Strangely, I think of smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) as a Canadian fish, despite most of their native range occurring south of the great lakes into the USA. I think of its close cousin – the largemouth bass – as the quintessential American freshwater fish, but again, that’s not strictly true either – but we will focus on that species another time.
The northern extremity of the smallmouth’s native range does extend into southern Canada, but the species has been introduced all across North America, to the point that the boundaries of its limits become blurred very quickly. Smallmouth have also been introduced into parts of Europe, Africa, south-east Asia and Japan where they are invasive and hold out in self-sustaining populations.
Smallmouth bass are a highly prized sportfish and are becoming increasingly popular fly fishing targets. One North American fishing guide described them as the “trout of the warmwater” for their seemingly trout-like habits. Another guide described them as “built perfectly for rivers”. Smallmouth do prefer cooler waters than their largemouth cousins and thrive in rivers that would otherwise look like the perfect trout stream – gravel bottoms, clear waters etc. In fact smallmouth and trout do co-exist in some places and, like trout, are also at home in some cooler lake environments across North America. They are aggressive predators, feeding on crayfish, amphibians insects and other fish species and are loads of fun to catch on both surface and sub-surface flies.
I’ve been fortunate enough to experience these great sportfish on fly during a trip to southern Ontario in 2018 and the experience has left me begging for more as I long to return to smallmouth territory again someday to fish for them again. You can read more about that fishing trip here.
If you are lucky enough to be living close to waters that contain smallmouth bass and haven’t tried to catch them on flies yet – you should definitely do so – you will not be disappointed! Check out the video below to see fly-tying guru, Tim Flagler’s, top 5 smallmouth bass flies.
video credit: Douglas Outdoors
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