As a youngster growing up on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River in the 40’s and 50’s I remember October as the month most serious smallmouth bass fishermen took their vacations from work in order to fish for large smallmouth bass. The 4 foot square contest board in the Atlantic Service Station beside my home showed which fisherman were catching the large bass, the size of the fish and the live bait they caught them on. At the end of the month the winner would receive a new Shakespear Marhof Casting Reel, the runner up won a True Temper steel casting rod and the third place angler won a minnow bucket.
The interesting thing to me then, and especially later after graduating from pharmacy school when I came home and started tying flies for bass fishing were the live baits they used. The three live baits that caught the most large bass were Hog Suckers, Darter Minnows and Mad Toms according to the contest board. Everyone knew that many of the large bass were caught on your bluegills but since these were not legal bait they were never listed on the board. In order for us to catch large bass now let’s look at where the bass feed on these minnow, the flies that match them and the angling tactics.
The hog suckers live in the deep cuts beside the gravel bars. From 40 to 50 feet out in the river I cast a Murray’s Magnum Hog Sucker size 4 up on the edge of the gravel bars and strip it slowly out into the deep water. The strike usually comes just as the fly enters the deep water.
The Madtoms live under cobblestones in the heads of the pools. I start right below the riffle in the head of the pool and cast a Murray’s Black Madtom size 4 across stream. After it sinks deeply I swim it slowly across the stream bottom by stripping it 6 inches every 10 seconds and gradually wade downstream to cover the upper 100 feet of the pool.
The darter Minnows live in the large deep pools and the Murray’s Magnum Darter Streamer size 4 is a good match. From the side of the pool I cast this fly across stream and swim it slowly back across the stream bottom by stripping it 6 inches every 10 seconds.
The Bluegills live in water from 2 to 4 feet deep along the banks and the Murray’s Magnum Bluegill size 4 matches them. From 50 feet out in the river I cast this fly tight against the bank and strip it slowly out 10 feet as I wade down the river. Today these are four of the most dependable flies I use to catch large bass.
A line hand retrieve is valuable when fishing streamers as you can tell in my video
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