Many years ago I presented this fly to my fly tying class and expressed how great it was for smallmouth. One of the men in the class, noted that is basic colors were the same as a local schools colors--James Wood High School. The name stuck, and since that day hundreds of anglers have landed thousands of smallmouth on the James Wood Bucktail. Plus it is very easy to tie.
I catch many large bass with this bucktail by wading or floating down the river forty feet off the banks and fishing it tight against the banks over cobblestone stream bottoms in water two to four feet deep. I believe they take it as the small sunfish that live in these areas.
This fly works well for Shad Fishing also.