Fly-Fishing for Smallmouth: in Rivers and Streams

FLY-FISHING

for

SMALLMOUTH

FLY-FISHING

for

SMALLMOUTH

Bob Clouser

with Jay Nichols

STACKPOLE

BOOKS

Copyright © 2007 by Bob Clouser

Published by

STACKPOLE BOOKS

5067 Ritter Road

Mechanicsburg, PA 17055

www.stackpolebooks.com

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Stackpole Books, 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania 17055.

First edition

Illustrations by Dave Hall

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data for the Print Edition

Clouser, Bob.

Fly-fishing for smallmouth / Bob Clouser with Jay Nichols. — 1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8117-0173-0

ISBN-10: 0-8117-0173-5

1. Smallmouth bass fishing. I. Nichols, Jay. II. Title.

SH681.C63 2007

799.17’7388—dc22

2006016356

eBook ISBN: 978-0-8117-4292-4

QED stands for Quality, Excellence and Design. The QED seal of approval shown here verifies that this eBook has passed a rigorous quality assurance process and will render well in most eBook reading platforms.

For more information please click here.

DEDICATION

Michael Clouser, to whom this book is dedicated, loves fishing for smallmouth bass.

Idedicate this book to my family for putting up with my addiction to fishing and tying flies: my wife, Joan; my sons Michael, Bob Jr., and David; and my two wonderful daughters, Sherry and Robin. They missed a lot of Sunday drives and trips to amusement parks because of it.

I’d like to single out one son and thank him for the love he has given our family and friends. Because of his condition, my son Michael is unable to cast a fly rod. He has counted on me to take him out on the river in the jet boat, cast the fly, and hook a bass so he could then take the rod and fight and land the fish. Michael is my special buddy, and to him I dedicate this book.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

CHAPTER 1 Smallmouth Bass

CHAPTER 2 Seasons of Smallmouth

CHAPTER 3 Finding Fish

CHAPTER 4 What They Eat

CHAPTER 5 My Fly Box

CHAPTER 6 Casting Tips

CHAPTER 7 Presentations

CHAPTER 8 Ten Tips to Catch a Trophy

CHAPTER 9 Equipment

CHAPTER 10 Bass Waters

Index

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Iwould like to thank my family and friends for all of their support and Jay Nichols for helping me complete my second book. Thanks also to Lefty Kreh for reviewing the entire manuscript and Andrew Shiels at the Pennsylvania Fish and Game Commission for reviewing chapters 1 and 2; all the great anglers who contributed their knowledge of other smallmouth waters in chapter 10 —Lefty Kreh, John Randolph, Steve May and Ken Collins, Dave Duffy, Anthony Hipps, James Buice, Chuck Kraft, Mike O’Brien, Brian Shumaker, Roger Lapentor, and Tony Buzolich; and the following fine photographers for sharing their pictures of smallmouth bass and the environs in which they live—Jack Hanrahan, King Montgomery, Steve May and Ken Collins, Ross Purnell, Jay Nichols and John Randolph at Fly Fisherman magazine, Lefty Kreh, Mike O’Brien, John Sherman, Ralph Cutter, and Kevin McKay at www.maineflyfish.com .

INTRODUCTION

Smallmouth bass are gaining in popularity as great sportfish. With relatively clean water, good habitat, and an abundance of food, smallmouth can thrive—even in urban areas. BARRY BECK

My first encounter with smallmouth bass was with my father. He would take me fishing on Swatara Creek, a tributary to the Susquehanna River near my home. My father fished with spinning, casting, and fly rods. Like many anglers of that time, you weren’t only a fly fisherman or just a spin fisherman. You were simply a fisherman who wanted to catch fish.

I caught my first smallmouth when I was ten years old on a casting rod using a wooden broken-back lure, similar to a modern Rapala. I was casting the lure across the bottom side of a rock ledge on Swatara Creek when I hooked that eleven-inch bass. I caught my first small-mouth on the fly a year and a half later along a brush pile on the same creek using my dad’s bamboo fly rod and a size 8 fly made from a black chenille body with black hackle wound around the front of the body, and a red feather tail. In my younger days, this fly, along with the black fly attached to the rear of a small spinner, accounted for many enjoyable days on the creek.

One of my most vivid memories of fishing with my dad was going to a local farm and catching mice, putting them in a small wire box, and using them to catch big bass. My dad would take me out on the creek in his wooden boat. We would anchor the boat above a brush pile or fallen tree where he knew a few big bass were holding. He would use rubber bands to secure the hook to the mouse, then set the mouse on a piece of bark (which he would collect from fallen trees before the trip), put the bark and mouse on the water’s surface, and let it drift to within six or eight inches from the front of the brush pile and then jerk the mouse off onto the water. The mouse would try to swim to the brush but was held back by the tension of the line. This commotion attracted big bass, which would attack the mouse. This technique taught me to cast poppers or other floating flies to the front or outside edges of brush jams.

Like my dad took me, I have taken all my children and my wife smallmouth fishing and have seen the smiles on their faces every time one of them would catch a fish. I remember watching my oldest son Bob Jr. catch his first bass from the Susquehanna River on a worm under a bobber when he was five years old. I watched my second son David catch his first smallmouth along with my daughters Sherry and Robin. I also have a third son Michael who is not able to master fly fishing but loves to go along, and he uses a spincast rod to catch his small-mouth. I remember all my friends—it would take a whole book just to mention their first names. And I remember my clients, who I also regard as friends, and the smiles they wore when fighting a bass.

In many ways, I think all this watching and sharing special moments with family and clients in my twenty-plus years as a fly-fishing guide for smallmouth has helped me understand the fish better. I also think by being a guide you learn more about fishing than if you just fished, because you get the chance to observe all the surroundings and activities prior to catching the bass. You also learn from other anglers by watching their techniques and methods; you build up a memory bank that tells you the right or wrong ways—the ways that are successful and the ones that aren’t. The many days on the water have given me the insight into many of the questions and challenges anglers face when they first encounter a smallmouth river, and I hope this book answers some of those questions.

Over the years, I have developed a series of flies just for smallmouth. Many of my ideas for patterns come from observing smallmouth and their eating habits throughout the various months and seasons. Today some of these patterns are highly effective for many saltwater species. This is because saltwater species share many of the aggressive feeding traits of smallmouth. Like the smallmouth, they eat many sizes of baitfish and will attack a school of bait in the same voracious manner.

Smallmouth bass are gaining in popularity as great sportfish. With relatively clean water, good habitat, and an abundance of food, smallmouth can thrive—even in urban areas. They eat all types of food ranging from small insects to large baitfish and take flies aggressively and fight strongly. Best of all, smallmouth can add months of pleasure to the fly rodder’s year. When trout fishing slows down as many waters reach 70 degrees, smallmouth fishing begins to really pick up since smallmouth readily chase surface flies while most trout species become sluggish in the warm water. They will feed actively in water temperatures from 55 degrees upward.

In the warmer reaches of a coldwater stream, small-mouth live side by side with trout, but they also live in the same waters as other undiscovered fly-fishing opportunities such as carp, pike, musky, pickerel, catfish, and a variety of panfish species. A day spent angling for bass can bring you many surprises! I touch on some of these other species in this book, and many smallmouth patterns will also work for them.

Because of the smallmouth’s growing popularity, many books have been written on them. I hope that my book contributes to the growing body of work dedicated to this great gamefish. If you are a trout or salt-water angler, the transition to smallmouth angling is easy. I hope that this book will show you how. There are other books on smallmouth bass in general, but much of my experience is with rivers and streams, and that is what I focus on here. Once you understand some of the basic requirements of bass, which I talk about in the book, you can also use many of the flies and techniques to catch them in still waters.

When you sit down to write a book, you can’t include everything, so you need to make a decision about what you want to include and what you have to leave for another book. I don’t intend for this book to be a complete, comprehensive text on all aspects of fishing for smallmouth. You should also buy some good basic fly-fishing books on tackle, knots, and casting. I chose to focus on a range of techniques and tackle that are specific to bass and bass fishing, and in many instances I discuss more intermediate and advanced methods. You will find that in the casting chapter I focus on casting weighted flies and lines instead of basic casting techniques to describe the methods, flies, and techniques I use when fly-fishing for smallmouth. In the section on flies, I thought the best thing for readers interested in how Bob

The Clouser Deep Minnow and all of its variations revolutionized the way I fished for smallmouth bass. JACK HANRAHAN

The larger, weighted flies that are most effective for smallmouth require special casting and fishing techniques. JACK HANRAHAN

Clouser catches smallmouth would be to include only the flies that I use and design and carry in my fly box. Because I like to design flies to imitate local baits, most of these patterns are mine, but that does not mean that there aren’t a lot of other effective bass flies out there. It’s just that I feel most confident in writing only about what I use and have experience with.

Because I know that other people have different perspectives on smallmouth, and because I wanted to show that there is good bass fishing across North America, I asked some of my friends to write about their favorite smallmouth rivers. There are good bass waters in just about every state, and though I could not include them all, I hope some of these waters will attract readers’ interest. These contributions are valuable not only for the waters the writers describe, but also because they provide insight on how some of the top anglers or bass guides in the country fish for this great species. And that is one of the greatest things about smallmouth—they are the most accessible and abundant gamefish in the country.

I hope readers will enjoy this book and that it, along with Clouser’s Flies (Stackpole Books, 2006)—a collection of my patterns and how to tie them—represents my lifelong love affair with smallmouth bass. If any readers want to contact me, they can do so via my website at www.clouserflyfishing.com. I will be eager to talk with you about bass fishing, and I am also eager to hear about new bass spots.

CHAPTER 1

Smallmouth Bass

Smallmouth bass have prominent red eyes with black bars radiating from them like war paint. Overlooked for many years by fly fishers more interested in trout, smallmouth bass today are recognized as strong-fighting gamefish that aggressively take flies. STEVE MAY

Understanding some basics about the small-mouth’s natural history is an important first step in improving your ability to catch them. Such things as range, spawning behavior, and general traits of the species can provide important clues to help you become a better angler.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

The classification of smallmouth bass has caused a lot of confusion over the years. To begin with, smallmouth bass are not really bass at all; they are members of the sunfish family, which includes pumpkinseeds, bluegills, crappies, and rock bass. Smallmouth bass belong to a genus that scientists collectively call black bass, with six species in North America: largemouth, smallmouth, spotted, Guadalupe, Suwannee, and redeye bass. The term black bass comes from the black coloration of the juvenile fish of these species.

To make matters even more complicated, the Latin name, Micropterus dolomieu, doesn’t tell us much about the nature of this gamefish and, in fact, seems to be based on a damaged specimen. Dr. J. A. Henshall writes in his classic 1881 Book of the Black Bass that in 1802, the French ichthyologist Lacepede received a fish from someone in America. A few dorsal fin rays were broken off, and it looked as if the fish had a separate small fin next to its dorsal fin. Lacepede thought this was a distinguishing feature of the species and named it Micropterus, which means small fin. The species name, dolomieu, honors Lace-pede’s friend M. Dolomieu, the French mineralogist who also has a mineral—dolomite—named after him. Hen-shall, referring to the poorly named smallmouth, writes: This representative American fish was first brought to the light of science in a foreign land, and under the most unfavorable auspices. Its scientific birth was... untimely; it was, unhappily, born a monstrosity; its baptismal names were, consequently, incongruous, and its sponsors were, most unfortunately, foreign naturalists. It seems that Henshall was upset not only that the smallmouth bass was wrongly named, but that this fish, native to the United States, was named by scientists who were not as familiar or passionate about the species as he was.

Bass from Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River. BOB CLOUSER

Bass from Oregon’s John Day River. JOHN RANDOLPH

The common name bronzeback is a little more descriptive, though even this isn’t entirely accurate, because the color of smallmouth bass varies with their environment and may be light to deep bronze, green, or brownish green, depending on habitat, water color, and season. When found in cool, clear waters, they can range from light yellow to a deep bronze and green. In cloudy or heavily discolored water, they take on a pale whitish green to yellow shade. Smallmouth color also varies with the habitat in which they live. Some take on a blackish green color when they are over a dark, rocky bottom, and the ones that live around grass tend to have a greenish cast. The variations in color can change throughout the year as well.

Bass from Ontario’s Maitland River. JAY NICHOLS

Bass from small stream in Pennsylvania. JAY NICHOLS

Unlike their cousins the largemouth bass, smallmouth prefer rivers with higher levels of dissolved oxygen and swifter currents. Instead of slow-moving water with silty bottoms, they favor cleaner water with rocky bottoms and often share the same waters with trout, becoming more prominent as water temperatures become too warm for trout. STEVE MAY

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES

Smallmouth have a few important features that distinguish them from their cousins the largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides). Generally, smallmouth prefer cooler, cleaner, and more oxygenated water than large-mouth. Smallmouth are generally slimmer and do not get as big as largemouth, though pound for pound, they typically fight harder. They also often have broken dark bars running vertically down their bodies, whereas large-mouth usually have a series of black or green blotches centered along the lateral line. Smallmouth also have black bands that radiate from their brilliant red eyes like war paint.

Another way to tell the difference between small-mouth and largemouth bass is the size of the mouth. When the mouth is closed, the smallmouth has a maxillary, a large flap at the end of the upper jaw, that extends to the middle of the eye, whereas the largemouth has a maxillary that extends behind the eye. In reality, a small-mouth’s mouth is proportionately sized, allowing it to consume large prey items. It is the largemouth bass’s mouth that is disproportionately large, which led to the use of small and large in the naming of these closely related species.

All black bass are cold-blooded, which means that their metabolism varies and their body temperature is determined by the temperature of the water surrounding them. This is an extremely important consideration when fishing for smallmouth bass, because the water temperature affects most everything they do. As the water warms, the smallmouth’s metabolism increases. As it cools, it decreases. Smallmouth are most active in temperature ranges from 55 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Below about 50 degrees, their metabolism slows, and they don’t eat as often. When the water reaches 80 degrees and above, the higher temperatures demand more frequent eating in order to supply the energy needed to survive. Some of my most productive periods for catching large bass are during midday in the month of August, when the stream feels like bathwater.

Smallmouth require relatively high levels of dissolved oxygen in the water. Studies have shown that dissolved oxygen levels below 1.5 parts per million (ppm) are lethal to smallmouth bass. For optimum health and growth, however, smallmouth need dissolved oxygen levels of around 5 to 7 ppm, particularly at summertime water temperatures. Dissolved oxygen level requirements are reduced in colder water conditions, because the fish’s metabolic rate and therefore oxygen needs decrease accordingly. Because cold water holds more dissolved oxygen, bass in cold, flowing waters are rarely confronted by low-oxygen conditions. Low dissolved-oxygen levels stress smallmouth bass, and they will die if they can’t find water with more oxygen. In some instances, smallmouth seek out faster-moving water, riffles, rapids, spring holes, tributaries, or turbulent water at the base of dams to find water with higher oxygen levels. In most healthy small-mouth streams, dissolved oxygen levels usually exceed these minimums, though certain events, such as algae blooms caused by pollution or extreme low water, can cause unnaturally low dissolved-oxygen levels, thereby stressing the fish and leading to fish kills.

Bass are a schooling fish, which means that where you catch one bass, you are likely to catch more. Once you locate bass, fish the area thoroughly. Bass are cannibals and the largest will always eat the smallest, so fish of similar sizes tend to school together. In many areas where bass are concentrated because of suitable habitat, anglers will encounter smallmouth from one to three years old, in some cases lots of them.

RANGE

Smallmouth bass originally lived in rivers and lakes west of the Appalachian Mountains, in a range extending from southern Quebec to northern Minnesota in the north, and from northern Georgia to eastern Oklahoma in the south. Smallmouth were widely stocked and are now found in every state except Florida, Louisiana, and Alaska. They also have been stocked in most Canadian provinces, as well as in Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America.

As with many introduced species, the distribution of smallmouth coincides with the expansion of the railroads in the late 1800s. Fish cars, railroad cars outfitted with water tanks, carried bass and other species of fish across the country. For instance, the original brood that is now in the Potomac River basin in Maryland and the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania came from the Ohio River via the Baltimore and Ohio railroad system. California’s population of smallmouth came from Lake Ontario via New York.

SIZE

Smallmouth growth rates depend on the abundance and availability of food and the length of their growing season. In some relatively infertile northern waters where food is scarce and the growing seasons are short, it can take up to four years to produce a nine-inch small-mouth; in rivers in more moderate climates with longer growing seasons, bass can grow nine inches in two years. In Pennsylvania, a sixteen-inch bass is approximately two pounds and a little over seven years old; a twenty-inch bass weighs more than four pounds and is about twelve years old. Steve May, a guide in Ontario, says that an eighteen-inch bass in the rivers up there can be over twenty years old.

The International Game Fish Association (IGFA) trophy smallmouth is eleven pounds, fifteen ounces. Smallmouth can potentially reach a maximum weight of about twelve pounds, but these fish are caught in lakes and reservoirs. River fish are smaller, and any fish from three to six pounds caught in a stream or river is a trophy. The largest fish I have seen was a twenty-three-and-a-half-inch behemoth that weighed approximately six pounds. I didn’t catch it, but I knew where it lived and was proud to have guided a client to the catch. As of 2005, fly-rod world records for bass, all of them from lakes, do not exceed six pounds.

HABITAT

Bass live in a variety of habitats, including lakes and reservoirs, small streams, and large rivers. Though this book is about fly-fishing for smallmouth bass in rivers, great smallmouth fishing can be had in lakes and reservoirs across the country, and many of the tactics that I discuss in this book can be applied to those fisheries.

River smallmouth prefer water flowing over gravel, boulders, and broken bedrock. In rivers, water temperature usually determines where bass are found. At water temperatures below 55 degrees, smallmouth are found in depths of four feet or more, usually around structure that blocks the flow of water. At water temperatures above 55 degrees, smallmouth prefer shallow areas over gravel bars, along shorelines, in grass beds, and in other habitat with structure. One foot of water is sufficient at summer temperatures if the habitat is suitable for bass.

Railroad cars outfitted with water tanks, called fish cars, transported many species of fish across the country, including smallmouth bass. PENNSYLVANIA FISH AND BOAT COMMISSION

FOR THE RECORD

On July 8, 1955, David Hayes, from Litchfield, Kentucky, caught a behemoth bass in Dale Hollow Lake on the Tennessee-Kentucky border and took his catch to a marina, where it weighed in at eleven pounds, fifteen ounces, and measured twenty-seven inches long. The fish had a twenty-one-and-two-thirds-inch girth. Hayes entered the fish with Field & Stream magazine, which, at the time, kept the freshwater records. Field & Stream awarded Hayes’s fish a record for the heaviest small-mouth bass ever taken on rod and reel, and in 1978, when the IGFA took over freshwater record keeping from Field & Stream, it was then granted a world all-tackle record.

But on August 17, 1955, unknown to Field & Stream or the IGFA, Raymond Barlow submitted an affidavit to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stating that Hayes’s fish had weighed only eight pounds, fifteen ounces, and that Hayes had stuffed three pounds of metal in the fish’s mouth and stomach to make it a record. It wasn’t until forty years later, when the affidavit was uncovered, that the IGFA was contacted and informed about the sworn statement.

After reviewing the affidavit in 1996, the IGFA rescinded Hayes’s record, and a ten-pound, fourteen-ounce smallmouth caught by John Gorman in 1969, also on Dale Hollow Lake, was recognized as the new all-tackle record. However, recent documentation, including polygraph results, was supplied to the IGFA indicating that David Hayes’s fish was never tampered with. Further investigation also found that the dimensions of Hayes’s fish would make it very unlikely to have weighed just eight pounds, fifteen ounces when compared with Gorman’s all-tackle fish, which was twenty-six and a quarter inches in length and twenty-one and a half inches in girth. Based on this information, the IGFA decided to reinstate David Hayes’s catch as the all-tackle small-mouth bass record, returning him to his rightful place in the IGFA world records.

David Hayes holds the IGFA all-tackle record small-mouth bass he caught in Dale Hollow Lake on the Tennessee-Kentucky line on July 8, 1955. INTERNATIONAL GAME FISH ASSOCIATION

Many small streams hold resident populations of bass as well as migratory populations of spawning bass that enter small streams that are tributaries of larger rivers. Small streams are often less crowded by anglers than lakes and reservoirs and even larger rivers. They hold less fish but nonetheless offer good angling possibilities in relative solitude. Look for bass holding below tributaries, in deep pools, and sometimes even in the shallower riffle sections, especially during low-light conditions. Small streams can be hot spots in the spring for prespawn and spawning bass. Also, small streams typically warm more quickly than larger streams, allowing anglers to find active bass earlier in the season.

SPAWNING BEHAVIOR

In the spring, increasing daylight hours and water temperatures in the high fifties and low sixties cause sexually mature smallmouth to move into the