Went out fly fishing Friday afternoon after my Dr. Appts. The weather was decent for fly fishing. The non-spawning smallies were up in the shallow protected bays and coves going a feeding binge. There were signs of some fish getting ready for spawn and quite a few small females with eggs in the them. What I mean by getting ready is that when you see smallmouth just sitting there and are protecting their space by eating a fly or whatever, he's got his territory. There were a few fish where we had the boat only 5 feet away and would not move. Drop a fly right in front of his face he nailed it without hesitation. If you ever notice that your getting a lot of hook ups on the upper jaw its more of an aggression behavior. Where as more sides and bottom is more of a feeding mood. I've started to pay more attention to this, it does seem to fit. But I'm no expert on bass behavior and is just by observation.
The shallow protected back bays and coves were warming up into the mid 60's with the main body of the lake was 58-60. Lots of fish on Friday, but slower on Saturday. Friday was mostly sunny most of the day, while Saturday started mostly cloudy with small sprinkles and opened up later in the afternoon with sun. The wind was nasty on Saturday which made tough fishing.
Friday I landed over 25 fish on the fly rod. With few more coming from my spinning rod. I use my spinning rod to hunt for them first, then break out my fly rod. Most fish were between 12-15 inches. Quite a few 15 to 18. I caught a couple approaching the 19 mark, but not 20" today, though I did see some that big. It was a blast out there catching smallies on the fly rod. It been a quite a few years since I've strictly fly fished most of the day and it was awesome! I tested out my new Scott S3S 9' 8wt rod. That rod is sweet, kinda of pricey, but well worth the investment. Didn't get tired at all throwing 3-5 inch flies all day.
Remember that bass fishing is open East and North of Hwy 53 in northern Minnesota. The smallies are spawning and eating. They might be in different stages of the spawn on different parts of a lake or river. If you see fish on their beds, please leave those fish alone. Sometimes you can't tell, but nothing you can do about that.
Good luck out there and have a blast catching smallies. The fishing is going to be excellent for fly fishing for the next 2 weeks, but it depends alot on the weather and your body of water.
I forgot to say I was using divers and black strip leeches made by John Fenhel of Great Lakes Fly Company. His flies just rocked those fish and lasted a long time, very impressed.
Tight lines.
