Learning the riffles. Educated by smallmouth and rain

I have been fly fishing consistently for about 13 years . . . involved with it for 23 years. I began learning on the lakes of Kamloops, British Columbia. I took tying lessons at a local high school in the evenings and learned how to cast in a hockey rink.

2 decades later and I'm still learning about how to land fish. I have never landed a bass as large as a Kamloops trout but I love smallmouth bass even more. And their awesome fighting cousin the bluegill.

Every year, I bounce around on different streams, lakes and ponds. This year, I hit the same location on the same stream for 10 weeks in a row. One key thing I learned was how important a swift current is for bass fishing on a stream.

I really stumbled on to a good stream. At least a portion that folks don't fish much. I had some success on this stream but things took off after it rained heavily one day. Remember, we had a drought this summer. So, maybe this stream is still not it's usual flow. Obviously, there are other factors to smallmouth fishing but I never was successful at it.

I began fishing this stream after a long day of raining. Well, about a week later. I had a lot of success at first but things have dwindled as the stream has dropped and the riffled slowed. I found a new location with fast running riffles into and through a small pool. It was a pretty successful day. I went out again yesterday, about a week later. The water level had dropped again along with the water temps. Fishing was lousy again.

I tried fishing other spots on the stream without any success. To me, it had to be the water temperatures, the lack of water flow and that it is becoming late fall.

I should have picked up on it. Seeing as how folks would hit streams after it rained. I'm sure there are folks who are good smallmouth fishers throughout the year no matter what.

This was the most successful year I have had catching smallmouth bass, red eye bass, spotted bass and shadow bass. I sure hope that next year this stream will yield the same numbers.

S'more smallmouth and bass.

Water temps have been steadily dropping. I really didn't figure the smallmouth were going to hit anything on top. Saturday morning it was 41 degrees but it warmed up quickly. Water temps are hovering in the early to mid 50's. I've been using my 9 ft. 8 wgt. for a while now and decided to take out the 7"6' 3 wgt. and try for some panfish. The fish were active for a few hours in the late afternoon. I tied on a Bett's popper and hit the stream running.

I drifted the riffles and let the popper drift a few seconds before stripping the line a bit. I slapped the popping bug on the surface to attract immediate attention. I landed about 10 bass in some swift currents. I did also find a deep hole with a lot of large panfish too.

More specifically, I was casting into the riffles and letting it drift into a pool where the water was still running swiftly. I would pop it once and a bass would hit it or miss it. If the bass missed the fly, it would hit it again - the cork body fly was busted and was drifting a bit under the surface.

I rarely fish in October for smallmouth but I want to figure them out. I have been on those bass like a white on rice. Best year ever.

My father was looking at my Facebook uploads. I guess he wasn't too enthused with a lot of my fish pics. I think he was expecting to find a lot of big bucketmouths. He fishes stocked ponds for largemouth bass. I fish mainly for smallmouth bass. I told him that small to medium streams usually have a lot of small to medium bass with some large ones here and there. It's the big streams that hold good numbers of smallmouth bass.

I'm happy landing 1 pounders and less all day. I enjoy going outside and wading the stream, looking at nature, etc. Mostly, it is the challenge of finding these little buggers. I have fished a lot of new water this year and have been successful. I have gone out fishing for smallmouth 10 out of the last 11 weeks and have landed a good number of bass. Have they been juicy bronzeback smallies?? Well, here and there but I sure have enjoyed topwater action this year.

Nice fall day for smallmouth.

Went out after we had some torrential rain and a cold snap. I didn't expect to do well. I went out to get some fresh air. Caught a few bass. Nasty currents. Cold water . . . and allergies.

Smallmouth on the Fly. Fly fishing for bass.

Just sitting here enjoying my coffee with some sort of egg and sausage casserole my wife baked . . . just dwelling on today's highlights. It wasn't a great day. Heck, the water temperature dropped darn near 20 degrees in a week. Fall hit us like that darn drought. Well, I hope it's Fall. I finally strapped on the ol' waders and hit the frigid stream.

Warmed up playing with some sunfish and bream. I crept onto a long stretch of smooth shale with some deep pools, hoping to play some bass with a crawdad I had tied on. I landed a few small bass and lost a decent one too.

As the weather began to warm up and the clouds rolled in from the east, I made my way to the secret spot . . . MY secret spot which nobody will ever find out about . . . ever. For now, he he. With my crawdad pattern, I was using floating line. The leader was short, so I piddled around a deep pool until I lost that darn thing.

So, I tied on a Rainy's Cricket. I got some of these flies from my dad about 4 years ago and have never used them. I landed a few small Ozark bass and a Shadow bass or two. Not much action as the past few weekends on this spot. I decided to make my way back upstream to drift the cricket. But before I left this spot, I slapped it down near the edge of where the deep pool turns shallow and the stream slows down a bit. SLAM! A bass leaped out of the water as it hammered my fly. I pulled back and he jumped back out of the water again. DANG! A beauty. Since I had lost a few big ones recently, I decided to play this fish out. It took about 10 minutes but I think he still wanted to play.

Yup, I was happy. So, I ended up losing that cricket in some rocks across the stream. I decided to put on my sinking line and tie on a chartreuse Clouser. Yep, landed a few more bream and smaller bass.

The wind changed direction and clouds were now coming in from the Northeast. I decided to hike back to the truck, as the wind was getting colder and clouds began to grow and darken.

Trying not to doze off, I sip on my coffee and nibble on my Snackimals . . . just thinking of how much time I have left before Mother Nature brings her chilled reminder of the holidays and it's droll responsibilities.

Flip-Flop Fly comes through again. Bass fly.

Went out today. The stream was running faster and the bass were moving about in the riffles and backwater. Due to our heat wave, the streams have receded more than usual. The fish were sure enjoying their freedom from the heat and murky waters.

I don't know why but this year has been awesome for me . . . at least in the way of catching bass. One interesting note, I was casting downstream into a swift current and popping my Flip-Flop fly against the flow - back upstream. AND the bass were hitting it. Not only was it a portion of stream that I have never caught bass in but I was using a technique that I figured was odd.

I also hit some backwater on the edge of the stream which was grown up with weeds and grass. Lots of rocks and logs. The water had risen enough for the bass to chase minnows and crawdads into this somewhat shallow retreat. September . . . and I'm still taking lots of bass on top water flies.