Nothing Small About These Mouths

THEY'RE EVERYWHERE! What you ask? Smallmouth my friend! At this point in our season, the fish are literally everywhere you look! If you are looking for some late spring Smallmouth bass action, now is the time.

Recently I had the opportunity to spend some time with a great client and friend named Tim. Tim has fished the Alley in the good and bad...and now we can say on a moderate day too.

When we arrived on the creek, we did so with great anticipation. Tim and I have been trying to get him up here for Smallmouth for several years and today was the day. Tim is an avid warm water guy! He loves his Bass and Muskie! Today we were hoping to get him into some world class Smallmouth on Steelhead Alley.

A BEAUTIFUL SHADE OF BRONZE ON THE ALLEY

The day started out as I thought it would with a ton on fish barely visible in low light conditions. Several shots at fish came and went without any successful hook-ups....but no big deal I thought. Little did I know that as the sun came up, I would see the vast majority of fish sitting on nests. This isn' t the first time I have seen this, and as soon as I did I took a deep breath knowing that the fish were going to be as tough to get as they ever are.

Do you ever hate when you are right? Well, unfortunately I was right and most fish didn't want anything to do with anything....and I mean anything. Big, small, black, white, chartreuse, crayfish, lizard, minnow, leech....it didn't matter. As Tim put it, the males tending the nests were all sitting in chairs having a smoke after having paired up with all the hefty females that in recent days had laid their payloads of eggs and headed back to the lake.

Nevertheless, we didn't give up! I mean with hundreds of fish, some of them had to be willing to play. So, we kept at it....Tim kept at it and put his fishing prowess to the test. No, we didn't catch banner numbers, but we were a long way from a shut out too.

TIM POSES WITH A NICE ERIE SMALLMOUTH WHILE

FISHING WITH GUIDE PATRICK ROBINSON

I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks as all of those males come off nests and strap on the feed bag again! That will be a fun day to be on the water.

If you are interested in some Smallies on the fly, now is the time and the fish are filthy thick. Give us a shout and we will do the rest!

Tight Lines,

Patrick "Flybum" Robinson
Head Guide
Steelhead Alley Outfitters