooling up and they are very spooky.  Not a great time to be harrasing them with the hook, not they will take one anyway.

Some pictures from the morning:

Sunday Afternoon

Had a great time with Christian, a first time fly angler from Texas!  He was roll casting and doing a water loaded cast like a champ in no time.  I moved us upriver and he was getting rises all night.  As with all dry fly fishing, it took him a while to learn how to pull the trigger but once he did, he was sticking them in good shape!  One of the best parts of this "job" is meeting new people and discovering how much we have in common.