Flicking feathers

 Another old one I wrote for www.sexyloops.com  Although smallmouth bass are generally thought of as a warm water species, February and March offer some of the best fishing here and it's certainly not warm. I usually switch between big streamers of 12-15cm and small crayfish depending on the water I'm fishing-a few of the rivers are just big long riffles that flow too quickly for presenting a crayfish imitation slowly on the bottom. Received wisdom is that the bass key on crayfish and don't chase bait till the water warms up a bit, but actually this is very river dependent in my experience and some of my biggest smallmouth have come on big baitfish patterns in the early part of February. It pays not to be too fixed on what's "right" sometimes! That said, on the rivers here that have more sedate flows I will always have crayfish flies ready, especially early in the year. Bass like them, and numbers of fish always seem higher. There is something of a numbers vs