Read ten articles about smallmouth on the fly rod and eight of them will say go ahead and use the five weight you use for trout. Now wait a minute. Every serious fisherman I know has a billion specialty rods for every kind of fishing he might run into. A big baitcasting rod for heavy cover, a 4 wt fly rod for tiny streams, a rod for plastic worms, one for crankbaits and on and on. Fishermen love an excuse to get another rod. So why not get a rod (or two) for smallmouth in streams? Yes you can get by with a 5wt but there are things you won't be able to do. A lot of things.
One of life's great pleasures is casting a deer hair bug for smallmouth. Not much is more exciting than catching them on top. You can throw little poppers and miniature deer hair bugs on a 5wt for sure, You cannot throw a standard deer hair bug any distance at all on one. At least not without difficulty. And there are also times when a heavily weighted fly like a wooly bugger (or woolly or whoolly, I've seen it spelled all sorts of ways) is the best fly you can use. In fact if I was going to use just one fly for smallmouth it would probably be a bugger. Clousers, zonkers, Dahlberg divers, deceivers, all big bulky heavy flies that would fish better on a heavier rod. If I were going to own just one fly rod for smallmouth it would probably be a 7wt. I don't, so I usually use either a 6wt or an 8wt. A 6wt for smaller stuff and in smaller creeks and an 8wt for bigger stuff and in larger rivers. Fishing is what I love. I might compromise when it comes to buying a phone or jeans but I try to use the right tool for the job at hand when it comes to fishing.
Most fishing situations in smaller rivers and streams are perfect for a floating fly line. In the majority of rivers and creeks you can put the fly in front of the fish with a floating fly line. If you fish slightly larger rivers too get an extra spool with a sink tip fly line and put that in your vest or pack. You won't use it too much but it will be a game saver when you do.
To turn over the bigger flies you will be throwing for smallmouth you need a leader on the order of a 2x. I carry tippet material and leaders varying from 1x down to about 4x for smallmouth, from seven to nine feet long. Try to use the heaviest one the fish will let you get away with that day. Smallmouth are simply a load when hooked and you will be glad you did if you hook a trophy. Let's face it, you simply lose more smallmouth than just about any other fish your likely to catch. They fight as hard as any fish that swims and jump making you more likely to lose one than even other hard fighters like hybrids. Your 8wt fly rod is perfect for hybrids too BTW if your looking for another reason to justify getting one.
Close to my house are a couple tiny creeks that hold little smallmouth as well as the world's prettiest fish the long eared sunfish. These little tiny streams are perfect for wading wet on a hot summer day with a 4wt or 5wt rod. Things like sponge spiders or little poppers will catch you a bunch of fish. Like I said earlier I like to not compromise when fishing and I'll have a box of pretty hand tied things like Wulff's and humpies on a wade trip like this. Smallmouth in these tiny creeks top out at about a foot but will still be all you handle on a 4wt. A double taper or a triangle taper floating line is perfect for these as you will be doing a bunch of roll casting in tight quarters.
When fly fishing for smallmouth don't disregard all the hard earned lessons you have learned with a spinning rod. Besides just casting a bass bug in the pools at dawn and dusk run a streamer thru places you would throw a crankbait. Fish a Dahlberg diver type fly where you would a minnow plug. Wade carefully and stealthily and high stick a heavily weighted clouser thru a run you would tumble a grub down. In other words just because you are enjoying the grace and beauty of casting a fly rod doesn't mean you can't be an effective and capable fisherman. In many situations you might find yourself catching just as many if not more fish than you would if you had brought your spinning rod instead
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