Bait Fishing?

This past weekend was Hooked On A Cure. While I was guiding Lori Anne Murphy, my lovely wife, Lori, decided to fish Crooked Creek for smallmouth. She went to Kelly Slab outside Yellville and decided to fish upstream for a change. It was a tough wade, not because of the current but due to an accumulation of silt on the bottom that tried to suck the wading boots right off her feet.

She finally got in position and started carefully working her way down stream. The going was slow; she picked up a few long eared sunfish but no smallmouth. Then she noticed a commotion near the left bank. She carefully cast her olive woolly bugger at the spot and immediately got a bump. Half way through the retrieve the fight became more serious. Then she saw it, a magnificent Crooked Creek smallmouth. As usual, Lori didn't have a net with her and decided to attempt beaching the fish. After a long and frenzied struggle the fish was finally coerced to the bank.

As Lori knelt down to release the gorgeous bronze back, he spit out a long eared sunfish still hooked with her fly and very much alive and kicking. She had caught two fish on one fly! Obviously she had hooked the small fish and the large smallmouth slammed it as she retrieved it in. Its dorsal fin dug into the smallmouth's throat and got lodged. It was Lori's largest smallmouth and I wasn't there to photograph it. That was a major disappointment for me.

As Lori told the story later that evening at the Hooked On A Cure social, a couple of anglers questioned whether or not this constituted bait fishing. I don't see it that way. That was certainly not her intent.

After the charity auction we were talking to Dave and Emily Whitlock and Lori told them the about the incident. Dave explained that this has happened to him and he frequently employs a similar technique in the pond at his Fly Fishing School. He has a student (usually a child) dap the water along his casting dock with a small nymph and hooks up a small bream. He then has them pull the hooked fish to the front of the dock where there are several large mouth bass waiting for such an opportunity. Wham! Fish on!

Now does this equal bait fishing or is it another tactic that should be put in the fly fishers arsenal? I don't know but as a guide I am always impressed with any technique that produces fish and doesn't harm the fishery.

But when you analyze the situation there are three things that become abundantly clear. First, don't be afraid, to use a really large fly when fishing Crooked Creek for smallmouth. Second try an erratic or frenzied retrieve. This may just produce the result you want. Remember these guys are predators and they are definitely opportunistic feeders. Finally, shouldn't I be sitting at my vise developing a fly that imitates a long eared sunfish instead of writing this article?

Give them what they want!