Smallmouth bass are structure-orientated fish that are easy to locate. (Ben Romans photo)
It's hard not to get excited about smallmouth bass. They're abundant— nearly every state in the lower 48 has at least one public smallmouth resource. They're structure-orientated fish that are easy to locate. Textbook hangouts like weed lines, rocky outcroppings, logjams, and other rip-rap typically hold fish.
Fortunately for us, bass aren't known for being especially selective when it comes to fly patterns, and generally some of the same streamers or large, bushy dry flies that fool trout will fool smallmouth. But some patterns do work better than others. Here is a brief list of best smallmouth bass flies available today with some insight on pattern design, presentation, and other motives for carrying a few the next time you get the itch for bronzebacks on the fly.
Barr's Meat Whistle John Barr created this pattern for bass fishing in his home state of Colorado. Its upturned jig hook helps prevent snags and allows anglers to retrieve it slowly, along the bottom, like a leech, slow-moving baitfish or crawdad.
Black Magic While fly anglers sometimes get lost in hatch matching and replicating every minutia of the natural world, we forget that occasionally simple is better. The Black Magic, tied in colors to represent cicadas, hoppers or crickets, is proof that you don't need to tie patterns with a lot of details in order to catch fish.
Clouser Minnow Without question, Bob Clouser's idea to create a minnow imitation that retrieved with a jigging motion raised the bar for smallmouth fly anglers. Since then, it's not only been one of the most popular go-to patterns for bronzebacks, it has fooled hundreds of fish species worldwide, and even helped some anglers break line-class world records.
Blados' Crease Fly Originally designed to catch subsurface striped bass, smallmouth anglers fish Blados' Crease Fly under the same logic as a traditional popper — create a disturbance and the fish will come. The appeal, depending on the size and color combination, is that the fly presents a realistic baitfish profile to a marauding smallmouth. Anglers in the Heartland, for example, where shad are common, commonly use Crease Flies with a white, glossy, basic color pattern as an imitation of the baitfish.
Crystal Bugger Aside from possibly the Clouser Minnow, there's no other fly that's fooled more species of fish than the Woolly Bugger. Smallmouth are no exception — they love 'em. Tied in different colors and with sparse or full hackle wraps, a bugger can imitate any number of natural foods favored by smallies including leeches, hellgrammites, baitfish, and crayfish.
Cupped-mouth Popper One of the reasons bass are such popular game fish is because they're aggressive feeders willing to engulf easy meals from the surface. At no time is that more apparent than when retrieving a popper along a weed line or rocky outcrop and watching a smallmouth pounce on top. What's more, poppers are easy to use — the object is to strip, jerk and 'pop ' the fly so it looks like fleeing or injured food.
Kiwi Muddler If you've ever fished any of the famous smallmouth fisheries in the Eastern U.S., like Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River, you've probably heard of mad tom catfish — they're a favorite live bait among area anglers. Mad toms are only a few inches long, with a bulbous head and tapered body, making the Kiwi Muddler, with its deer-spun head and wispy marabou body, a perfect imitation. However, Kiwi Muddlers also look like scuplin minnows, another smallmouth favorite, so it's like getting a two-for-one deal.
Sneaky Pete The Sneaky Pete is the less-noisy cousin of a Cupped-mouth Popper and while it's great at getting the attention of lurking smallmouth, it does so by 'sliding ' over the water's surface as opposed to pushing it.
White Zonker Bass love baitfish, and what looks more like a baitfish than a Zonker? This pattern is simple to tie, extremely durable, and a great imitation for common bass menu items like shad, shiners or chubs.
Tullis Wiggle Bug If a fly looks real and acts real, it will trigger a fish to strike. Nowhere is that more true than Larry Tullis' Wiggle Bug. Tied with a foam shellback and head, this fly's initial impulse is to float. But once you begin retrieving it with long, steady line strips, the angled foam lip acts like the plastic scoop on a conventional crankbait, causing the fly to dive and wiggle from side to side, like a fish trying to swim.
