In July and August here in southern wisconsin my fishing switches from trout to small mouth. I tend to find that the heat of summer tends to improve the fishing in the rivers so do not fear the heat of the summer as you would with trout. Most of the rivers and streams I fish tend to "shallower" so I wade and only use floating line. I love watching the smallies nail flies on the surface so I tend to fish poppers, sliders, large dries, and divers. I use a floating 5 foot furled leader with 3 ft of 6lb tippet. I occasionally throw a minnow imitation streamer stripped through the current but they are not as much fun. Some of the flies can be rather large so I like a 6 wt for smallmouth. I think a furled leader will turn over the fly much better than a straight 8lb mono leader. By the way, do not be scared of "thinking out of the box" for smallies. One of my best days was on a 100 degree day drifting a size 12 scud from a trib that emptied into a large pool. The worm fisherman fishing 20 feet away did not even have a bite.
caribe