River Fishing for Smallies (Northeast)

[VERN-O 0]

I'm headed to a favorite steelhead river to do some summertime smallie fishing.....anyone want to throw out a must have fly? (recipes or pics helpful) (never fished this river before during the summer)......I hear it's loaded with smallies

[Dble Haul 0]

There's really only one fly that you need for river smallmouth: a clouser minnow sized to match the prevalent bait.

 

Of course you can also use wooly buggers, leeches, topwater, etc., but day in and day out you'll do just as well or better with a clouser.

[VERN-O 0]

lots of fallfish around.....sounds like black and silver to me....thanks

[spider4 0]

To any crawfish pattern in Oilve or black will work.

[flykid 0]

Sparkle grub.

 

Size 8

char. marabou tail red dumbell eyes

char. estaz body.

 

This is my go to fly especially for summer river smallies. They can't resist it!

[Guest]

Clousers and craws do the trick most of the time. Add a white minnow (Shenk's. Zonker, etc;), a helgrammite of some sort, and a a few dry flies/Sneaky Pete's and you've got all you really need for smallmouth anywhere.

 

'Course, we never STOP there!

[day5 0]

If I could have just one fly.....Circus peanut crawl it, swim it, jig it, it is one sweet fly :headbang:

[Sagittarius62 0]

I carry two must haves for smallie fishing here in northern NY. Harry Murray's Strymph in olive and black, and Clousers in black/chartreuse/white. In fact, other than a few other occasional patterns, that is about all I use.

[wiggleminnow 0]

When smallmouth are feeding they will hit about anything.., I found that color is more important than the actual pattern.. Try a Todds Wiggle Minnow.., Deadly smallmouth pattern.