When most individuals consider topwater smallmouth takes, they envision one thing violent: A slashing blow and shot of whitewater spraying into the air. Hits like that get the blood pumping for certain, however I’d argue that delicate, light smallmouth sips are much more heart-stopping. Once you see the white chin of a 5-plus-pound bass rise in crystal-clear water and hover below a tiny fly earlier than merely making it disappear, it’ll change what you thought you knew about how and what smallmouths eat.
I do know as a result of I’m a modified man due to a go to just a few years in the past to flyfish with Tim Landwehr on the Menominee River within the Wisconsin North Woods. For 2 days we rowed down tranquil waters delicately casting flies that I believed would solely attraction to smaller bass. I used to be mistaken. Mile after mile, trophy smallmouths ghosted up within the shallow water to suck down our bugs. The lesson I bought from Landwehr, it seems, is relevant to smallmouths in transferring water nearly wherever, however to money in on this epic chew, it’s a must to retrain your mind a bit. I lately had Landwehr on the Fast Strike Podcast to debate key factors for understanding why large smallies get bug drunk and easy methods to catch them after they do.
Perceive Smallmouth Feeding Habits
In line with Landwehr, one of many largest the explanation why anglers miss out on the delicate bug chew is as a result of they’re conditioned to think about smallmouth as aggressive fish. They’re, in fact, however not all the time, and after just a few early years of observing how bigger bass typically adopted subsurface streamer patterns again to the boat however didn’t take the shot as constantly as smaller fish, Landwehr modified up his program.
“We began fishing extra topwater patterns,” Landwehr says. “And what we began to note was how slowly these big fish would come up and watch the bug. They might sit below the bug. They might make a acutely aware determination like, ‘I’m going to eat it.’”
Landwehr dubbed these gradual, centered risers “passive feeders,” that means they’re not aggressively looking a meal, however they’re searching for meals and if a simple goal is offered to them, they’ll take the shot. The bottom line is fishing topwater poppers and foam terrestrial patterns gently and slowly, like presenting a dry fly to trout (extra on this shortly). For Landwehr it was eye-opening, as a result of he realized he’d been leaving so many smallmouths on the desk. Doing nothing however rapidly working massive, “meaty” flies or fishing poppers with loads of noise and chugging appealed solely to the tuned-up bass, however the greater fish typically most well-liked to daintily sip that lazy meal.
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Discover the Prime Water
Picture by Joe Cermele
Probably the most important components for fulfillment within the smallie-bug recreation is focusing on the proper of water throughout the stream or river. Although the bass can theoretically take a swipe at a drifting bug wherever, Landwehr has spent years dialing within the high-percentage lanes that produce true tanks. And no, they’re not the deep holes, again eddies, and boulder fields you would possibly anticipate.
“What I’m searching for is what I name ‘strolling tempo’ water,” says Landwehr. “When you’re fishing out of a ship, it’s that water that once you’re not rowing strikes you alongside at about the identical tempo you’d stroll on land. And, ideally, I need that water to be about thigh deep. I additionally pay loads of consideration to the underside construction.”
Gravel or small-rock backside is a no-go for Landwehr. He’s searching for combined bigger rocks, however not Volkswagen-sized slabs. Glassy, mixed-rock flats are what he calls “snack bars.” Massive smallmouths are solely going to be in them after they’re searching for a morsel, and an aggressive presentation doesn’t often get the job achieved. Subsequently, the water Landwehr gravitates to is usually handed up by many anglers as a result of with out understanding how large bass hunt for bugs, it’s simply perceived as water unlikely to be holding bass, not to mention trophies.
Supply a Delicate Presentation
Give an angler a popper and their intestine intuition is to make it pop. However a typical mistake just isn’t giving sufficient credence to the significance of sound—or a scarcity thereof. We’re inundated with flies and lures that rattle and click on and buzz, however in clear rivers, a smallmouth that rises to a topwater can simply be spooked by making a loud pop on the mistaken time.
“When your fly hits the water, that’s pop primary,” Landwehr says. “Simply the sound of the preliminary contact down is sufficient to alert any fish shut by that your fly is there. They’ll really feel the fly, too, simply from the touchdown. So, what occurs is, loads of instances that fish will rise to the fly and for those who pop it once more whereas it’s beneath, it simply freaks the fish out.”
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Landwehr bases what he does with a fly after splashdown on depth. His rule is the shallower the water, the smaller and extra delicate the secondary pops; the deeper the water the louder he’ll make them. In both case, nevertheless, second or third pops are made cautiously. Most frequently, Landwehr will simply twitch the road to barely make the rubber legs on his favourite patterns just like the Boogle Bug and Mr. Wiggly vibrate within the water. That is often sufficient to set off vacuum cleaner takes.