Summertime smallmouth are very aggressive on the John Day River. I like a fly line with a short heavy head for smallmouth bass fishing. Despite their assets, the smallmouth is often overlooked as a gamefish on the fly as most serious bass fishermen head for lakes and most serious river anglers head for trout streams. Nothing beats catching a smallmouth bass on a topwater presentation. The 5-weight is used for casting small minnow patterns on a slick water surface. After a soaking spring, precious rainfall eluded us through the start of fall, creating harrowing drought conditions across Connecticut. Summer adds more sunlight and warmer water which starts the underwater vegetation to growing and showing to the surface. The best flies for late summer and fall trout are terrestrials and small nymphs (with this exception). Anglers also vary in their experience level and expectations. Best Topwater Smallmouth Bass Lures and Tactics. Popular topwater lures that anglers enjoy to fish in the summer will also prove to be productive in early to mid-Autumn. When this happens schooling bait-fish seek the vegetation for cover, then the post-spawn small mouth bass start hanging out in these areas for food all throughout the day. The spring spawn has come to an end, leaving anglers all over the country curious as to where their once aggressive adversaries have gone. ... and best techniques to catch them. Summer’s best bass fishing holds up well nearly all summer, but around the end of August and certainly by Labor Day, the river’s smallmouth start schooling up. As rivers cool below 57 degrees, dramatic changes in smallmouth bass behavior occur. Smallmouth bass are known for that. – but it’s really an all-purpose 2-inch blade bait that’s useful anytime you want your lure to stay in a single spot. I spend the day chasing smallies on the river and share some tips and tricks I use to catch them. Topwater lures and flies will continue to produce good numbers of smallmouth bass throughout the entire month of September and well into the month of October. The top 5 states for smallmouth bass fishing are Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Tennessee, and Kentucky. In shallower waterways across the northern portions of the species’ range, smallmouth actually migrate. Abandoning their summer haunts, fish may travel many miles downstream … The soft plastics that work well in the cool spring also will catch huge numbers of fish in the summertime, although faster techniques attract more strikes in warm water. There are exceptions with a few hatches with larger flies but they are the exception. As amateur smallmouth bass fishermen, we are always trying to find the perfect place to catch our prized smallmouth bass. If you have been a smallmouth angler for any length of time, you know that sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and go subsurface. So your best bet for summer smallmouth fishing is to find a river with a rocky bottom, clear water and midday water temperatures that stay below 75 degrees. (See my “Top 10 Topwater Flies for Smallmouth Bass” from April.) We have compiled a category here of our favorite surface flies for smallmouth here. I love NYMPHS FOR SMALLMOUTH, and over the last few years I've discovered that stream nymphing for smallmouth bass take nymphs as readily as a trout. The Dynamic Lures HD is advertised as an ice fishing lure – and it’s certainly good for that! Best flies for amllmouth bass on the surface include: Share this: ... Smallmouth Fly Hat Meshback - Cardinal/White - White; Smallmouth Fly Logo Meshback Hat - Brown/Khaki - Green; Mike Schultz is the owner of Schultz Outfitters Fly Shop & Guide Service, which specializes in southeastern Michigan angling, instruction, and destination travel. Because that's usually what's active at this time of the year. 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