Hi all,
New member Brian Victory here. I live in West Central Indiana and
we have some of the best smallmouth streams in the state and I’m
flyfishing for these clear up into late fall, but I am having a hard time
trying to find or create a good fly pattern for this time of year. If
anybody has any suggestions or ideas I would be grateful and try
to help a fellow member in the future.
Congratulations Brian, You’ve found the best FF site on the web.
Simple answer. For topwater try the Gartside Gurgler. For subsurface the Clouser Deep Minnow is hard to beat. Try the Clouser with white on the bottom, a bit of Crystal flash in the middle and yellow, olive or chartreuse on the top. Gurglers in Black or yellow can be deadly.
If you tie flies the dressings may be in the Fly Tying archives. If not they’re at the Gartside and Clouser web sites. If you buy them you have all the info you need.
Brian welcome to the board. It is nice to see another Hoosier in the house. I am from Griffith, IN. in Northwest Indiana. What rivers and streams are you fishing for the Smallmouth and where at in Indiana are you?
Hi BV, and welcome! It is pretty hard to go wrong with a Woollybugger, 4-10’s. Olive, Black, Brown or combos - it is a pretty successful fly. I’m partial to the Clouser Swimming Nymph because it can imitate or remind the Smallie of so many things, sizes above in dark red, blonde and rust, but give them a try and good luck. Do some research this winter and start to stock up!
Woollies, Clouser minnows, gurglers, those are all previous suggestions I can heartily second. Also a few good crayfish imitations are good to have around. Most people give up on crayfish way too early in the Fall, but the smallies don’t 8)
Welcome, BV!
I’m a “newbie” to this site, as well, but have met some of the finest and nicest, “People I’ve never met, nor, ever will meet” of the several FF boards I belong to!
I don’t know, if your Indy smallies, talk over the Internet to ours here on the west coast or not, (Oregon, here), but I’ve had a lot of early AND late fall luck, with smallies, using an all white Wooley Bugger. All, white, then weighted at the hook eye, to a 14/th way back, to make it rise and fall like a leech, when stripped back. This particular pattern also has served me well on really selective, bigger, Rainbows almost any time of year!
HI, ALL
BVictory here THANKS to all who has replied to my subject on
FLY PATTERNS I will certainly take all ideas that were given
to me and put them to good use. To the person who lives in
Griffith,IN. I live in Crawfordsville,IN. where Sugar Creek
runs, but do alot of fishing in my hometown area which is
Attica, IN. Which is 35 miles south of Purdue University.
Hey B.V. Jeff in Plainfield IN. You would do yourself a favor by giving Wildcat Creek Outfitters a call in Zionsville. They are my favorite fly shop around and have guides out on the water constantly and give very helpful advice www.wildcatcreekoutfitters.com I think the site is still under construction but you can get the phone number their
As been said, hard to go wrong with clousers, my most successful color combo, is black over green over white with gold flash sandwiched in. The Strymph is one of my go to subsurface flies too, hard to fish it wrong in olive or brown. Almost any beefy streamer will do the job as well, like a woolhead baitfish, Dave Whitlock’s Waking Minnow, Thunder Creek minnows or even different color Matukas. Rabbit strip tail Dahlberg Divers have been good for me too. Bottom bouncers with lots of wiggly jiggly rubber appendages in the fashion of The Holshlag Hackle Fly can be just the ticket some days. My wife’s favorite is a zonker strip conehead combo, in olive. It has a zonker tail, with a palmered zonker body, a gold conehead with lemon woodduck tied in front of the cone as a swept back collar. Lots of action when dead drifted or stripped. Go get into a few smallies!
Welcome----first I would like bivitory, tony sav, and fishin’chewy to fill out your “Profile” as to your location so that in the future I can keep track of fellow Indiana ffishers. As you can see on mine I’m from NE Indiana where we fish in lakes and streams that have smallmouth along with good size trout. The Thunder Creek and Gartside Sparrow are a couple flies we use. If you havent seen a a sparrow using one feather from a pheasant rear feather go to google and type in Garside Sparrow. BILL
