The White Bomber

The White Miller fly is sometimes just known as the White fly.  My White Bomber fly is designed to represent a supersized adult stage of the mayfly Ephoron leukon that commonly hatches in our North East Rivers and streams and the Ephoron Album (in the Mid-Western rivers) from mid-July to early September.   On the North Branch and Main Stem Susquehanna River this hatch gets to blizzard like proportions.  It can mean some of the most unforgettable topwater fly fishing of the entire year for big smallmouth bass.  It is truly exciting to see the 'take' when using this fly. 

This nightly White Fly hatch was in blizzard-like conditions last year.

The white fly hatch is also a little... well.... unique. What makes it unique is that it will start down stream initially, and every day work it's way up river. The trick is being on the water in the right spot at the right time to catch the hatch. And I do mean HATCH. I would say that of all the hatches I've experienced, the white fly hatch - when I get it right - is truly a "blanket" or "blizzard" hatch. It can be awe inspiring.  It can get so thick that it reminds me of snow blizzard being blown in a cross wind in front of your face.

The timing of the White Fly or 'Miller hatch' can be altered by temperature and water flows, so time of the hatch can fluctuate two to three weeks around the middle of July and last until mid-September.  My larger White Bomber Fly is a nice break for the fly fisherman who has been fishing all the small hatches of summer.  The runs and slack eddies get covered with these abundant flies and all species of river fish go bonkers at this moving, fluttering buffet of flies.  Amongst this half inch thick carpet of dying spinners there were these moving wakes of gulping and bubbling swirls. It's an awesome sight to see, I remember seeing a pod of about a dozen or so gigantic Channel Catfish, carp, and fallfish cruising in a zigzagging motion gulping as many dying White Flies as possible. Nature's own little vaccum cleaners!  But as much as I like catching those "rough fish", I really liked all the topwater smallmouth bass action a little bit more!!  

This fly is a little expensive, I'll admit that.  However, the skills and the time it takes to tie one is vast.  I have to select the proper hair, spin and flair the hair, steam the fly over the tea kettle, then trim and shape the deer hair before palmering the hackle.  This fly is very time consuming...  but worth the price.  When the Miller flies hatch, this IS the fly that gets the BIG FISH. 























You have to try one of these White Bombers....  it's incredible fishing!

That is why when fishing the White Bomber, one must add a little movement to the fly if the water is covered with naturals. The thought being is to impart motion to the fly during the heaviest portion of the fall so as to make you fly stand out from the rest.  The White Bomber's design is for 'skittering' across the topwater.  Normally, these naturals hatch from a size #10 to #12 but often I choose to go bigger in a size #8 since one size larger than naturals seems to get more attention.  I tend to go after the big fish and they are always looking for something big to eat. The waters boil with rises and if the flyfisherman is using a smaller dry fly your pattern can get lost in the shuffle since there are so many spent flies on the water.  This larger size gives the fish a larger target and they single out this fly instead of concentrating on the smaller naturals floating in the current seams.

I’ve used this larger sized 'waking' or 'skittering' topwater fly during the hatch with tremendous success. You’ll swear to God you’re seeing fallfish or chubs eating the mayfly until you hook up and realize that it's a trophy smallmouth bass chomping down on the Bomber.  When all hell breaks loose you’ll know you’re in fly fishing heaven! Don’t be surprised if you hook an occasional walleye, sucker, rock bass or other river critter gettin’ in on the goodies. 
























I love fishing this hatch!  The fish just gorge themselves under the cover of darkness.

I do find however the better productive method of fishing this fly is the more traditional method, select a small piece of the pie in an area of three to five feet of water you wish to fish, cast it slightly upstream stop it when it's on target and about ten to twenty feet in the air and let it flutter and drop softly to the water, rather than just banging or slapping down on the water, allow a free drift for about 3-5 feet only, you don't always want to give these selective fish to much time to look it over, gently 'skitter' it a few inches towards you. Pause.  Repeat the skitter and pause once again.  When it's time to re-cast the Bomber, lift it out of the water by raising your rod to lift most of the line then give your wrist a good snap upwards lifting the bomber out of the water rather than a big slurpppppppp. 
 
But it's not just when the Miller's hatch or when fishing in the evening... I use this fly year round instead of commerical poppers.  Whenever bass start to "look up" these White Bombers get them to strike!

The White Bomber is NOT just a topwater smallmouth bass fly...  Oh No!  It's a deadly fly for Steelhead and Salmon.  Originally this pattern was developed in the 1960's for Atlantic Salmon fishing on New Brunswick's Miramichi River and were popularized by the Reverend Elmer Smith.  Since their creation they have become one of the most popular and successful Salmon & Steelhead flies of all time. In Fishing Atlantic Salmon author Joseph D. Bates, Jr., claims this dry fly for salmon, "is one of my favorites because it is showy, unusual, hard to sink, and very productive."