Fly fishing for smallmouth

[HighHook94]

Hey guys. Despite the poor weather forecast for tomorrow I think I'm going to try fly fishing in the early morning for smallmouth in the north branch. The hole I fish is pretty slow and about 4 feet deep. I usually use tubes, minnows, or crayfish, but I want to try catching them with my new fly setup. Any idea what type of flies I would use for them? I just started fly fishing this past winter for trout and I only caught one.

[tycomps]

Hey guys. Despite the poor weather forecast for tomorrow I think I'm going to try fly fishing in the early morning for smallmouth in the north branch. The hole I fish is pretty slow and about 4 feet deep. I usually use tubes, minnows, or crayfish, but I want to try catching them with my new fly setup. Any idea what type of flies I would use for them? I just started fly fishing this past winter for trout and I only caught one.

Betts Bass Poppers, they get hyper when you twitch them, drives bass nuts! Walmart has them-

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Betts-6pc-Popper-Tackle-Pack/16563522?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222227009579665&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=40968086552&wl4=pla-78911293352&wl5=9003511&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=16563522&wl13=&veh=sem

[thmyorke1]

Streamers (olive or white) and poppers.

Get ready to catch a bunch of dinks and handhelds before you get lunkers- they're in there but tricky to pull out. I tend to find the bigger ones in the more-structural spots.

Sporting Life in Whitehouse carries some flies- nothing like Shannon's selection but the essentials.

[Capt. Lou]

Shallow. Rack of dawn , poppers good bet ! Faster water areas streamers good bet , crawfish or minnow patterns . Poppers shorten lead to 5' or so if ur not sure how to cast them it'll turn them over better , mini sink tip works well with streamers in faster water short lead as well , none of these leads have to be tapered .

[HighHook94]

Thanks for the responses. I do not have any poppers, but it looks like they work for smallmouth, so I'm going to pick some up. I do have streamers though, so I guess I'll try that for tomorrow, then poppers whenever I buy them this week. I have a hole that I get big ones, but usually only if I use live bait, so we'll see how it goes!

[AndyS]

Black Ghost streamers or yellow Gains bug poppers.

[jaybird]

Nothing imitates a crayfish as simply as a brown wooley bugger , just like a size 8 or 10 . Dosent have to be fancy , just crawl it over the bottom

[bulletbob]

SMB really aren't all that picky.. Poppers are good early am, streamers are always good, but IMHO either crayfish or hellgrammite imitators would be the way to go for the best action, and the best shot at some bigger fish.. any nymph patterns will take a lot of SMB, but nothing is as good as a Hellgramite pattern IF you can find them,, They aren't always readily available commercially, and a lot of guys tie their own... bob

[bigfishy]

Once again the almighty wooley bugger imitates them gr8 in black....Dead drifted rather than stripped....

[Lard Almighty]

Just the other day I missed a MONSTER smallie on a popping bug. Also managed to land about half a dozen up to 12 inches in about 2 hours of fishing before sunset.

[tycomps]

Just the other day I missed a MONSTER smallie on a popping bug. Also managed to land about half a dozen up to 12 inches in about 2 hours of fishing before sunset.

Raritan? been waiting for a topwater report.

[AndyS]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxL1tTxsgD4

[briansnat]

I've caught smallies accidentally while fly fishing for trout. Usually on woolly buggers, muddler minnows and varous streamers such as the grey ghost. I'm sure they would work quite well going for smallies.