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.