A couple weeks back, I was fishing the Baron Fork Creek in NE Oklahoma for smallmouth bass. We worked our way up from an access that neither my Dad or myself had ever fished before and found a run that reminded me of the middle evening hole on the LMF (pre-flood). It was a slow to moderate run, crystal clear water, and there was a shelf on one bank that fish were suspending off of.

Anyway, the crazy thing is that I could see fish everywhere, and they were behaving just like trout. I'd constantly see little flashes under the water, just like you would in the middle of hatch when trout are feeding subsurface on nymphs. I threw everything I had at them and managed to catch a couple, but I didn't have any strike indicators with me so I couldn't really nymph the run the way I wanted to. I was mostly swinging streamers, but it seemed to me like I would have been much more productive if I had been able to "match the hatch" with a nymph. The only thing is, I've never really fished a warm water river like this, so I had no idea what kind of insects they were feeding on.

Has anyone ever ran into a situation like this where smallmouth are feeding like trout? If so, do you have some go to patterns that you like to throw? What type of insects hatch in warm water rivers? I didn't see any insects on the water, except the occasional dragonfly. I was guessing they were probably feeding on midges or maybe even caddis? Anyone have any ideas? I'm headed up this weekend and want to be prepared.

This is just a guess really since I don't know if they are found in that area, but I know smallmouth are really big on hellgrammites in the Appalachian mountains.

I think we do have hellgrammites up there and that may be it. One of my favorite stonefly patterns looks just like a hellgrammite, I might have to throw it next time I see them feeding like them.

hellgies are probably a small jaws favorite meal. you can also just dead drift a small streamer/clouser under an indicator, crawfish patterns and other general bushy/hairy flies will get bit.

but you'll probably quickly realize that catching smallmouth under an indicator will be one of your least favorite ways of catching them.

I almost feel like this had to be some sort of hatch going on, because I threw almost my entire box at them...woollies, clousers, poppers, jigs, and only caught like 3 or 4 in a 4 hour span, but I could see them feeding all over the place. And they were feeding like trout, not really chasing things down. You'd just see little flashes beneath the surface. I never really used an indicator though, I wonder if that would've made a difference?

I fished for smallies on a lake in Canada in June. In the evenings, they would rise to big mayflies like a trout. Unfortunately, I didn't have any big mayfly patterns with me, but was able to take some on poppers.

Gents,
The Blue river in Oklahoma is full of Helgrammites. They are the larval stage of the dobson fly. They live on the bottom of flat rocks. They are leathery and tougher than any live bait I have ever seen. I lived in northern Virginia in my high school years. We fished the Shenandoah river, with them. I saw guys catch 7 or 8 smallmouths on 1 helgrammite.

Gray do you have a good hellgrammite pattern that you recommend?

I love the Barren Fork and there are some great smallies in there for such a small stream. I've caught a few over 2 pounds. Do you live in the area or just take a trip up there?

I live in okc but go up there from time to time. We always do really well numbers wise, but never catch anything huge. Where do you access it at?