First Smallies of the Year!

Today was going to be the day I took my brand new Sage Z-Axis -- and some new techniques -- to the river to try for the first smallmouth of the season. But I woke up with a touch of that flu I always get the day after enjoying a wedding reception. The combination of that and the fact that it was really, really windy, almost caused me to bag it. But early afternoon rolled around and I just had to try this rod out, wind or not.

In addition to the new rod, which is much heavier than the 5 weight I've been fishing for smallies with (the Z-axis is a 7 weight), I am also trying a series of poly leaders I got from Cabelas. Seven different sink rates, they are five feet long and then the last 12 or 18 inches is just regular leader. In the interest in trying to preserve that leader end as long as possible, I decided to use a small barrel swivel at the end, then I tied about 18" of 3X tippet to the fly end.

The best way to test this new setup, I thought, was to fish where I am most familiar and comfortable. This meant the Shenandoah River near Harpers Ferry, WV. The WV fishing license, without a trout stamp, for a non-resident was $49! But I fish there a lot, so you gotta do what you gotta do. I parked, geared up, walked out to my first of several favorite spots, and waded out a ways.

I put on a white and red streamer my buddy Matt recently gave me, took some line out, and made a down and across cast into a seam that had produced fish for me before. I let the streamer swing at the end of its reach, began stripping it in and BAM! I caught the first smallmouth of the year on the very first cast with my new smallmouth weapon!! He wasn't that big, and the glare was in the camera so I couldn't see the display. Bottom line: I didn't get a good picture. But at that moment, that Sage rod caught a fish every single time it had been cast into water.

As you might have guessed, things cooled off a bit after that start. But I worked my way downstream to my other go-to spots, each of them giving me at least one fish. I got down to the downstream end of my tour, just short of where the Shenandoah dumps into the Potomac, an area with much deeper pools than the rest of the stretch I was fishing. I decided to try a leader that sank a little faster, so I made the switch, put the same fly back on made one cast and WHAM! Really nice fish took off running with that streamer, and made several acrobatic displays in the air before he was ready to come in. I didn't get a picture of him either, but he was really nice and meaty. He slipped away while I was fumbling with the camera.

Already I considered the day a huge success, but it kept getting better. Every hole I went to produced a fish, but none produced more than two. Finally got some photos, too. I changed flies many times but every one of the 7 or 8 fish I got today took this same streamer. I will be stocking up on those!

All in all, a really enjoyable afternoon. The rod worked great in the wind. I was worried that the 7 weight wouldn't be as much fun as the 5 with a fish on, but this 9'6" rod is quite sensitive, and these larger smallmouth were a LOT of fun with this rod. And the quality of fish that I caught today was remarkable. I don't catch huge 20" smallmouth like I've seen pictures of, fish like the one at the top of this post are as big as I've ever caught, and I caught three that size today. I am hopeful and optimistic this is going to be an exciting smallmouth season!

High hopes, Small mouths

I love smallmouth fishing. I love how they hit hard and fight harder. But mostly I just love the experience of fishing for smallies. Especially in the heat of the summer, wet wading, catching some rays, traveling light. Fishing all day with no vest, just some tippet, hemostats, clippers, some smallmouth-friendly flies, then adding some ice cold beer at the end of the day (full disclosure: sometimes I do not wait until the end of the day).

But I've always been a little 'under-clubbed,' to use a golf analogy from the days before I first picked up a fly rod and let my clubs gather dust. I've always used the 5-weight, mid-flex fly rod that fly shops are so fond of pitching as a good 'all around' fly rod. It took about a year to realize that around here, most of my trout fishing is better done with a short 3-weight, and util now to realize that the 5-weight is inadequate for throwing bigger bass flies on bigger and deeper water.

The worst part about not having the best gear for smallmouth fishing, is that I fish for smallmouth much, much more than anything else. The Shenandoah and Potomac rivers meet less than a fifteen minute drive from my house, and parts of the Potomac are even closer than that. But as much time as I've spent doing it, I have made little progress in how well I do it. Those rivers push pretty hard, and it's next to impossible to get any kind of streamer that you can throw with a 5-weight down to any depth at all. I think I'm catching smaller fish (the one pictured above is about the largest I've caught) that are relatively high in the water column.

So I have decided that it is time for my first very good fly rod. I have picked this Sage Z-axis fast-action beauty. And although I go back and forth between the 6-weight and the 7-weight, I am afraid the 6 is just going to be too similar to my 5 and I still won't be able to do what I want to do with it.

It'll be loaded up with this Rio Grand fly line, and I'm considering trying these poly leaders from AirFlo. You can get a set of variable sink speed leaders that might help get flies deep even in fast moving current. I haven't tried these before but I like the idea of these over a sinking or sink-tip fly line.

I also need to look into tying tippet material onto these. Whatever tippet material I have certainly won't be constructed the same as these, so I might need a tiny barrel swivel or something to make that transition. I know strategies and equipment will get tweaked as I go, but I think this setup will go a long way in bringing more success -- and bigger smallmouth --this summer.