Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
Michigan smallmouth and pike hold in slow water, not the fast seams trout anglers favor. In spring, fish deep rocky sections that catch morning sun; in summer, throw divers and poppers at first light, then move to deeper structure by midday. A wire leader in muddy water costs almost no smallmouth bites.
Alan Campbell is a fly fishing guide based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who specializes in smallmouth bass and pike on the rivers within an hour or two of town and ties commercially for a professional fly tying team.
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Where do river smallmouth bass actually hold?
Smallmouth bass hold in the slow water, not the fast water, and that is the habit most trout anglers have to break. Fast water is the drive-through: the smallmouth darts into it to grab food and returns to slower water to sit, because the fish has to conserve energy rather than swim all day. That means casting to the inside of a bend rather than the outside, and to the slower side of a log jam rather than the ripping seam beside it. Anglers who make that switch routinely pull fish out of water they would have floated straight past.
How do you fish smallmouth and pike in spring?
In spring, go straight to the deep, rocky sections you noted during low water in summer and fall, and stay out of the fast water and out of the very shallow flats until the water warms. Fish the bank that catches the morning sun so the light warms the rocks and the water against them. Small baitfish patterns and crayfish work, and honestly anything brown or green that can be jigged along the bottom will draw eats. Pike in spring are in the slowest, swampiest water they can find, and a cast into that boggy water usually returns either a pike or a 20-inch smallmouth.
Do you need a wire leader for pike?
In spring, when the water is fast, muddy and murky, a wire leader is worth running all the time, because the same slow swampy water that holds pike also holds the biggest smallmouth. The build is about 8 to 12 inches of 20-pound knottable wire, joined to the leader with an Albright knot and to a small-profile quick clip with a two or three turn clinch. Lubricate the clinch heavily and cinch it by pulling the tag end rather than the running end, so the kinks end up in the scrap you snip off. In low, clear summer water the wire comes off, because that froggy water is not where you are fishing anyway.
When is the best time of day for topwater smallmouth?
The topwater window opens before the sun clears the trees. Launch early enough to be fishing as soon as there is light to see by, and work frogs and divers along the slow water just off a seam until roughly 10 or 11 in the morning. When the sun gets high, switch to streamers on deeper water and structure under banks and trees, much as you would move trout tactics through the day. The bite turns back on around five or six in the evening, on the opposite bank, and topwater becomes viable again.
Should you fish a popper or a diver for smallmouth?
A diver does more work than a popper. A diver still makes noise and still draws fish up, but it sits lower in the water, and one strip pulls it down so it can swim around a log jam or under the surface, which means it fishes the top of the water column and the level below it instead of only the surface. The productive sequence at a log jam is to place the diver in the corner where the jam meets the bank, let it sit while the rings dissipate, then let it float down the log and give it a pull so it dives in front of the jam and rises back over it. Fish that will not come to the surface will still eat a fly that drops in front of their face.
How do you fish a log jam and its eddy from a boat?
Hold the boat on the bubble line coming off the log jam rather than in the eddy itself, which takes more work on the oars but hides both the boat and the rowing strokes. From there the angler can pie the spot off: a cast to the backside of the log, then one 45 and 90 degrees off it, then one a little downstream for cruising fish, since the slow eddy behind a jam is a travel lane rather than a fixed lie. If nothing comes, push off the seam toward the middle of the river, swing the fly down, and move to the next jam. On an island, fish the gravel bar shallow to deep, stripping the fly off the bar and letting it die on the drop.
What rod weight and fly line do you need for smallmouth and pike?
A six weight with a warmwater bass taper covers foam poppers, hoppers and big traditional dry fly patterns, and an eight weight covers deer hair bugs and most streamer work. The eight is not about controlling the fish, it is about delivering a heavy fly with one false cast and a shoot, which a six or five weight struggles to do. Most summer streamer fishing runs on a clear-tip intermediate line with only 18 to 20 inches of 15 or 20 pound fluorocarbon straight to the fly, so the line stays close to the fly without spooking it. For 8 to 12 foot pike holes, a full sink line at 7 inches per second with an unweighted or buoyant fly puts depth in the line, not the fly.
What does managing the fly line mean when streamer fishing?
A sinking line drops faster than a buoyant or neutrally buoyant fly, so the line ends up below the fly and the angler loses contact with it. Managing the line means keeping the line level with the fly or above it by popping the rod tip and immediately stripping in the slack that pop creates, which is effectively a vertical mend underwater. Done right, this fishes the streamer across the water column instead of only pulling it up toward the surface, which is all a floating line can do. An intermediate line makes this much easier for inexperienced anglers because it sinks slowly enough to stay in the zone while they learn.
Key takeaways
- Cast to the inside of the bend and the slow side of a log jam; smallmouth sit in slow water and dart into fast water only to feed.
- In spring, fish deep rocky sections on the bank getting morning sun, and skip the fast and very shallow water.
- Run 8 to 12 inches of 20-pound knottable wire with an Albright knot in dirty spring water; drop it in low, clear summer conditions.
- Cinch a clinch knot on wire by pulling the tag end, not the running end, so kinks end up in the piece you cut off.
- Use a diver instead of a popper so the fly can drop in front of a log jam and rise back over it.
- Pair a heavy line with an unweighted fly or a floating line with a weighted fly, but never a heavy sink line with a heavy fly for a client.
