Some days I find the smallmouth bass in the large pools feeding on minnows and I catch them on streamers. Other days I find them in the riffles where they are feeding on natural nymphs and I catch them on nymphs. With a goal developing a fly which would press for both a streamer and nymph the Murray’s Strymph was born after much testing. I now tie this from size 4 down to size 10 in three colors, Black, Olive and Cream.
Fishing the Black Strymph size 4 upstream dead drift in the riffles catches many bass that feed on the natural hellgrammites which live here.
In the upper sections of the pools where the bass feed on the sculpin minnows the Olive Strymph size 4 is great when fished across stream with a slow six inch stripping action every 10 seconds to swim it slowly across the stream bottom. This same Olive Strymph in size 8 is very effective in the large deep pools where the bass feed on natural dragonfly nymphs. To mimic the swimming action of the real dragonfly nymphs I use a very slow line hand twitching action.
The Cream Strymph size 4 will catch many large bass which feed on chub minnows in the large pools. Casting across stream and stripping the Cream Strymph four inches every five seconds back across the stream will catch these chub-feeding bass.
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