popping for bass

Hi Folks, Spent a really nice evening with a long time repeat guest guiding smallmouth bass from my canoe.  We visited one of my secret little smallmouth ponds that is off the beaten path.  Surface temperature was 75 degrees and water was pretty darn clear.  You could see the bottom in 10' of water.  A slight breeze initially ruffled the water's surface, but then things laid down for nice calm conditions for surface fishing.  We had 20 smallmouth come to the fly last night.  Pretty aggressive feeding off the surface.  There were a fair number of #22 male flying ants on the surface of the water, but I do not think a 3lb smallmouth is going to expend too much energy eating such a small morsel of food off the top.  We cast a #4 chartruse snook slider fly for most of the night and at dark switched to a #6 black and yellow popper.  I am not so sure the fly change made a difference as the fish were on.  We worked rock piles, points, and fallen timber over rocky bottom shoreline areas.  Most of the fish were holding off the first drop off from shore.  We did not land a lot of the fish who came to the fly.  Sometimes in fishing you get psyched out and can't get the hook set after missing a few.  The hardest part of  fly fishing is getting the fish to eat the fly, not hooking and landing them.  My guest is a  fine fly angler and it just was not his night for landing fish.  The strikes all came from the time the fly hit the water to the first 10' from where it landed.  Letting the fly sit for a bit after it landed was important and working the popper aggressively triggered responses from the smallies.  Hook setting with a 15lb tippet must be aggressive.  No trout sets as we are not using 6x tippet.  Well, off to do it again today.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy