Kayak flyfishing for smallmouth bass
We kayak float fished from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. Sure wish it had been 7:30 - 7:30.Plenty of small fish 8-10″, as that was our target. There were, however, plenty of active large fish taking surface stuff all day. We fished modified bonefish flies (bead chain eyes, #10 hook, any color sparse dark over sparse light, overall length 1 1/4″). We used 2wt. 7′ 6″ fly rods.We fished very shallow, any little creekmouth, indentation, shallow log or muck edge all along the bank almost exclusively looking for these small, aggressive fish.We were treated to unbelievable animation from these little smallmouth on such light fly tackle. 3-4 jumps, cartwheels, tug of wars, flyin’ sideways, you know - all the good stuff, X 10 on the 2wt. I’ve got smile creases today. Water was normal height, crystal clear until Dexter, but even clearer than usual after Dexter. We did think fishing was even better below Dexter, but great all the way.A comment about kayak fishing the Huron - a properly and quietly paddled or drifted kayak will drift RIGHT OVER all types of species of fish without spooking them (the shadow does sometimes at high sun, though). The craft just does not seem to alarm them. We drifted over smalllmouth, largemouth, rock bass, two walleye (first time I’ve ever seen one resting in the river), suckers. Funny, carp still won’t let you go over them, but you can drift within 5′. We casted to, and caught smallies we saw no more than 10′ from the kayak.Not another person on the river all the way. Couldn’t believe it.Enjoy.
