Fly Fishing Tip – Smallmouth Bass In February

Here’s a tip that relates to my most recent fishing adventures. The past couple weeks have been good for smallies; I have found that all yellow…along with shad colored half and half streamers fished slowly along the bottom has proved highly productive. Allowing the fly to swing from the faster water into slower, eddy paced water is a real killer. I have caught a number of big fish that are lurking in this ‘seam’ waiting for a meal to flutter by.

My Latest Adventure:
Super bowl Sunday….while many were crowded around the TV listening to a sundry of discussions on the upcoming Giants and Patriots game, I grabbed my Cabela’s TQR rod, a few half and half flies and headed for one of our local creeks that has a good population of smallmouths. The weather was sunny and 45 degrees and for February it was a brilliant day.

The first hole I came to was and has always been one of my favorites; the water is deep and the creek makes a 90 degree turn about 35 feet out making a perfect area for big fish to hold. My first cast was close to the bank and I progressively worked my way out into the current; on my 3^rd cast I was retrieving using a high stick method when I noticed the end of my orange fly line stalled. A quick snap of the wrist and I have my first hook up of the day. I backed my way out of the flow and into slow and shallow water where I could beach and carefully land a 16 inch, olive colored smallmouth. I took some photos and wondered at the beauty of the fish and the glory of this February afternoon. I couldn’t help but think of all the others sitting, crunched into a living room listening to irrelevant stories…when they could be out enjoying what mother nature has to offer?

I released my fish and made a cast directly into the current a few feet past the last successful cast. I could tell the fly had hit a slow eddy area when my floating line began to sink; once again the end of my line moved away and I strip set with my left hand…another trophy, this one a smaller but chunky 14 inch fish that I hand stripped in for the retrieve. The colors on this fish were spectacular, so olive in color that it appeared yellow with light olive stripes. The eyes were glowing red and if you looked carefully…you could see you own reflection within the eye itself!

I would like to say that the rest of the afternoon went this briskly, but it didn’t. I didn’t catch any more fish but still had a remarkable day. The three hours went by effortlessly and I felt like I was alone, on my own…just the way I like it. If you are reading, looking and thinking about catching fish…then pick yourself up and get going. Please practice catch and release so that we all can enjoy these experiences over and over. Make sure to take your camera along and save the day with many photos. I hope this year of 2012 leaves you with many bent rods and even more glorious memories of your outings.