Posted By: DainW
Smallmouth Bass - 08/31/15 05:03 PM
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.
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.