A good article on smallie flies, and smallie fly fishing.

[Further North]

https://www.thescientificflyangler.com/post/a-baker-s-dozen-smallmouth-bass-fly-patterns

[MIbassyaker]

I keep thinking I'll get into fly fishing someday, but everything about it seems so fussy and I'm not sure I have the patience. 

 

A quick search shows there are actually quite a few articles on Fly fishing for bass here on BR, but I'm not sure I've ever run across them, either in the home page or referenced in the forums. 

 

I've caught (small) bass on popper flies with a light spinning rod and casting bubble, but it's awkward, and not very effective.  I've also tried a trailing a woolly bugger ~18 inches behind a Rapala floating minnow (used mostly for casting weight, with front hook removed), which I read about somewhere, but haven't been successful with it yet.  Maybe one of these days I'll just bite the bullet and try the real thing....

[Further North]

1 hour ago, MIbassyaker said:

I keep thinking I'll get into fly fishing someday, but everything about it seems so fussy and I'm not sure I have the patience. 

I can't claim that most fly fishing isn't fussy, because I don't know the numbers, but a lot of it isn't.

I think that reputation comes from trout fly anglers, and a lot of it is deserved, IMO.

Chucking flies at bass, pike, muskies, even carp, isn't any more fussy that what we do with conventional tackle...it's effectively the same thing, just different gear. 

I learned to fly fish because fly fishing offers an entirely new set of ways to present "lures" to fish that cannot be replicated with conventional gear...then I learned to enjoy it for what it is, just like I continue to enjoy so much of conventional angling.

FWIW, I seldom fly fish for trout - not because I think it's bad, or dumb, or anything like that.  Just like jigging for walleyes and trolling, it's just not my thing.

 

Depending on where you live in W MI, you may be within decent driving distance of a great fly shop run by a guy that's anything but a fussy fly angler...although he knows how to do that too.

Glen Blackwood's Great Lakes Fly Fishing Company in Rockford, MI ( https://troutmoor.net/ ) is a great place to get started if you have a real interest.

Fair warning: It'll seem "fussy" at first, because there's lots to learn and it's different from what we do with gear...but it's no different than having a different kind of rod with a different kind of line, and different kinds of lures/baits for different things with gear.

[TnRiver46]

I wouldn’t call it effectively the same thing, your hook is in the air instead of the water for much longer no matter what species is the target 

 

bluegill and fly fishing go together perfectly, I usually keep a 3 weight in the boat when I want some panfish 

[Further North]

3 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I wouldn’t call it effectively the same thing, your hook is in the air instead of the water for much longer no matter what species is the target 

Not true at all.

I guarantee that with topwater fly fishing I can keep my fly in productive water more than I can keep a topwater lure in in productive water.

...for subsurface, it can be a push, or close to it.

Not everyone makes a bunch of of false casts before putting the fly back in the water...A good fly angler pulls their bass streamer out of the water as soon as it clears good structure/cover, takes it into a back cast wile letting out line, executes a double haul, and drops the streamer right back into the water at the next spot....do that and even if they do make one or two false casts, each only takes a couple of seconds.

...and I was talking about how fussy it was...not saying it was the same.

 

3 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

bluegill and fly fishing go together perfectly, I usually keep a 3 weight in the boat when I want some panfish 

That's a bunch of fun, and I'll do it when bass, pike, and musky fishing is slow...but I'll use a 6 wt.  My 3 wt. hasn't been out of the rack except for practice casting in years. 

[TnRiver46]

I’ve lived it, guided it, instructed it , fun way to fish but we will just have to agree to disagree on efficiency. It’s too situational for our diverse waters, great for some spots and not so great in many. I frequently take plenty of guys that will only use fly gear and are very good with it, did that just yesterday and my buddy got a nice yellow perch on a big streamer he tied. 
 

bluegill and mtn stream trout it’s the way to go, can be great on shallow river fish but so can a lot of things 

 

I like the art of tying the flies, the casting, the drift, reading riffles, etc. If I want fish in the boat and/or my belly, I can do it much faster other ways. 
 

also, in reference to the article, I would agree with the author that crayfish flies aren’t nearly as fun as the other ones 

[Further North]

6 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

...we will just have to agree to disagree on efficiency.

 

Overall, it may not be as efficient...but there are times and places (topwater bass being one) where it's at least equal...but that wasn't what I wrote about...

 

I wrote that the "fussiness" is effectively the same...but we're used to it with gear so we don't think about it.

 

Trout aren't my thing...but lots of people love it...and panfish are OK if nothing else is biting.

 

 

[TnRiver46]

Fussiness certainly occurs across the board, fly tackle seems indestructible with the reels being submersible. So closing the rod in the car door or strong winds are the few times I get too fussy with it. Days where SMB  are only biting bottom dredging tactics are another time I would prefer a faster rod (gear)

[Further North]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

So closing the rod in the car door or strong winds are the few times I get too fussy with it.

I've only done that once...but I've manages to break rods several other ways.

Strong winds are a good reason to leave the fly rods in the rod locker...or even in the truck.  A couple of weeks ago, floating a river, we came around a bend and the wind was ridiculous...we had to row to move down-river...fly rods got put away, gear rods came out...

 

 

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Days where SMB  are only biting bottom dredging tactics are another time I would prefer a faster rod (gear)

Me too. 

...or days when something like a Senko is working really well.

[Standard]

When the conditions are right, I have more fun catching bass on the fly versus a lure.  But there's a fine line between the fun and frustration factor with fly fishing for bass, especially out of a kayak.

[Further North]

On 12/2/2024 at 1:41 PM, Standard said:

When the conditions are right, I have more fun catching bass on the fly versus a lure.  But there's a fine line between the fun and frustration factor with fly fishing for bass, especially out of a kayak.

I'm with you 100% - which is why there is always a mix of fly and conventional gear in my bigger boat, and often in the drift boat.

I'm not a purist and never will be...there's too much to learn from gear to flies...and from flies to gear to ignore either in my opinion.

[TnRiver46]

41 minutes ago, Further North said:

I'm with you 100% - which is why there is always a mix of fly and conventional gear in my bigger boat, and often in the drift boat.

I'm not a purist and never will be...there's too much to learn from gear to flies...and from flies to gear to ignore either in my opinion.

Youve got way more experience warm water fly fishing than the author of the article so I would ask you for fly recommendations before him haha

[Further North]

11 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Youve got way more experience warm water fly fishing than the author of the article so I would ask you for fly recommendations before him haha

I don't know if I have more warm water fly fishing experience  - Jason has definitely been at it longer, and has more depth of knowledge.

I don't know if you caught it, but this picture:



...and the bit about the smallie eating a musky fly (which happens a lot) happened on my boat this past June.

Jason is a fun guy to fish with, and has forgotten more about the "science" side of fishing than I'll ever know.

[Recurve1]

I strictly wade fish rivers and creeks for smallmouth.  When I flyfish for them a big difference for me is the amount of fly line outside the reel and on the water, talking about retrieving flies like Clouser minnows and streamers.  I end up with a lot of fly line around my legs whereas with a spinning reel the line is on the reel.  Then the flyline gets pulled into the current and when I go to make my next cast I need to gather line to shoot it.  I have started holding the retrieved line in loops in my line hand which is OK but next year I am going to put a box/basket on my wading belt to hold this line.

For reference I'm talking about 40-50 feet of fly line at times.  Managing this line is the biggest pain for me flyfishing for bass.  If you are on a boat where you can stand then the line will lay at your feet and not so much of an issue.

[TnRiver46]

44 minutes ago, Recurve1 said:

If you are on a boat where you can stand then the line will lay at your feet and not so much of an issue.

Or……… if you’re like me, the extra shooting line will wrap around the throttle assembly, or the tie off cleat, or your shoe, or your hemostats clipped to your fly bag, or the steering column of the outboard, or the dangling keys in the ignition, or the trolling motor plug, or the metal things that open the hatch lids……. 

[Fallser]

My spinning gear is gathering dust.  The only time I really use it is when I go up to a lodge in NE Ontario. If I'm fishing in more than 10 to 15 feet of water, I'll switch to spinning gear.  I'm certainly not fussy about the flies I use.  There are certain lures I like to use.  So I'll experiment with the flies I tie.  I have a "fly" that imitates a Jitterbug, one that mimics a Zara Spook both are foam.  Even came up with a Senko fly, when my fishing buddies started using them.  I mainly fish warm water and these days I don't really chase trout. 

[Further North]

21 hours ago, Fallser said:

Even came up with a Senko fly

I'd love to see what your version looks like, and how you tie them.

[Fallser]

Not a whole lot different than you.  I tie some on worm hooks.  The ones I've had the most success with are tied on 1/32 oz jig heads.

 

[Further North]

On 1/4/2025 at 12:00 PM, Fallser said:

Not a whole lot different than you.  I tie some on worm hooks.  The ones I've had the most success with are tied on 1/32 oz jig heads.

 

Good looking ties!

I've tied mine with similar materials, and also on jigs for conventional gear.

Here's a bunch of variations.