Smallmouth bass might be the best teachers in fly fishing. They hit hard, they jump, they fight well above their weight, and they reward you right away for doing the small things correctly. On this episode of the Fly Fishing Insider Podcast I sat down with Michigan guide Jon Ray, who has spent close to two decades chasing smallmouth on his home river, a Lake Michigan tributary where bass run up out of the big lake every season. Jon has boiled his smallmouth game down to three setups, and once you understand why each one works, you can show up on almost any bass river and have a plan.
Why Smallmouth Make You a Better Angler
Jon makes a point I love: smallmouth are a confidence factory. Put a newer angler on a river full of willing bass and they get dozens of chances in a day to strip, pause, watch a fish chase, and set the hook. That repetition builds the exact skills they will need when they move on to streamer fishing for trout in spring, where the shots come far less often. If you have struggled to make streamers click for trout, a summer on a good smallmouth river is the cheapest lesson you can buy.
He also talked about why the fish move when they do. Bass push up into the river when water temperatures are right, the minnows are around, and the crayfish are molting. Jon has a theory, which he was clear is his own observation after many seasons rather than proven science, that the full moon lines up with crayfish molts and that the bass key on it hard. Whether or not the moon is involved, the lesson stands: when crayfish are soft and vulnerable, smallmouth get very focused on the bottom.
Tactic One: The Popper on a Floating Line
Bass are very visual feeders, so clean water is where topwater shines. Jon fishes poppers on a floating line and a short, stout leader, around seven and a half feet and tapered to 0X or 1X. That might sound heavy if you come from trout, but smallmouth are not leader shy around a big surface bug, and there is a practical reason to go stout.
Here is Jon's field test, and it is one of those tricks you will not find in a book: after a few casts, reel in and hold your leader up. If it is spinning and kinking into something that looks like spaghetti, your tippet is too light for the fly. A wind-resistant balsa or foam popper with rubber legs and marabou twists as it flies, and a thin tippet cannot turn it over. Step up in diameter until the twisting stops. Work the popper with a sharp chug, then let it sit. The pause is where most of the eats happen.
Tactic Two: Streamers on a Full Intermediate
This is Jon's favorite program. He runs a six- or seven-weight with a full intermediate line, which breaks through the surface tension and lets him swim a fly in that zone just under six inches below the surface. Paired with a lightly weighted fly, think a little bead chain rather than a heavy dumbbell, the fly suspends right where active bass are looking up.
For streamers he wants a longer leader than his popper setup, still in the 1X to 2X range, because a slightly thinner diameter at the end lets the fly sink and gives it more freedom to move. Strip, pause, strip again. Bass will often follow and commit on the stop. When the water is deeper or the fish are holding lower, he switches to a sink tip to get the fly down without losing the swimming action.
In the Midwest the structure is mostly wood, so Jon works log jams and downed timber, where bass sit tight and ambush anything that swims past. If your river is rocky, the same idea applies to ledges, boulders, and the seams behind them.
Tactic Three: The Crayfish Rig
Jon called this his least favorite approach, but he was honest that it can be the most productive. If you fished ten straight days for smallmouth, there would be at least one where the fish are glued to the bottom and ignore everything above them. On those days he sets up an indicator rig with enough weight to tick bottom and drifts a crayfish imitation right through the rocks.
You do not need a complicated fly for this. Jon pointed out that a Clouser Minnow already rides hook point up and bounces along the bottom much like a fleeing crayfish, so it covers you for both baitfish and craws. Keep it simple, keep it on the bottom, and pay attention to the indicator.
A Bonus Lesson for Steelhead Anglers
One more takeaway surprised me. Jon said reading water for smallmouth taught him where to swing flies for steelhead. Both fish hold in predictable places relative to current and structure, and time spent figuring out where bass sit in a run carries straight over to finding the soft water a steelhead will rest in when he breaks out the swing rods in fall.
Gear
The pieces that matter most here are a full intermediate fly line for a six- or seven-weight, a spool of 0X to 1X tippet, and a few bead-chain baitfish patterns and Clousers. Your local fly shop is the right place for those, and they will know which crayfish colors work on your water. For learning the strip-and-pause rhythm and leader building that Jon describes, our Tips and Tricks for Fly Fishing eBook is a solid companion. And on bright summer days spent watching a popper on clear water, a FFIP Five Panel Cap keeps the glare down so you see the eat. Tight lines!
