Just Bassin’ Around …

Smallmouth bass and fishing for them is pretty foreign to me. Sure, we have smallies here on Back Lake (they’ve been here for nearly twenty years, illegally stocked way back in the day), but it seems as though our smallmouth bass are, in fact, small. There’s so many of them in our lake that their growth may be stunted, and while I have hooked up with a couple of sizable bass over the years, it can’t be considered anywhere near consistent.

Though my success with bass has been fleeting, it has always been at the back of my mind. I’ve always heard they are the hardest fighting freshwater fish, pound for pound, and provide a good tussle when hooked in to. That led TTL Fishing Guide Mickey Cunliffe and myself to take a trip over to the Magalloway River in Maine to pursue smallies from the comfort of his raft.

The Magalloway is a smallish river (perhaps a bit wider than the Trophy Stretch is right below Murphy Dam on the Connecticut River?) that holds good numbers of wild landlocked salmon and brook trout in its upper reaches. It’s a bottom release dam below Aziscohos Lake that provides great habitat for salmonids for a majority of the season, and superb conditions for large smallmouth bass, fall fish and yellow perch in its lower reaches on its way to Lake Umbagog.

While a drift boat that we use on the Connecticut and Androscoggin is probably not possible, the Magalloway is perfect for a raft like Mick’s. It’s tight, and shallow and rocky in spots, but the real deterrent to drift boats is the lack of proper boat launches and take outs. Dragging a raft up a bank is easier than doing so with a drift boat …

You would have thought we were going on a two day excursion with all of the rods we had (an 8-weight, two 6-weights, and a 5-weight), but we needed to be prepared for any circumstance and have backups just in case. I can’t lie. There were moments when I thought my 5-weight rod would finally give out on those hard fighting smallies (even the fall fish provided bruising battles), but it remained in one piece that day.

While there was really not a “fly of the day”, we ended up using an assortment of streamers of different colors (white or olive predominantly) and sizes. We went as small as a Soft Hackle Streamer that we would use here on the upper Connecticut River, and there were larger articulated rabbit strip jobs. They all seemed to work at one point or another, fished at the proper depth and with the right amount of fishlike movement.

Some of the takes were rather subtle, but most were violent, with a resulting battle royal of a fight on our hands. It was awesome to say the least, and there were a few times when I just slumped over in my chair after enduring a fight with a brawling bass. Too much for an angler as tender as me …

I mentioned depth before. The Magalloway is a river with deep channels, undercut banks, and sloping shelves – all perfect habitat for big, predatory fish. Getting your fly down to where the bass might be is really essential on this river, so don’t be afraid to bring an aggressive sinking line as it will come in handy in some spots on the river. There were certainly areas where we wished we had heavier sinking lines. We did throw poppers on top on occasion, but we both decided that getting down and dirty was the way to go with the bass.

Wade fishing is possible, but not recommended. It’s pretty tough to do over there, as well worn paths from anglers along the slower waters of the lower Magalloway aren’t common. The upper Magalloway may have plenty of walking paths for anglers, but it’s not the case on the lower river. The Magalloway is a special river, with special regulations too. It’s a fly fishing only, barbless hook water, and trout and salmon must be released immediately. We were happy to send our bass back to the depths to hopefully hook up again someday.

It’s a little different from angling for trout and salmon, but I might just try fishing for smallies again!