Back when my fishing equipment amounted to a ratchety South Bend bait-casting reel and a stubby True-Temper rod, I figured that the farther I tossed a plug and the faster I retrieved it, the better my chances were for catching smallmouth bass spawning along the shores of Chemo, Hatcase and Holbrook ponds. Though productive, my cast-and-crank mindset changed abruptly when I acquired a hollow-glass Phillipson fly rod, Bronson reel and a few cork-bodied bass bugs, more commonly called poppers.

Actually, casting with the fly rod wasn’t as challenging as I thought it would be, but when belligerent male bass guarding spawning beds followed a popper only to turn away, I realized I was fishing the lure too fast. Obviously, the steadily departing popper raised the interest, but not the ire, of the bass. Allowing that there was only one option, I learned forthwith that a popper fished slowly produced more strikes. For the uninitiated, the trick is to cast the lure over spawning beds showing along gravelly shorelines and let it rest. Then pop it and let it rest … then swim it and wiggle it and let it rest … then pop it again and let it rest. Try it, and be ready for a strike that may be explosive or subtle, followed by a leaping, tugging, tail-walking fight affirming that, pound for pound, the smallmouth bass is a scrapper second to none.

Tom Hennessey’s columns and artwork can be accessed at www.bangordailynews.com Tom’s e-mail address is tom@tomhennessey.com His Web site is: www.tomhennessey.com