Tag Archives: best smallmouth bass flies

Summer may be coming to a close here in Minnesota, however, that doesn’t mean that the bass fishing is wrapping up. With the cooling weather, bass go into a frantic frenzy to eat tons of food before winter sets in and their metabolism slows, making fall a great time to target bass on the fly rod.   Bass, both smallmouth and largemouth, are one of the hardest fighting fish that I have caught. Due to their hard fighting nature, it is a lot of fun to chase them on a fly. While bass aren’t always super picky they can get in moods so there are some flies that outfish others. None of these flies are super original or revolutionary, however, we have found them to produce well when chasing bass. In general, like all bass fishing resources would say, I have found natural colors to work better in clearer water or…

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After a long, wet spring full of high water here in Minnesota, summer’s low, clear water and hot bronzeback fishing has finally set in. Here is one of my top flies for summer smallmouth bassin’ – Murray’s Strymph. As the name implies, it is a crossover of a streamer and a nymph. It is deadly both dead drifted like a nymph or stripped like a minnow through a fishy hole. The Strymph was created by Virginia smallmouth expert Harry Murray. It’s a great pattern for wary summer smallmouth in low, clear water. Small stream bronzebacks like them tied in #8 to #12; their big water cousins like them a little larger. I’ve had a lot of success this past season fishing a black strymph tied on a small streamer hook. The smallmouth love them! Hook: #4-12 streamer Thread: Black 6/0 UNI Tail: Ostrich herl (I like mine with a few…

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