I sent Charlie Brooks some stonefly nymphs I was developing for the Madison River. Before I arrived in September, I wanted him to test them around West Yellowstone. I apologized that I had only been able to test them on smallmouth bass in Virginia and not large trout. That sparked a fire in Charlie. He explained that the only fish that was as smart as an old smallmouth bass was an old brown trout…and they were about equal.
So when I’m in Virginia fishing for smallmouth bass I need to use my utmost care. An important part of this approach is fishing with flies which both look and act like the natural foods the bass feed upon.
Fortunately, I grew up on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, a fine smallmouth stream. As a youngster I fished with live bait, which I usually caught with a seine. I quickly learned what parts of the river and what types of cover the natural baits lived in. Hellgrammites, crayfish, sculpin minnows, madtoms, shiners, creek chubs and dace minnows are all important foods for smallmouth bass. The first five were the natural baits I fished with most of the time as a youngster. Therefore, these were the ones I started imitating and fishing when I began fly fishing.
Natural Foods for Smallmouth Bass
I quickly learned that simply fishing flies which looked like the natural foods was not enough to catch the old, smart smallmouth bass. This prompted me to leap back beyond the fishing stage of my youth. I actually needed to go back to when, where and how I caught my bait in order to fish my flies so they would act like the real foods.
- The “when”, for example, with the madtoms was in low light levels because I seined these at night. Hence, I did best by fishing my madtom streamers very late in the evening.
- The “where” quickly became apparent with hellgrammites because I seined these around softball size stones in hip-deep water. Therefore fishing my Hellgrammite flies upstream dead drift below the riffles is very effective.
- The “how” was answered quickly with the sculpin minnows because catching these as a kid was a two man job. One man would hold a seine from below with the two side poles stuck tight to the streambottom in water 3 feet deep just below the strong riffles. The second man digs the streambottom just upstream of the seine vigorously with an old broom handle for 2 to 3 minutes. Then the two people lift the seine which may hold 8 to 10 sculpin minnows. This tells me I need to fish my sculpin streamer across stream right below the riffle as close to the stream bottom as possible, probably with a sink tip III line. Stripping it 4 inches every 6 seconds duplicates the swimming action of the natural sculpin minnow.
The better understanding of the bass’s natural foods, the greater chance I have in catching large smallmouths. As usual Charlie Brooks was right again.