Well, I finally completed my long sought journey to catch a smallmouth on the fly and what a story! This was like a movie I may send this one into a magazine! I went out on sunday am hoping to catch a trout. I wanted to go to Dukes Island but it was locked for som reason. So I was on the Raritan (North Branch, Maybe, first time there) about 7 am, cool and overcast. The river was full of trout fihermen and mostly spinning. I saw one guy gearing up and I asked him what to use he said tan nymphs were good for him. I tied on a small nymph and was off. 3 Nymphs and two bead head wooly buggers later NOTHING! NOTHING! I saw no one catch any thing for atleast an hour. Finally I was like, enough and headed up stream to a large pool I saw. After about another hour and of half of nothing I saw some activity just under the surface. Nothing to lose, I tied on the largest muddler I had. I let it sit a second stripped and suddenly my reel sang out loud! I struck back, but soon realized this was a big fish and I still had on the 3X or 4X tippet from walmart I brought for trout! I played him hard for a good 5 minutes, hand cramping, keeping pressure on but letting him run to protect the tippet that was probably 5 lb test at best. Finally I got what I thought was a spent smallmouth of ATLEAST 20" !!!!!! Yes, I said Atleast 20! My boot is 13" and it went almost 3/4 way up the fish!!!!! Yep, I said almost. I put my thumb in his lip and he went crazy! Mud and water went everywhere leaving the muddler in the suspenders of my waders. I sat on the bank disgusted for atleast 10 minutes that I didn't get a photo. My only solace was that as I was leaving the man on the opposite side nymphing for trout, same one I saw coming in, said he saw the whole thing! So I know I have atleast one witness out there somewhere! That was the biggest bass I have ever seen!!!!!!