Smallmouth fly fishing in the later part of the summer can only mean one thing–the Hexagenia hatch. I usually start seeing this hatch mid to late August and it lasts all through September. Some days the hatch is very heavy and the next day it is non existent. One day one section of the river might have it and the next evening it won’t. Don’t get discouraged. Just keep fishing as many evenings as you can.
One evening years ago, I was fishing the North Fork of the Shenandoah River after work. I counted seventeen smallmouth bass feeding on the adult Hexagenia mayflies in a short amount of time. A Mr. Rapidan Skater Dry Fly size 8 seldom lets me down in this case. Fish this on a Murray’s Bright Butt 9ft 2X leader and skate it across the surface.
Sometimes the bass will feed on the emerging Hexagenia nymph headed for the surface of the stream to hatch into adult mayfly Hexagenia. A good tactic when you see this is to fish a Mr. Rapidan Soft Hackle olive size 10 on a 3-ft 2X dropper below the Mr. Rapidan Skater.
This hatch only occurs in the evenings, therefore I spend most evenings on the river hoping to get some wonderful smallmouth fly fishing.
