The Chase Blog by Harry Murray
As I stood beside the river at dawn one beautiful summer morning rigging my leader I caught a glimpse of a disturbance two hundred feet downstream over a foot deep gravel bar on my side of the river. A very large smallmouth was chasing shiner minnows for an easy meal. I knew he would be wary in that shallow water so I stayed on the bank and snuck down toward the bass as he kept feeding. Just as i prepared to make my presentation cast the bass turned upstream and saw me and spooked to run out into the deep water.
A half hour later I saw another bass chasing shiners on a shallow gravel bar on the tail of the pool on the far side of the river. This bass was even larger than the first one so I vowed to use more caution. I waded very slowly toward him and only when the bass was chasing minnows. Once I was within casting distance I paused for 10 minutes. He was still busy chasing shiners so I knew I had not spooked him. On his next chase i cast my Silver Outcast Streamer several feet in front of him and stripped it into action. He took it solidly.
This one on one smallmouth fishing is one of my favorite forms of fishing. This occurs most often at dusk and dawn and when the river is slightly discolored. —My favorite flies for this action is the Silver Outcast Streamer size 4 in water up to 3 feet deep. My favorite fly in deeper water is Murray’s Dying Shiner size 6.
Learn more about fishing shiner minnows in our Smallmouth Bass Schools.
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