Favorite flies for smallies?

[Gone_Phishin]

Never fished for SMB with a fly rod and was wondering what the best flies were. Open to suggestions, recipes, pics etc.

Thanks in advance.

 

[dc410]

Last year was my first year flyfishing for smallies. I gained a whole lot of confidence in a size 4 Chartruese/White Deep Clouser Minnow. I think I caught about 90% of my bass on this pattern. The bad part was I really didn't give any other patterns much of a chance. Smallies on the fly are a whole lot of fun! Good luck.

 

[thebassman]

Chartreuse and White Clousers work wonders! I am also a fan of a brown or olive whooly bugger. Any crayfish imitations should work well too!

 

[Fishidiot]

Have some poppers too. I like the slender "pencil" type versions with a cupped front. I've found that conventional poppers tend to hook a lot of fish deeply. You can't beat yellow.

 

[pwk5017]

Depends on the water size. Medium streams, I love a size 6-8 foam hopper with rubber legs or a gurgler for on top. Streamer-wise, I used to almost exclusively fish a white and chartreuse clouser, but now I fish a sz 6 black zonker with a sink tip and swing it. Very relaxing way to fish compared to the frantic stripping and hauling involved with a heavily weighted 2-1/0 clouser. I do most of my fishing on medium streams, but for rivers I rarely fish topwater stuff. I usually tend to go with the clouser on bigger water. You dont have to go big to catch big smallies. I spent most of 2012 fishing small flies and I had one of my better seasons of smallies. Surface smallie fishing is just about as good as it gets.

 

[thebassman]

How could I have forgotten to mention poppers?! I LOVE POPPERS FOR SMALLIES!!

 

[Gone_Phishin]

Probably be doing the majority of my fishing on the conewago or conodoguinet, possibly Sherman's.

 

[dc410]

I had a blast last summer catching smallies in Shermans Creek. (and some big fallfish too) 16-17" fallfish are a whole lot of fun on a 5 wt.

 

[lv2nymph]

Silver zonker

 

[wgmiller]

#2 or #6 black, olive, white, or tan wooly bugger. Add some rubber "legs" and it gets even better. Streamer fishing is a blast for smallies because the takes can be vicious! A "default" streamer, as mentioned, is a Clouser "Deep minnow" in chartreuse and white.

 

[afishinado]

Clousers, buggers, poppers in various sizes or colors. SMBs are usually not very selective. I would also have some bigger nymphs, like stonefly patterns in case the fish are neutral and you need to slow down and spoon feed them.

 

[Gone_Phishin]

What makes a "deep" minnow as opposed to a regular clouser? Again, thank you for the help.

 

[Fishidiot]

Gone_Phishin wrote:
What makes a "deep" minnow as opposed to a regular clouser? Again, thank you for the help.

They're the same fly. The official name is "Clouser Deep Minnow" which folks just shorten to "clouser."

 

[Phish_On]

Dont worry guy. Ill get ya set up with the smallie flies.

 

[Gone_Phishin]

I've taken more than enough of your flies.

 

[Phish_On]

Gone_Phishin wrote:
I've taken more than enough of your flies.

That's why I tie. It's just as enjoyable for me to see someone catch fish on my ties. Then for me to catch it myself. You will be takin flies from me for the rest of our lives. Between you an chron, I seem to be the only one that has enough flies for a particular outting. An tippet an strike indicators the list goes on an on.

 

[boychick]

I fish smallies all summer. You want to cover the whole water column. I carry 3 basic patterns. Poppers, baitfish, and crayfish patterns. You should have various sizes and you should have them with various amounts of weight. A small crayfish dead drifted can be deadly. The patterns don't have to be very sophisticated, its all about the way you fish them. Basic deer hair poppers, Clouser minnow and crayfish are all you really need, throw in some woolybuggers and you're set. For colors, you'll want chartruese and white, olive and white, all white, white and red, black, brown, and olive. A lot of times I'll go out with just 6 flies. I'll take a white popper, a black popper, white and chartruse clouser minnow, white and olive clouser minnow, brown crayfish, and white woolybugger with a red collar. Hope that helps, good luck!

 

[1wt]

Like many have already said "you can't go wrong with a Woolybugger"

Fun with a 5wt and some black lead eye buggers.

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[1wt]

So many fine memories with gigantic (size 2 3X) olive Woolybuggers and the clean water upstream from Harrisburg:

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[cricketontherun]

If you're gonna be fishing the Wango go white! It's by far the big money color on that stream from Russel to Warren. Streamer perform best there, but poppers do get attention usually swung or dead drifted as opposed to "worked". Keep it simple. Boychick is right; Popers, baitfish (streamers), crayfish. Color and profile are key, and just have fun!