# Smallmouth Tips



## llw (Apr 4, 2014)

Hello all,

Just started getting into fly fishing the past couple years, especially for the steelhead run, and now looking to keep the momentum with smallmouth this spring and summer in the Lake Erie tributaries. 

Just caught my first in Chagrin River Park swinging a little crawfish pattern, but any tips people have about places and patterns to fish would be much appreciated. Saw several fish up on the surface but only had sinking line with me so couldn't effectively throw dry flies.

Are there resident smallmouth in the Chagrin upriver from the Gates Mills dam? Are any of the tributaries significantly better smallmouth fisheries than the others? 

Thanks in advance.


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## OnTheFly (Jul 30, 2010)

cant give you tips on the area as I am in central ohio, but I mainly throw an intermediate line (I think 1.25ips) and fish weightless or lightly weighted streamers in the upper part of the water column. Nothing beats watching a fish come out of nowhere to destroy a subsurface fly (other than straight topwater of course!). I will still fish closer to the bottom but jut plain hate getting snagged up and find this style to be more fun and just as effective.


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## OnTheFly (Jul 30, 2010)

murdich minnows, deceivers (single and double), craft fur minnows are my go to flies


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## zimmerj (Oct 17, 2014)

llw said:


> Hello all,
> 
> Just started getting into fly fishing the past couple years, especially for the steelhead run, and now looking to keep the momentum with smallmouth this spring and summer in the Lake Erie tributaries.
> 
> ...


Not sure you need anything other than a floating line in the summer. Summer pools are usually fishable with only a floater. 

There are residents in the South Chagrin Reservation. Anything upstream from there i can't comment on.

Woolly buggers and topwater sliders/poppers are all I use. I only fish the Grand, Rocky, and Chagrin. Can't say which is best. Like them all.


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## llw (Apr 4, 2014)

Thanks, guys. Much appreciated.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

I'm nowhere near that part of Ohio, but I can share what works well for me here in the opposite part of the state. I catch most of my smallies fishing slow and deep. To be perfectly honest, it's more like high-stick nymphing a streamer than anything else. I find a lot of fish in deeper water near cover, and I use either a weighted baitfish streamer, craw pattern, or (my fall killer) a large hellgramite pattern. Cast upstream of the cover, which sometimes is more of a flip than a cast, and let the fly fall. I subtly twitch the fly along bottom around the cover. Sometimes takes are a good solid thump, sometimes I see the slight slack in the line straighten, sometimes I just feel a tiny bit of weight. My smallie flows are probably a bit different than you have up north. Especially during summer and fall, the water gets pretty low and the flow slows way down. I honestly do not have as much success with a fast active retrieve, and I rarely fish topwaters. It isn't the most exciting way to fish, but it is successful.


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