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Chuck and Duck (Guest Article)
The Basic Drift Approach to Smallie Fishing on the Fly
by Dave Motes

Anglers on my boat are often surprised at the approach we take to fishing for smallies on the drift. That's because there are several major differences between drift fly fishing and wade fishing for bass or any other quarry with the fly rod. Those differences can be divided into two general categories: pace and size. Taken together, they create a rather hectic and perhaps less reflective approach than many fly anglers are looking for. Generally our clients opt for a more careful and gentle approach, but to fully appreciate a drift trip you need to know what is possible and what works before you decide on your own approach.

Pace is a key consideration. When an angler is wade fishing, good spots--we call them "hits" or "shots"--are rare. Each one needs to be worked carefully and gradually, with fly changes and stealthy approaches and a generally patient attitude. This is obvious; when you wade, the area you are fishing is limited. Trout anglers especially are used to "working" a fish, perhaps even "resting" the fish, as it shows itself in rising or nymphing activity. I have often stood in the same place for hours at a time while dry-fly fishing for trout. This isn't a productive attitude on a drift trip in most situations. We cover nine miles of quality habitat--literally thousands of good shots. Also, our fish rarely show themselves, and they are generally only vulnerable to one try with any given lure. An angler who takes a second shot at a single spot may be missing a better opportunity at the next spot. Remember too that bass are generally holding in their locations, behaving territorially at least for a time. Consider as you drift a strategy of pace, and discuss that with your guide or partner so you get even coverage of water at the best possible pace. Good guides will signal you when to repeat cast or when to attempt a more careful pace for a particular spot, but the general rule is one cast, move on.

This is also important at the beginning or "probing" stage of a trip, when you are trying to dial in on what feeding behavior the fish will be exhibiting. I have had many anglers groove on a pattern or technique too early, then find out later that another thing--perhaps the next thing we would have tried--was actually a hotter choice. Pace your trip with a careful survey of the standards before you decide. Otherwise you may take a good fish early and stick doggedly to that fly when another choice would work better or perhaps produce more quality fish.

Size is another surprise we have for our clients. We hand them large flies first, and by large we mean large--average or standard would be a 5" or so white or chartreuse Dahlberg Diver on a 1/0 TMC 800 saltwater hook--a serious fly. Smallmouth prey sizes are larger than you think. Larger than that. Even larger than you are thinking now. Still larger. So large that a 5" fly is actually midrange. Of course, as guides, our first choice and hope for an angler is that he will take a large fish, and we'd rather our clients get ten strikes from good fish than a hundred from smaller fish. You have the same choice. A #6 black woolly bugger or a small Sneaky Pete will move a lot of fish in the Potomac, no doubt, and some of them may be good or even large fish--but a larger fly will move larger fish every time. Size also applies to coverage. Trout anglers are often surprised by the casting profile we look for on the river; smallie fishing is in many ways more like saltwater fishing than trout fishing. Drift is far less important; flies need action, produced by stripping, and that action is often much faster and more sharp than many fly anglers have ever seen. We love a long cast with an erratic series of fast, sharp strips of up to two feet in length. Poppers are violently yanked. More subtle motions are often in order, but the starting point is far and fast. Dead drift, subtle topwater, and mended work with flies is still a good skill, but boorish and loud motion on large flies is the technique that produces the most good bass for us.

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"Both anglers concentrate on areas to the side of the boat because of the two cardinal rules of flyfishing from a drifting boat: Never Make the Same Cast Twice and Never Cast Where We've Been."

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It's also important to remember that we believe profile is the most important characteristic of a fly. Color is secondary; we think mainly in terms of light and dark, solid or mixed, in that order. Eyes are important too but most of our flies are quite impressionistic and don't imitate anything in particular, or at least don't imitate only one thing. Minnow flies tend to the large-bodied and blunt (hence our preference for the Butch Minnow over the Clouser); poppers are shiny and gaudy (Bob's Banger is a standard); and the divers and other hairbugs we use are deep bodied and very long.

If you were to see a boat full of MKFS guides flyfishing the Potomac, this is the image: Two anglers working flies from the boat. The aft angler watches the forward angler's coverage and stroke, yielding to his cast so both aren't false casting at the same time. Both anglers will say "picking up" when they pick up the line into a backcast. Both anglers concentrate on areas to the side of the boat because of the two cardinal rules of flyfishing from a drifting boat: Never Make the Same Cast Twice and Never Cast Where We've Been. Casting to the side also trusts the guide to set you up on the best possible hit. The aft angler fills the areas or shots the forward angler misses or leaves for him; one mark of an experienced pair of fishing buddies is that they team well to cover water, even to the point of being competitive or occasionally poaching on each other--rather double-cover a spot than miss it. For a right-handed angler, that generally means that the guide will position the boat to take the best shots for him to cast to his left. Sometimes the aft angler will take the starboard side of the boat while the forward angler takes the right side if, as is often the case on our float, there are good shots all around the boat. The boat moves from position to position with the guide coaching the forward angler into the best or "cream" of the spots; guide and angler communicate constantly. Casts are long, generally past the intended target so the fly is "on action"when it enters the anticipated strike zone. Anglers are aware of the "bubble"--the area around the boat where the pressure wave and shadow and noise of the boat's passage will put off all but the most lit-up of fish. Fly anglers are making the most of the fly rod's greatest advantage--the ability to pick up a lure and deliver it again quickly without reeling in the line and redeploying it every time. For distance, casters are using the double-haul; they may also be using stripping baskets to organize their shooting line and make for maximum distance on the cast. Most flies are landed and immediately stripped hard--little time for pausing or working a fly slowly. At times the guide will hold the boat up so a spot can be worked carefully, and during those positionings the anglers will narrow the scope of their casting angles so they are working the water more carefully but still trying not to make the same cast twice.

Strikes are greeted with hard strip-sets rather than a lift of the rod, because feeding smallies can be in groups and can be reckless, so some strikes are misses and a lift of the rod will pull the fly out of the strike zone while a strip is a better set which keeps the fly there. When the drifting boat encroaches on the line or an angler strips the fly too close to the boat for a normal pickup, the angler will execute the "roll-cast pickup"--a quick roll cast away that puts the line and lure far enough out to meet the basic requirement for a full pickup--as Left Kreh says, you have to be able to move the fly before you can pick it up. This process of fishing takes stamina and skill, but it's the way we catch our best fish. My largest smallmouth came on the fly--22+ inches, nearly five pounds--on a day when little was happening and a mechanical process of casting and retrieving a big fly yielded exactly two strikes during my time in the front seat: a 13 incher and the big spawned-out female. As I've said, a more gradual and thoughtful approach is possible for a drift trip with the fly, and it is often more fun and less strain to slow it down; but if you want to raise your chances for a big fish this should give you a picture of how we do it.