How To Fish a Streamer Like a Jerkbait for BIG Smallmouth Bass

The doldrums of summer aren't quite here, which means the smallmouth bite is still on in most of the U.S. If your part of the country hasn't become too hot, then you can still catch smallmouth throughout the day, and not just early mornings or late evenings.

Fly Fishing With Big Streamers For Big Smallies

During this time of the season, my favorite and most productive ways to catch large smallies are by throwing big streamers. But that by itself is not enough to consistently hook into big smallmouth. The type of streamer you use, how you work it, your choice of fly line, and where you cast all play a part in having a successful day.

Looking For Wisdom Where I Can Find It

When I throw streamers for smallmouth, what I'm trying to do is mimic a technique that the conventional tackle bass guys use with a lot of success - Ripping Jerkbaits. The bass guys are fanatics about their sport, and they are on top of all the latest techniques that win tournaments. As an angler, I try to learn as much as I can anywhere I can, and it benefits me to pay attention to what is going on in their world. I'm working smarter here, not harder.

A smallmouth bass with a Jerkbait in its mouth caught by an angler. — The Spro mcstick Jerkbait 110+1 in Gray Ghost (that yellow stripe!) doing its job. | photo by Jordan Albertson

The Jerkbait

The conventional tackle guys will tell you that jerkbaits are good search baits, meaning they're a good lure to cover a lot of water quickly and find fish. These baits are versatile and will elicit a strike when smallmouth are feeding, or trigger a reactionary strike if they are not.

Fly Fishing A Streamer That Moves Like A Jerkbait

Articulated streamers are the closest thing I have found that mimics the size and action of a jerkbait. A bonus is, being that most streamers are made with feathers, fur, and hair, it looks more like something from nature, more "critter" like.

The Three Things I Focus on When Fishing a Streamer Like a Jerkbait.

Size

Most jerkbaits on the market are 4-5 inches long, and that's what I try to match when choosing a streamer. It's easy to find 4-inch streamer patterns on the market. I prefer not to go any smaller, as I find that the shorter streamers don't provide the erratic, sloppy action I try to achieve to trigger strikes.

Action

You want to mimic the side-to-side, start-and-stop movement of a jerkbait, and you want to get some depth. To get depth, I always fish my streamers on a sinking fly line; 3 inches per second or 7 inches per second usually work. If you are not experienced with fishing sinking lines, I think a 3-ips line is a good place to start.

Cast the streamer and give it a few seconds to sink. Then give it an aggressive strip or two, and then a pause. You are trying to get it to dart side to side, start and stop, up and down. When I say aggressive, I mean big, quick strips of a foot to two feet in length. You want it to "jump" from the start like an injured fish trying to flee.

A large streamer with a fly reel to be used to fish like a jerkbait for smallmouth bass. — I don't know what critter it looks like, but it looks like a critter. | photo by Ken Baldwin

Use The Pause

Learn how to use the pause. It's the strip that comes right after a pause when a smallmouth will most likely strike. Most of the time, fish aren't on the feed, but fish are always curious. It's during the pause that a fish will sit right behind your streamer, looking at it, sizing it up. A sudden, aggressive strip can trigger a reaction strike from a fish. It doesn't have to be hungry; it's just a knee-jerk reaction (as if fish had knees) to kill.

Keep It Unpredictable

Move the streamer through the water as if it were a dying fish. This movement is erratic. Don't get into a predictable rhythm of move, move, stop. Move, move, stop. Nature doesn't work that way.

If you are not sure how to move your streamer through the water, act like you are trying to get a cat to jump on a toy you are dragging across the carpet. Some of my most exciting strikes are from smallmouth jumping my streamer after the pause.

Two 4.5" articulated Drunk and Disorderly streamers hooked into the cork handle of a fly rod and Orvis reel. — Two 4.5" articulated Drunk and Disorderly streamers. The top in chartreuse, the bottom in brown/light brown. | photo by Ken Baldwin

Color

Chartreuse, bright greens and yellows, or brown are the colors I will fish when targeting smallmouth. For as long as I've been chasing smallies, chartreuse and bright greens have always been productive colors.

I remember as a kid catching smallmouth on a Rapala floating minnows in Fire Tiger, a color combination of chartreuse, green, and orange. Until I stop catching in this color, I ain't changing. If it's not broken, don't fix it.

Sinking Lines Are Key

If you aren't familiar with fishing a sinking fly line, I highly recommend making it a part of your skill set. I can't stress enough how this one addition to your fly fishing will expand your opportunities and lead to more caught fish.

Go Over To The Dark Side

It doesn't hurt to try conventional tackle fishing once in a while. Learn how to cast a spinning rod and do some fishing with it. There are things you can learn from the conventional guys, lure choices, techniques, and seeing the fishing world through their eyes, that you will be able to transfer over to your fly fishing, and will help you catch more fish. It's all knowledge and information; add as much of it to your fly fishing as you can.

Releasing a big smallmouth bass caught on a streamer looking like a jerkbait. — To fight another day. | photo by Ken Baldwin

Large Streamers, Large Smallmouth Bass Tools

When targeting smallmouth with large streamers, I use a 7 or 8-weight fly rod. The two sinking lines I put on my reels are the Scientific Angler Sonar Titan 3D SINK, and the Airflo SNIPER 4 SEASON RIDGE 2.0.

Go out there and chase some smallies. When one smashes your streamer after the pause, you will be hooked....literally and figuratively. KB