Tough Smallmouth Bass Flyfishing

Years ago Charlie Brooks of West Yellowstone and I were experimenting with some new very large stonefly nymph patterns for large trout. When I sent Brooks my flies I explained that I had been testing them on smallmouth bass. In his return letter Brooks explained that my smallmouth were a perfect fish on which to test these flies because he believed that… “A large smallmouth had only one equal in smarts and that would be a large old brown trout.”—This came home to me recently when a good friend stalked a large bass for several days before he finally caught him on a size 10 Damselfly Nymph, but only after crawling in to casting position on his hands and knees.