Smallmouth Rivers

[JBlanchard]

I just bought the Z-Axis 4100-4 from HRO and tried it out on the Rockaway River. Water Temp at 7 A.M. was 72 degrees, too hot to fish for trout so I tried for the smallmouth. I was surprised to see some holding over, I've read temps as high as 82 degrees in that section of the river. Caught some nice smallies in the small stretch I was in. Pretty easy to catch and a lot of fun to fight, I was surprises how hard the 12" fought. Does anyone know of good north jersey rivers that have some good smallmouth fishing. I know the Passaic, where else? Any good patterns to try, I used a BH woolybugger and an egg sucking leach, kinda simple, but efficient. They kept taking when I did a slow retrieve w/ a pause. Good way to get through the summer heat until the trout fishing gets better

[AaronJasper]

I will list 5 of them

1 The Psssaic River (as you mentioned)
2 The Pompton River
3 The Lower South Branch of the Raritan
4 The Ramapo has fishable numbers
5 The Saxton Falls Stretch of the Musky (used to have good one when I was a kid)

I would be smallmouth fishing of the Housatonic were lower. It has some of the best bass fishing hands down... and lots of top water action as well!

[ffanywhere]

Fished the Housatonic yesterday afternoon for about two hours - seven smallies on either yellow stones or a chartreuse bettle spin. They hit the yellow stones when lifting up on the line once the beadhead had it down deep. Good looking fish and nice fight on four-weight in fast water. Fished the farmington last Saturday for six hours with a guide and none of us caught anythiing. Looks like we'll have to seek out smallies till the water temps for trout get back in range. Samllies are fine with me though!

[FK]

Welcome to the Sage 4100-4 Z-Axix fan club. I have a lot of fly rods and this design really is impressive. It will easily cast larger weighted nymphs and buggers, if you want to stay late and switch to drys the rod is also great. I will change lines for the small dry flys. Rio Nymph or Rio Clouser for heavy nymphs and SA Sharkskin for lighter surface flys.

Smallmouth are fantastic in the hot summer months. Wait until you hook up a 17"-18" fish and feel rod bend. The Connecticut River above Hartford is excellent smallmouth water, many 4lb and 5lb fish are caught every year.

Regards.
FK

[JBlanchard]

The z-axis is an awesome rod, its the last rod i had to buy. It'll be while before i use it for trout. Im definitely going to try to do more smallmouth fishing, with that rod. Im gunna try the Passaic in Little Falls, I looks nice, fast moving, lots of pockets and maybe ill pick up a pike they stock while I'm at it (even though it'll probably cut me off). Now i just have to figure out some the techniques.

[AaronJasper]

Are you busy after work tomorrow? Maybe we can give it a go then? I have nothing to do besides tie flies tomorrow. Also, now that the Farmington is over 70 degrees F smallmouth look that much better.

[Nymphmeister]

The first fish I ever caught on my fly rod were Smallmouth, I've always kinda liked them. This is definitely prime time for river Smallmouth. John, don't forget that if you want to hone your trout nymphing skills, you can also nymph for Smallies. They seem to prefer bigger nymphs, and I've also done very well nymphing for them with Buggers (esp. brown in about a #6-8) & Crayfish patterns. They love big Prince nymphs & also stoneflies.

[FLYDAD]

Try using pink scud type patterns in different sizes. That always seems to work good for me on the Housatonic when targeting smalies

[JBlanchard]

I was wondering if I could nymph fish them,I kinda thought they needed some sort of stimulation like raising they fly towards the surface . I'm the Saxton Falls section of the musky is the closest river to me. Hopefully there is some water flowing. I can definitely use some nymphing practice, whether with the indicator or the czech nymphing. I got the ten foot rod, now i have to read a lot, and practice even more. Thanks for the input

[AaronJasper]

ffanywhere.... welcome to the board. Nice chatting with you at the store!

John,

You can nymph with large stoneflies with rubber legs or other nymphs that have brown or orange in them. Olive can also be a good color. If they are in riffled water nymphs can be killer as they will take their food just as a trout would.

Also, remember they can be more spooky than your average trout because do not forget, they are the native species in our rivers and lakes. While we do like our trout... except for the brook trout, the rainbows and browns are all invasive species in our neck of the woods.