Jerry, You should try to find a stiff 3wt to throw at those smallmouth. I fish almost exclusively with my sage RPL 9' 3wt and it does wonders. The rod has a fast enough action that you can throw two large size streamers with it, yet an eight inch small mouth can feel like a goliath on the end of the rod. This rod has brought so much enjoyment to my fishing, it almost feels like a new sport.
I will have to pick a bone with you on your "bigger than trout sized wolly-buggers". I have found that people are afraid to throw large bugs at trout. My streamer box is full of wolly buggers from size 4 to 2/0 and I fish them all to trout. Some of my best streamers for trout I originally tied up for Smallmouth or Pike. Trout are voracious predators and will try and eat just about anything when it comes to streamers. For example, I caught about a 6 inch brown trout this weekend on my 4 inch bugger. I don't know how he thought he was going to swallow it! Anyway, back to the topic. Here in Montana we are lucky to have mainly wild trout in our streams, and the stream access law is probably the best in the nation. The closest thing we have to fishing in a barrel would be the pay-to-fish spring creeks and private ponds. I ususally do not go to these places since there are so many other places to fish. Anyway, Just thought I'd Chime in Pat Eller
