Smallmouth Bass: One Guide’s Addiction
By: Matt Martin, Smooth River Guiding Co.
Smallies, smallmouth, bronzebacks, or blackbass, whatever you want to call them, smallmouth bass are just plain awesome. There’s a reason they’re one of the most popular game fish here in the Midwest.
As a fly fishing guide who’s based in the Great Lakes region, they make up a major portion of my business every year. However, every Spring I get a bunch of questions from trout anglers asking why I spend so much time chasing them. My response is always the same: they pull hard, jump high, sip off the surface and crush flies in the deep…doesn’t that sound like the perfect fly-rod fish? Ha. I think it does at least.
These fish live everywhere and are accessible to everyone. They live in tiny rivers, urban ponds, all the way up to the Great Lakes; they live a really long time, much longer than any trout, and those that live the longest? They’re really hard to catch. So, do yourself a favor this year. Get down to the local fly shop, find a staff member, and ask them about bass. I bet you’ll see them start to glow; it’s got to get boring speaking about trout all the time. They’ll probably get you set up with a nice 7 weight, a handful of flies, and send you on your way.
Give them the shot they deserve this year, I bet you’ll rediscover what made you fall in love with fly fishing to begin with. I’m Matt Martin and I’m a smallmouth addict!
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Matt is based out of Ontario and while he loves small mouth, he loves taking clients out for trout, steelhead, pike, and carp too!
