Species Guide: Smallmouth Bass

If you've never tangled with a smallmouth bass, you probably think you're not missing much. In fact, most trout fly rodders don't think much of any bass species. Oh, if they only knew what it feels like to hook into a nice smallmouth: Your streamer stops with a thud that you mistake for a snag; and then the battle begins, muscle versus muscle. Smallmouth are strong fighters.Smallmouth are one of the most exciting fly-rod gamefish available across the country. They take all kinds of flies-from dry flies to streamers, and nymphs to poppers. And they love to take to the air. Little equals the thrill of catching a four- pound-plus smallmouth on a dry fly and watching it take flight.A member of the black bass family, and cousin to the largemouth bass, smallmouth (often called bronzebacks) are identified by their brownish/bronze coloration with vertical, dark, tiger-like bars on their flanks. (Note: The flank bars are not always prominent. For example, some river smallmouth have little or no markings and more solid body-color tones.) The smallmouth's mouth is smaller than the largemouth's (hence the names) with its upper jaw ending before the eye. Also different is the smallmouth's dorsal fin: the hard and soft sections of a smallmouth's dorsal fin are connected, where the largemouth's are separated.Smallmouth bass are available to anglers across the country. They take everything from dry flies to Clouser Minnows, and they jump frequently when hooked.The fish's original range was from Minnesota to Quebec and south to northern Alabama, then west to eastern Kentucky and Oklahoma. But with the growth of American railroads in the late 1800s and 1900s, smallmouth have made it to rivers and lakes across the continent from Oregon to Maine. Some notable rivers include Pennsylvania's Susquehanna and Oregon's John Day, but the list of quality waters is long.As far as resource management, smallmouth in the past have had little protection from overharvest. However, with more and more angler requests for quality fishing experiences, fisheries managers are changing regulations to protect trophy-potential waters. Notable efforts include those of anglers and managers on the Susquehanna and Wisconsin's Chequamegon Bay. There near catch-and-release regulations protect big fish and the fisheries are thriving.Smallmouth prefer rocky terrain with clear water that during summer stays in the 60-degree F. to 80- degree F. temperature range. They cannot tolerate the same high temperatures as largemouth. In rivers, smallmouth prefer moving riffle water to slow sections. Their main foods are crustaceans, insect larva, crayfish, and baitfish.Smallmouth are aggressive critters, much like the ocean's striped bass. It is common to see four or five large fish rush in after a hooked fish and try to grab the fly from the fish's mouth. When hooked, smallmouth never give in. This nature has attracted many well-known fly fishers such as Bob Clouser, Dave Whitlock, and Lefty Kreh to name a few. Clouser, for example, has dedicated much of his time to the Susquehanna River's smallmouth bass where 20-inch fish abound. His Clouser Deep Minnow, designed to fool the Susquehanna's fish, has become the standard smallmouth (and other fish for that matter) fly across the country.Growth rate depends on several factors-like food availability, water temperature, and growing season length--but in general, it takes four years for bass to reach nine inches. A trophy smallmouth is an 18- to 20-inch fish (about seven years old), but fish do get larger in some areas such as the Great Lakes.