Shenandoah Popper Carolina Blue

If you fish where there is a great amount of aquatic grass feel free to use weed guards on your flies. If, however, you don’t need them do as I do and cut them off. There is no doubt in my mind the weed guards cause us to miss some strikes. The late angling master Jason Lucas always said “weedless….fishless”.

When you use two cars on your float trips be sure to spot the car which will be towing or carrying the boat at the take out spot. If you hit a bad electrical storm you can push row quickly to get away from it. If you float until dark you can safely put your rods and tackle away and easily load your bot then drive upstream and pick up your other car.

Murray’s Red Head Bass Bug

If you are having trouble casting deer hair bass bugs go to streamline bugs like the Tapply or Murray series rather than something that looks like a windmill.

How late in the fall can you catch smallmouth bass? For me personally, I keep fishing until I get skunked twice. Last fall this was December (2009) which was much later than normal. If you can’t go as often as I do just check my stream report on our website each Friday.

Scott Fibertouch Rods are now $150 off
Winston Vapor Rods $100 off, Ascent Rods $75 off, Biix Rods $175 off
Orvis TLS Rods $150 off
Wading Boot and Raincoats on sale from $60 to $149

When you pause for lunch on the stream or back in your car take time to clean your hands with a hand sanitizer or wipe. Even the best looking streams can carry bacteria and other contaminates that can easily be transferred to your food and to your mouth that can make an otherwise memorable trip into a horrible nightmare.

Harry just added a new article to our website (www.murraysflyshop.com/articles).  In his article “Fishing Critters for Smallmouth Bass” Harry discusses fishing mouse patterns and frogs for wary late summer Smallmouth Bass.  The full article is available under the “Articles” section of our website.

The Hexagenia Mayflies are hatching very well on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River and the smallmouths are feeding well on them the last hour of daylight. Fish a Mr. Rapidan Dry Skater 8 with a Mr. Rapidan Emerger 10 on a 3 foot dropper off the bend of the dry. Twitch these across stream very slowly where you see rising bass and over the tails of the pools.

Fly Fishing with popping bugs for Smallmouth Bass just might be at it’s peak right now on the North and South Fork of the Shenandoah. There is a lot of food for the smallmouth to feed on, from damselflies to frogs, throughout the day. Early and late fishing continues to be most productive but if mid-day is the time you can go, GO! Concentrate on the shaded banks and along the grassbeds in the river. This Smallmouth Bass took a #4 Chartreuse Chuggar on 3x tippet on an 8wt. fly rod.

When we tie our own heavy nymphs and streamers and those we sell we have stopped using lead wire, eyes and barbell eyes made of lead. There are now many substitutes availabe for these which do an excellent job of getting the flies down deeply but do not contaminate the streams.