The tactics I use when I’m fishing nymphs for smallmouth bass are the tactics Charlie Brooks taught me to use on the Madison River for trout in and just below the riffles.
Most riffles on smallmouth rivers hold great populations of mayfly nymphs, caddis larva and hellgrammites (the larva of the dobsonfly). The first two have annual hatching cycles and our fishing is best just before and during these hatches. However, the hellgrammite has a three year cycle so he is always present. And since the natural hellgrammite reaches four inches long at maturity the bass know them well and feed heavily upon them.
As a bait-fishing youngster growing up in Edinburg, VA on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River I quickly became aware of the great density of the hellgrammites in the riffles. Using an old window screen as a seine and an old broom handle to stir the rocks on the stream bottom I could catch two to three dozen hellgrammites in ten minutes.
As an adult a good friend and I developed the Murray’s Heavy Hellgrammite after four years of testing many styles of ties. In order to fish these Hellgrammites with a dead drifting technique I wade into the river 50 feet below the riffles and turn upstream to fish every pocket over three feet deep. Using casts which are 20 to 30 feet long I cast straight upstream or up and across stream at 20 degrees or less. Using long strips with my line hand I swim the Hellgrammite along the stream bottom at the same rate the current is pushing it back downstream.
It is important to see the strike of the bass the instant it occurs because if you wait until you feel it the bass will detect it as a phoney and eject it. In order to see the strikes I use my Bright Butt Compound Tapered 9ft. 2X Leader with two Scientific Anglers spaced along the butt section of the leader. This indication system lets me quickly discern the strike and hook the bass.
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