The Ward Bean web page suggestion is an excellent piece of advice. Bean mostly fishes the small limestone rivers of NE Iowa like the Volga, Turkey and Upper Iowa. They are pretty similar to any of the flowing water bass fisheries anywhere in PA's limestone belt, or for that matter, the larger, relatively fertile streams of NW PA.
Here's his main page: http://www.warmwaterflytyer.com/welcome.asp Click on fly patterns to get a wealth of useful bass flies
My 5 favorite smallmouth patterns for relatively clear water conditions are:
1) Black or dark brown simple rabbit fur leech in sizes #4-8 (3XL)
2) Murray Hellgrammite, same hooks sizes.
3) Holschlag Hackle Fly in the original brown or also in olive on a Mustad 3366 equiv. #4 hook or a #2 on bigger creeks and rivers
4) Simple cupped-face poppers with saddle hackle tails and no rubber legs. I often buy these with rubber legs and then use a pair of pliers to remove them. I just seem to do better on poppers with no rubber legs. Colors don't really seem to matter, but size seems to be somewhat important. I like smaller poppers, labeled as being no larger than a size #6 or so.
5) I don't know if this fly has a name. It probably does, there's nothing new under the sun. But its just something I made and it works really well. I take a Mustad 3366 or equiv. in #4 and tie in a piece of black zonker strip for a tail, say twice the shank length.
Then I make the body from dark brown leech yarn and palmer a soft black saddle over it. That's it.. I weight it either with a dozen or so turns of .020 wire or a smaller dumb bell lead eye.
This is a pretty deadly fly dead drifted past cover or walked along the banks. You can also reverse the colors and use a black body with a dark brown tail and dark brown hackle. Seems to work about as well. But the leech yarn seems to be important. I've made these with chenille bodies and they don't seem to be nearly as effective. Due to the length of the tail, these flies can have a habit of the tail getting fouled around the hook bend. If you have a short fuse or low threshold for frustration and can't abide having to fix this every 20 casts or so, you can also use ostrich herl fibers for the tail. I think they're a bit less effective than the zonker strips, but they don't foul.
6) (Honorable mention) The Murray Marauder in black usually on a 3XL #6 hook. Very versatile fly than can be stripped or dead drifted with equal effectiveness.
If there is a little color in the water, I'll usually go to minnow imitations. I like Clousers in smoke (light gray) and white, smoke/yellow, sly blue/smoke, sky blue/white, yellow/white, olive/yellow and chartreuse/white. All these with the exception of the olive/yellow use a few strands of pearl crystal flash for the flash component of the fly. I use gold or copper flash for the olive/yellow.
But I catch twice as many fish on Murray Marauders using pearl Estaz/Cactus Chenille, a white marabou tail with a bit of pearl flash in it and a palmered white hackle. Painted lead dumb bell eyes, usually yellow with black pupils, if that even matters, which I suspect it does not. I also make Marauders in all yellow and root beer and brown. 95% of my Marauders are tied on 9672 equiv. #6 hooks.
I don't diss the Clouser, its a very good fly. But a lot of our rationale in fly choice is faith or confidence based and I simply have more confidence in the Marauders.
As an afterthought, Ward Bean's Red Faced Wobbler is also a very good fly. A lot like the Marauder, but easier to tie. Here's his pattern. http://www.warmwaterflytyer.com/patterns3.asp?page=30 I tie these mostly in pearl or white.
That's all I know and as usual, I'll add the disclaimer that I am primarily a large creek/small river bass angler. If its bigger than say, the Juniata at the top of the Lewistown narrows, I usually don't fish it. I have a severe balance disorder and wear two powerful hearing aids that will put me out about 5K if I dunk them. I seldom wade deeper than mid-thigh and that's only to reach exceptional cover I can't stand to pass up. More often than not, the knees are about where I begin to get a little skittery.
So, I tend to gravitate to smaller water. Dave or Afish or one of the other guys know a lot more about the bigger water bassing than I ever will. Its a somewhat different game that often calls for different flies, etc.
Also, buggers, clousers, dahlburg divers and deer hair frogs.
