They are arguably one of the toughest-fighting fish in fresh water, making numerous jumps when hooked, and using their broad bodies and stamina for stubborn, rod-bending finishes. Smallies eat flies across a wide range of water temperatures, and they feed from the bottom to the top. Smallmouth have an ever-increasing fan base among fly fishers and it would be hard to design a better fly-rod fish. Smallmouth are the most widely distributed and accessible of all Great Lakes gamefish. Sounds intimidating, right? But despite the overall large size, there are wadable flats where you can park your car, walk into the cool, clear waters, and come eye-to-eye with hard-hitting smallmouth flats bass. These ocean-size bodies of water contain 20 percent of the fresh water on earth and have a combined shoreline of around 11,000 miles. The Great Lakes are at the doorstep of millions of people, and while fly fishers crowd themselves onto the tributary streams during the height of steelhead and salmon runs, the lakes themselves have been largely ignored by fly fishers. Flats fishing is just now catching fire in fresh water -perhaps the perception has been that there are not enough extensive, freshwater shallows to warrant the attention of fly fishers. When most people think of flats fishing they think of saltwater fishing for species like tarpon, bonefish, and permit. The anticipation and suspense prior to the catch, not to mention the technical skills required to accurately present a fly when a gamefish is in a state of heightened alertness, make flats fishing a pinnacle of our sport. One of fly fishing's greatest thrills is spotting, stalking, and casting to a fish.
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