Favorite smallmouth flies for fall?

evw659

evw659

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All:

Im pretty new to fly-fishing for bass and my success is pretty much limited to buggers, pheasant tail crawfish and zonkers.Does anybody have a favorite bass fly or flies that would like to share? Pics would be appreciated.

Thanks!
 
EVW,
The flies you've described are classic river SMB patterns and will catch 'em year round. I'd add to your selection some poppers and generic surface flies. For the autumn months, many of us prefer to switch to minnow imitating patterns. The venerable Clouser Minnow is mighty tough to beat, esp during the colder periods after about mid Oct when bass hang deeper. Keep in mind, the number of active aquatic insects declines in the fall. Also, crayfish numbers drop off during this time too and bass switch from the bugs and craws that comprise the bulk of their summer diet - to small fishes. Larger flies work well in fall too. Those shiners and chubs that the bass are after this time of year are at full grown size so a 4" long streamer fly would be about right. Water is often clear in the fall and natural colored streamers such as olive over white work well. Black and chartruese work well in stained water. My fly box includes some fairly large streamers.

One final note: I like to have some weedless streamers for late Oct. This will allow you to punch your fly through floating leaves and retrieve it through suspended leafy debris.
 

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Those sliders look pretty good, what material were the bodies made from?
 
They're hard plastic popper bodies fixed to the hook with epoxy, then painted with acrylic and sealed with a clear finish.
 
They look great, I've thought about taking the poor man's option and coating handcut foam with Sally Hansen, but haven't given it a shot yet.
 
5 minute epoxy on the foam is very good as well. Not thick, but a nice thin coat. It does not crack like rob builders finish. The other option is a denser foam, the blocks it holds up. Tie the divers blockhead style.
 
The clouser minnow olive over white, olive over tan, baby bass, sculpin, and baby walleye should handle the fall very well for you. A half and half with olive grizzly saddles is incredible as well. You may need to go to 1/30 eyes and tie them on 2's 3 1/2 +. Twitching in place calls them up in the fall. These fish are really binging now. It may be an early fall.
 
Bass or Trout works for both.
 

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Its not so much the fly but that water conditions and temp in my book. I landed 2 nice smallies tonight along the banks of a Susquehanna runoff stream, greater known as the sawatty, on a beat up hysterical looking gray popper. It was my dads when he was a kid thus showing how old it is, and I've been landing fish with it all season. The water was slow and around 70-66 degrees. Bronze backs to me are all about finding the right spots and conditions.
 
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