Smallmouth Flies: Keep It Simple!

If you are new to fly angling for smallmouth bass, there isn’t a whole lot that you will need in terms of variety of flies. Smallmouth bass are more aggressive than trout so you don’t need a lot of variety of flies. Just make sure you have a few from each category of flies to cover the entire water column.

Depending on time of day, conditions and time of year, smallmouth bass will tend to feed in certain ranges in the water column. If you only fish top water, such as a popper, you may be missing a huge number of smallies that are not interested in feeding at the surface that particular day or hour.

Here’s a brief review of the flies that you should be bringing along to keep fighting those fiesty smallies!

See All Orvis Learning Center Fly Fishing Video Lessons
For a great fly kit for getting started, this 10 fly combo may be all you need.

If you have a special fly that works well for you, please leave a message in the comments area for others to learn from.

Thanks and tight lines!