I am planning a trip to Crab Lake on June 2nd with my father. we are going to try and catch a few smallies on the fly. We are frequent largemouth and panfish fly fisherman but primarily stick to poppers. I am looking to identify some fly to purchase and specific colors to look for. Any help you might be able to offer would be greatly appreciated!

All of the flies you already have for largemouth and gills will work for smallies. Maybe make sure you have some clousers & deceivers if you don't already have any and you'll be set. After that, bring whatever patterns you prefer to fish with. Also some 30-40lb fluorocarbon for leaders as you'll probably get into some pike when fishing for smallies.

Moonman.

I did that same trip last year. We went I think a week later than you and were a couple of days ahead of the big spawn! But who know this year with the early ice out you might be right on time!

There is an awesom sand/gravel bed right off the portage from Burntside. We did very well in that bay, catching many nice smallies in that area.

We also did a day trip up to Coxey Pond. I had heard lots of great things about the bass fishing there. I was a bit disappointed as I expected it to be a little better than it was, but like I say the water temp was just a little cool for the ideal spawning temperature. So a day trip up there might be worth the trip. There was some nice gravel / boulder areas that would be ideal for spawning smallies.

My buddy is a nymph fisher and I am a top water guy. He definately did better than I did in the deeper water areas where the fish were staging just off the spawning beds. But when we hit areas that held spawning smallies I outfished him. So with that being said I would bring both top water flies and some nymphs as well.

Have a great trip.

Thanks for the response. I am trying to load up on flies before I head up there. Was your top waters success mostly on poppers? Do you know what types of nymphs he was using. I am also curious about colors. We are normally fishing muddy ponds for largemouth, using a lot of frog colored poppers. I am not sure that same color combination would work as well up there. Thanks again for the tips. Really helpful!

Thank you for your response. Do you have color suggestions for Clousers and deceivers. Also do you have any fly suggestions for Pike. Thanks again

I like perch colors generally, and then of course, natural/white belly with dark (olive/brown/black) backs for clear water, whitish belly chartreuse/orange/yellow back for stained water.

For pike, anything will work really. I like rabbit strip flies, lots of movement and durable. Yellow/red, yellow/white, red/white, all black are good combos. Pike usually are not too fussy. The big pike will be mostly gone from the shallows in June this year so those same colors on sinking or diving patterns worked on the deep weed line should produce. Small pike will be everywhere in the shallows and will hit anything.

Moonman.

As far as colors of Clousers go I will be taking chartreuse, brown, grey and blue. I have about four of each in two sizes. For Deceivers I am taking red, blue green and yellow. They all have a white belly and a long peacock feather on the top.

Do you all think that it will be worth bringing wadders along the first week of june this year? What do you all normally do for footware? I have full neoprene stocking foot waders but I wonder if that is a little excessive? would it be worth investing in a breathable hip wader?

I would not take waders. Much easier to fish from the canoe.

For poppers, take a range of subtleness. Largemouth poppers tend to be bulls in the China shop. I like Clouser Crippled Minnows which can be fished loudly or just twiched with good action.

I rarely use black but like to have one. More often I use white, red/white, natural tan.

Todd's Wiggle Minnow is not much fun to cast but sometimes works magic.

You will not need weed guards. I usually cut them off if present.

I usually take a subsurface fly that can twitch or walk the dog and use intermediate line. My friend like flies like Roadkill or some of Murray's flies to go deeper.

I used to use heavy flouro for leaders but switched to Surflon 13 pound test Micro Supreme wire tippet which is finer and ties knots better than heavy fluoro. Also, the fluoro can be too thick to pass through the eye of some bass hooks. In any case, it is helpful to use a loop knot for good action.

I have not heard of anyone bringing waders but you could. I would think they would be bulky and too much weight. I think most people fish out of a canoe or from shore. Thats what I plan to do.