Could there possibly be a better way to spend a summer evening than fishing for smallmouth bass while the cool water of one of our creeks flows around your bare legs?

This is as much fun now as it was when I was a kid. It has not been spoiled by any modern technology. About the only new items you might want are a nice pair of wading shoes.

We are fortunate to have three smallmouth bass creeks in Warren County: Conewango Creek, Brokenstraw Creek and Tionesta Creek. If you go about it right, you can find excellent smallmouth bass fishing in any of these large creeks.

All hold trout, but at some point the water temperature gets close to the upper limit of trout tolerance. For varying distances, your catch will likely be a mix of smallmouth bass and brown trout. These transition stretches can hold some of the better fishing you will ever find.

Do not expect to catch big bass in these creeks. Neither bass nor trout will likely be longer than 15 inches. You will catch more 10-inch bass that 14-inch bass. So the right approach to fishing is using ultra-light tackle. I prefer a 6-1/2-foot ultra-light rod rated to cast lures in the 1/16 ounce to 1/8 ounce range, with a matching reel spooled with 4 pound-test or 6 pound-test monofilament or fluorescent line.

Match even a 10-inch smallmouth with this gear and the fight is very entertaining.

One small, pocket-size tackle box should hold all of the lures you need. I suggest a no. 9 Rapala Minnow in standard silver/black back color pattern, a Rebel Pop-R and a Rebel Teeny Wee Craw in at least two colors and with shallow and deep lips. Also, some 1/16 ounce leadheads and several 2-1/2-inch soft plastic bodies in natural colors including black and brown.

Of course you will carry some other lures. I do. But I estimate that at least 90 percent of the smallmouth bass I have caught from creeks over the past decade were caught on either the Teeny Wee Craw or a soft plastic jig.

Finding the bass is just a matter of learning to identify smallmouth habitat. In general, the water will not be too swift, there should be some depth, at least where bottom is obscured, in the immediate vicinity, the rock bottom should be of mixed size. The tailing ends of currents at the upper ends of pools can be very good. Pay attention to any rocky rubble. Check out all deeper water.

Among my more productive fishing patterns is retrieving lures through swirling water on the downstream ends of boulders. When the water is low and clear, and there is no water in the area deeper than about 5 feet, these below rock swirls usually are worth at least one bass.

Swinging jigs in the current can be very effective. Experiment with the cross-stream casting angle to find the maximum upstream which does not result in constant snags. You should not need a jig head larger than 1/16 ounce.

In addition to snagging much too often, heavier jig heads may cause you to fish too fast. A soft plastic jig looks very lifelike, very much like something that a smallmouth bass would like to eat. Give the fish plenty of time to see the jig.

Do not try to make bottom contact with a jig. Instead, the jig should strike some level of buoyance between the current and the line. Present a jig like you might present bait in a current, like some creature being helplessly swept in the current. Nothing triggers a predator instinct more than helpless.

Tionesta Creek if the most user friendly of our creeks because the Allegheny National Forest provides considerable shoreline access..

You might find some of the greatest smallmouth bass densities in Brokenstraw Creek. Unfortunately, the amount of shoreline access has been shrinking.

Conewango Creek from Russell to Warren holds larger bass, on average, than the other two creeks. If not for the relatively short length of water, and for limited shoreline access, Conewango Creek should rank among the best smallmouth bass waterways in Pennsylvania. This is the ideal water for fishing from a kayak.

Another fine smallmouth bass waterway close enough for an evening of fishing is the Clarion River from the Johnsonburg area downstream through Cook Forest State Park. Access is quite good since it borders the Allegheny National Forest and two state parks. It is also excellent for float fishing.