Smallies on the Fly

I have tried this tecnique a couple of time before with very minimal success so I figured I would post on here and see if anyone had any suggestions. My uncle is coming into town this weekend and is a big fly fisherman. I want to take him on the Mississippi to try for Smallies. I have tried the area near Monticello a couple of times with only a couple of dinks to show for it. Does anyone have any suggestions of places to start from? I live in Elk River so anything from there up to St. Cloud is pretty much fair game. Also, has anyone had any success flyfishing for Smallies from shore? With the river down so far I am pretty sure I can walk/wade just about everywhere. Thanks! I will let you know how we do.

I would suggest trying a big hair bug or popper. I’ve gotten good results using a deer hair mouse, even having crappies attack it. Cast it anywhere you have a current break. In the middle of the day try right up against the bank where the water has under cut tree roots and such. The fish can be spooked real easy and that will cut down drastically on takers, so stalk the spots carefully when approching.

Try doing a google search for Tim Holschlag. He knows more about smallie river fishing on the fly than most. Might try throwing in blockhead into that search, it’s a fly he swears by.

Well we tried strech of river just north of Elk River and between 3 of us we ended up catching about 25 smallmouth in 4 hours. That is the good news, the bad news is that they were all the same size, and that size was 8-10 inches…lost one bigger fish when it jumped but other than that no sign of bigger fish. Poppers, woolly buggers and Clauser minnows were the best patterns.