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Your flies are fine but I would add a few near and on the surface. Streamers for near and poppers, gurglers, divers for on the surface.

Smallie hits on the surface are a blast.

I, too, am a gurgler pop fan. Lakes and rivers. Largemouth, bluegills in lakes and smallies in rivers. Wow! What a king for top water. I have fished many other top water patterns but the gurgle pop...

Smallies are wimps and not worth your time.

Please stick to trout.

I bought an issue of Hatches (fall 2007). There were several interesting articles.

There was a very good article on bluegill and flypatterns for them. There also was an article on smallies and the...

I have had this happen with gurglers or poppers. It really looks like they want to take them out (ie., swat it into the next county) but obviously not eat them. When this happens I am usually...

I smallie fish from a kayak and use a 5 wt rod with 6 wt line. No problems but I am casting mostly size 6 flies. When the water levels went down I started wading more. And I used a 4 wt rod casting...

I fish for smallies and lm from a yak in rivers, streams and lakes. The biggest 'hook' I throw is a size 4. I have several rods in my trunk. An 8.5' 5 wt with 6 wt line and a 9' 4 wt with 4 wt line....

As another option you might try a waterproof camera case that allows you to take pics without removing the camera. Try searching on AQUAPAC.

Droppers just complicate things for me. I have used them for smallies but would rather fish just surface or just a streamer and get their reaction. Droppers seem somewhat more effective for trout...

Typically I catch many more smallies on a dead drift. May initially twitch it to make sure I have the slack out. If it is cast to a likely location (near shore, rocks, logs, seams in slight current,...

I don't know about helping you choose a fly but do they see you? In those conditions (clear water, mid day, water not deep) the smallies are sometimes skittish. If they see or feel you first you may...

Besides color I have used another change up for the gurgle pop, allows me to stay on the surface and it seems to work quite well. Sometimes they like to play tennis (or so I call it) with the gp. I...

I usually stick some 'spider' legs on the gurglers along with some palmered hackle. Don't know too much about crappie but these gurglers are effective for most other fish (bluegills, bass, etc.).

Good thing you weren't hunting with him!

Go Boilers!

Wife and I paddled tandem whitewater in the 70's. Had kids in 80's. Put them in canoes in rivers in 90's and started smallie fishing. Bought a pair of old town loon 120's in later 90's and continued...

I didn't see a limit on type of fish (probably missed it). There is a warm water section but.....

Smallies seem to like

1-poppers
2-sneaky petes
3-spiders
4-clousers
5-weighted woolly...

I mostly try to stay on the surface. Gurglers are fantastic and a dropper if I get hard up. Also noticed that sometimes when they ignore the gurgler/dropper combo the spider seems to be just the...

I was fishing for smallies in a small stream last summer. I saw carp feeding on the surface for a while and it looked really interesting. I thought they hit small trout flies and I had two. The first...

I have been flyfishing from a siton (tarpon 120) and a sitin (loon 12)since I started flyfishing several years ago. Both lakes and rivers (class 1 and 2). I have always liked to paddle and then took...

I was an experienced whitewater paddler before I became a fisherman. I have been yak fishing for 10 years and the last 3 with a flyrod only. I have a sik and a sok. Both have their advantages. I do...

Just caught 8 wonderful smallies from a beautiful, midwest creek 2 days ago. Only saw hawks and deer.

The white and/or fall creek are good bets. I assume you don't have access to a boat. For the white there is good shore access for wading at 116th st on northeast side of town. May also be ok at 38th...

Appreciate your advise. I will check my leaders and the rest of your comments.

Folks,

I appreciate the feedback. I was trying the dumbbells because I thought they would work best on bottom by turning the hook up side down to minimize snags. I will make sure I am using the...

I am a relative newbie to flyfishing with less than a year experience in smallie river fishing.

I am tying flies to get to the bottom in some of the small and medium size rivers and want to know...