Whats your go-to for small mouths

[hardtimes 0]

Whats your go-to fly for small mouths from June to October? I am fishing the Shenandoah around the eastern panhandle of WV. I am currently using Clousers and they work pretty good. Just curious to see what others use.

 

Ray

[packfancjh 0]

Around here crayfish work very well. I will also throw on a clouser or leech pattern and have success too.

[Mickalo 0]

leechs & clousers also work great here.

 

Mike

[eastern fly 0]

Clousers, hellgrammites, and Gartside Bug work well for me.

 

Kevin

[hardtimes 0]

Thanks for the replies guys. I will be looking to tie some leech and hellgrammite patterns. Any of you have any patterns posted?

[jhammer 0]

I use bead-head rust-brown woolly buggers. They like to snack on them around here.

[streamcaddis 0]

I would use small bead head buggers and clousers

[tidewaterfly 0]

All the above! In addition to what has already been mentioned, I've had some great days with a Ostrich Herl leech. Just tie it in the style of a Clouser Minnow, but very full with ostrich herl, and perhaps a few strands of flash. Black is my favorite, with a combination of bronze & copper Flashabou.

 

Unlike regular Clousers, this is one fly you do need to tie full, too sparse & it will really slim down when wet, which really doesn't look much like a fat leech. And don't be afraid to tie them big, like 4 inches long. I usually tie them on size 1 or 1/0 straight shank worm hooks.

 

This is a brown leech, but should have been tied more full. It also has bronze & copper Flashabou in it.

[jhammer 0]

I forgot to mention this too....Try using small dumbbell eyes or bead chain eyes on the buggers too. Smallies love the darting action on them. It makes the buggers look more like a crayfish.

[smokinprice 0]

During those months for the most part I use poppers or my Monocacy Bumble Bee. Caught my biggest smallie of the year, 17 incher, last year on the bee. Cant beat the top water action!

[hardtimes 0]

During those months for the most part I use poppers or my Monocacy Bumble Bee. Caught my biggest smallie of the year, 17 incher, last year on the bee. Cant beat the top water action!

 

Do you have a pattern of the Bumble Bee? Congrats on the 17 incher. Where in MD are you located?

[antler3649 0]

When I was in MI I used an olive matuka with a gold bullet head.

[cruzfly89 0]

crawdad pattern, smallies cant resist them here in WV. and u can never go wrong with woolly buggers

[Rocco 0]

What everyone else so far said plus... Try a big --2.5/3" Borger strip nymph in basic black with weighted head (it doubles as a hellgramite); a Murdich Minnow for BIG smallies and the occasional cruising musky; and a big -- #4 -- but sparsely-tied Mickey Finn.

 

My wife and I just came back from a day trip (non-fishing) to Berkley Springs and that high-end, gun candy store in Hancock MD. The water levels looked near normal.

 

I usually fish the South Branch around Bentonville and the North Branch behind Edinburg. I am dying to get out on the North Branch of the Potomac for trout.

 

Regards,

Rocco