Overhanging branches and a swirling wind made this a tough cast.
It came together, the moderate action 3-weight Sage fly rod loading nicely, as always, and the meaty fly landing with a splat deep in the shady pocket.
Next came the slurp, then the fight, then the fish to hand — another stout bluegill that just couldn’t resist the colorful cork popper.
Trout fishing doesn’t take a complete hiatus here in Virginia in the summer, but trout country shrinks. Small mountain streams get skinny, and even spring creeks and tailwaters flirt with and sometimes exceed temperatures at which it’s ethical to pursue trout.
This is not just a thing at more southern latitudes. Hot weather and warm waters impact much of trout range in the U.S. in July and August. If we want to fish — and we do — we have an obligation to move our focus to non-salmonid species and techniques.
A bonus? Targeting bass and sunfish is not simply a better-than-nothing placeholder until fall; it’s accessible, a lot of fun and makes us better trout anglers.
Poppers on top
Fishing for warmwater species with nymphs and streamers can be effective and fun. (Check out my Trout Unlimited colleague Cam Aker’s great recent story about streamer fishing for smallmouth bass.) But just like with trout, nothing beats a topwater take, whether it’s a largemouth bass viciously exploding on a hair frog skipped across lily pads, a smallmouth daintily slurping a dead-drifting chartreuse popper or a fat bluegill lustily gulping a foam spider.
The term “popper” usually applies to hard-bodied bugs, often made with a cork or foam body, typically with a cupped face, and dressed with a combination of hackle, feathers and rubber legs. A quick pull causes these bugs to spit and pop on the surface. The mood of the quarry dictates the presentation. Aggressive retrieves work well when bass are fired up, such as when a summer storm is approaching.
But sometimes the best retrieve is no retrieve at all. Splat the popper on the cast, watch the ripples dissipate then wait. The waiting, as Tom Petty used to sing, is the hardest part but it often pays off after 30 seconds or a minute.
Sliders are more subtle, with an angled face that slides more subtly across the surface. A hard splat as that bug lands, followed by slow pulls, can be a killer approach on pressured fish.
Similarly shaped flies made with spun deer hair — such as the Dahlberg Diver — are a bit of a hybrid. Sharp pulls can cause those flies to, as the name would imply, dive under the surface before floating back to the surface on the pause.
Foam-bodied flies, like spiders and even terrestrial patterns with which we target trout, are great for bluegills. A downside is that those soft offerings are generally not as durable as hard-bodied poppers. Few are tough enough to survive a good evening on the bluegill pond. You’ll also want to keep floatant handy as those bugs can get waterlogged after a few fish.
As one would expect, offerings for smallmouth bass usually fall between the baby bugs for bluegill and the larger poppers for largemouths.
What about fly color? If there is actual prey around — hoppers, cicadas, damselflies, etc. — it can help to do your best to match naturals. Earlier this summer I was floating Virginia’s Shenandoah River with TU project manager Seth Coffman and Forest Service fisheries program lead Nat Gillespie when a hatch of big yellow mayflies started. We were geared up for bass so didn’t have any yellow mayfly dry fly imitations on hand, but we were able to fool some fish on yellow poppers.
But, generally, color is not overly important. Black, white, yellow, chartreuse and frog-colored poppers fill my boxes, with a few blue ones for those days when smallmouths are leaping at damselflies.
Gear needs
Rods, reels and lines we use for trout will mostly work for casting surface bugs for bass and panfish. Key word: mostly.
Throwing big, wind-resistant cork or hair bugs for largemouth bass, especially on bigger lakes where wind can be an issue, is best undertaken with a 7- or 8-weight. Smaller bass, which will dominate your catch, won’t put much of a bend in a stick that size. But it’s surprising how many good-sized largemouths can’t resist a popper, even though it’s a relatively small offering compared to what big bass usually eat. So, that stouter rod will pay off.
Sunfish are on the other end of the spectrum. A 3-weight can handle smaller poppers and foam bugs and fighting a hand-sized bluegill on one is a hoot. Sizing up to a 4-weight won’t make it any less fun. A 5- or 6-weight rod is a bit of a hybrid; small enough to still be fun with smaller fish, but big enough to handle the occasional bonus bass.
Smallmouth gear, as you’d expect, falls in the middle, with a 6- or 7-weight appropriate for most needs.
Does it even need to be mentioned that this is a floating line game? The reel that holds that line doesn’t need to be fancy. It’s a line-holder, so no smooth disc drag is required.
Rods also don’t have to be fancy. Do I need to use my Orvis Helios D 6-weight to cast poppers for smallmouths? Nope. Does the rod excel at that? Yep. And, again, that casting is good prep for pounding the banks with streamers for big browns when I’m back to that game. Truthfully, I have just as much fun doing it with a vintage, moderate action St. Croix 6/7 weight (with 7-weight line) sourced from a yard sale.
When to fish poppers on top
River smallmouth bass, bless them, often look up all day long, even when the sun is bright. This is especially true when big, active bugs like damselflies or cicadas are around.
Largemouths and sunfish in still water are a different story. Targeting them on top in the summer is mostly a morning and evening affair. (An exception is when sunfish spawn in the spring and early summer.)
Early in the evening, target shady spots under docks or overhanging shoreline trees and shrubs. After the sun drops, those fish will move out a bit from shady spots, but they will still be holding pretty close to cover.
Using a popper-dropper rig is a trick that can work when fish are hesitant to take a bug off the surface. Tie a sub-surface fly — I like nymphs tied on jig hooks — to a 2- to 3-foot-long dropper off the popper. Bass and sunfish that are attracted to the surface bug but not quite ready to commit will often hit that trailer. And, again, casting that two-fly rig is great practice for using a dry-dropper rig on a trout stream.
Finally, while most of us are compelled to release all the wild trout we catch, we don’t need to feel that obligation here. Most warmwater fisheries can withstand some harvest of bass and bluegills. In fact, keeping a few fish for the pan — especially sunfish, which are prone to overpopulation and stunting — can improve the size structure among bass and sunfish populations.
What better reward for a fun evening of popper fishing than a fish fry?