Quote Originally Posted by waskeyc View Post
It's refreshing to hear that not everyone says, "just through a surface popper along the bank", which seems to be the conventional wisdom for river smallmouth on a fly rod. I've tried that; the results have not been spectacular. Of the three responses so far, all have been for subsurface flies fished near the bottom; maybe a consensus is forming.
It is commonly stated 80% of what a fish eats is in the water as opposed to on the water, it only makes sense to fish something that will be in the water column instead on the surface. Plastic worms catch more fish than top water chugger lures. When possible I like to do both with a popper or hopper - dropper rig.