Smallmouth bass - smallies on the fly - fly fishing for smallmouth bass

Call me nuts.  Call me crazy.  Perhaps, it's that I'm not a fan of folks turning my fishing spot into a swimming hole or that I just don't like driving more than a few minutes from home but I will fish my favorite spot almost no matter what.  Just a few more miles away, you can fish for larger smallmouth bass.  But you will more than likely need sinking line and you will more than likely be dodging floaters.  And the one thing I dislike most about driving to a stream and having planned to fish a certain spot is finding someone in that spot. 

I used to access several locations on a certain stream.  Due to different reasons, I'm down to just two in that stream.  The quarter mile location that I fish isn't even the same as it used to be.  Flooding has caused physical aspects of the stream to change and therefore, made it challenging to land smallmouth bass.  I'm not finding the numbers of good sized creek bass as I once did five years ago.  But yet, I still wade it.  I still prefer fishing a seemingly remote area close to home.  I rarely see people.  I get to fish where I want to fish, mane most importantly, it's relaxing.

I've got folks hollering at me that they've shared locations and how to fish for bigger fish.  I guess I'm just stubborn or a fool.  I would love to catch a nice 18" smallmouth bass.  Rare as it has happened, I do get frustrated when I catch what seems to be the same fish following me down stream all day.

I think that for me, as it has always been and from now I grew up in the outdoors, is that I enjoy just being in the outdoors.  I remember being coupes up in an office just dying to get out.  And when I did finally escape, I didn't care much that I was only landing rock bass and bluegills.

I met a guy yesterday in "my" stream.  He was probably in his early twenties.  A young kid who threw a purple lizard bait at the Smallies.  He was catching that same darn fish that followed me all day.  We caught most 12 inchers but we both didn't care.  He just wanted to wade the crik like me.  We both had a proper set up of light rods and delighted in the jumps and swerves and darts of those smallmouth bass.

I used to gripe and moan about local guys catching fatties on articulated flies just a few miles away.  I really could join the "gear geeks" and get skunked several times until I landed a huge Smallie or float the river.  But I won't.  I think I'm okay with just doing things my way.