Delaware river SMB

[poopdeck]

Took my cabelas three forks fly rod out in the river for some small mouth bass the other day. Was throwing a white gurgler style popper with a size 14 prince nymph trailed off the gurgler. First 2 casts equelled 2 bass. I caught a third on the prince nymph before a south wind started blowing straight up the river. Made casting the gurgler difficult and dangerous work. Switched to my spinning rod and a senko and we ended up boating over 30 SMB with another dozen spitting the hook. Nothing big all were in the 10 to 14" range. The pigs will be coming out to play soon though.

I really need to pick up a 7wt to combat a stiff wind and big foam poppers. I think I would have crushed them all dy with my tandem rig.all in all a good day but I really wanted to fish the fly rod all day.

 

[jifigz]

Were you using a 6 weight? I used to use my 6 weight for chasing smallies a lot, but have since found that I much favor my 8 weight. I have never chucked a prince nymph in a smallmouth river though. Stick baits like Senkos work extremely well. As a matter of fact, I just poured some soft plastics yesterday for the first time in ages.

 

[andre]

We're you in a boat or wading? Sounds like you had a great day

 

[poopdeck]

I was in a boat. I was using a 5wt. I think I 6wt would have worked but a 7wt would be perfect. It was a good day but it was lacking in the size department.

 

[krayfish2]

Poop,
Turning boat or change position to keep you from eating the popper when casting should have solved the problem.....unless we are talking 20+ mph winds. Then it's just dangerous to keep chucking the fly rod with big junk on it. Spin is so much more effective anyhow. I lean towards spin when ww fishing

 

[poopdeck]

It is a 14' tin boat with two people in it. You know the kind that has the metal bench seats going across the width. It has no floor so your standing on a sloped ribbed surface, and most importantly no trolling motor or oars. There is no way to turn the boat so you have to fish with the turning of the boat. My boat is 16', has a trolling motor, an open floor plan and a floor which makes fly fishing a lot easier. The water was simply to shallow to take my boat.

I like spin and fly fishing for WW fish. I really like surface lures for SMB and I really like poppers on a fly rod for SMB. The problem was a combination of the wind, the popper size, An underweight rod for the popper, and maybe a touch of poor casting technique.

 

[afishinado]

poopdeck wrote:
It is a 14' tin boat with two people in it. You know the kind that has the metal bench seats going across the width. It has no floor so your standing on a sloped ribbed surface, and most importantly no trolling motor or oars. There is no way to turn the boat so you have to fish with the turning of the boat. My boat is 16', has a trolling motor, an open floor plan and a floor which makes fly fishing a lot easier. The water was simply to shallow to take my boat.

I like spin and fly fishing for WW fish. I really like surface lures for SMB and I really like poppers on a fly rod for SMB. The problem was a combination of the wind, the popper size, An underweight rod for the popper, and maybe a touch of poor casting technique.

Poop makes some good points about rods. A lot of guys use a 5wt or 6wt for SMB fishing. These are fine for smaller streams for shorter casts and/or smaller flies. In bigger rivers, a 7wt is usually a better choice and an 8wt is not overkill, especially in windy conditions and/or casting bigger wind resistant flies.