The Russian river in N California has a lot smallmouth bass which can be very agressive re taking flies.
Some of us developed a technique of using a slipping bead on the tippet which looks like a SMB ova in front of a Clouser fly or a fly that looks like a crawdad or small salmon/steelhead fry, which feed on SMB ova.
I have backed off from using this because of data which shows the male SMBs that we were catching were probably protecting the ova and small fry from predators in the river, which love the high energy which comes from the left alone SMB roe. If they leave the nest, get caught and take time to recover, the stream predators can empty the nest quickly.
Now, I try to avoid the spawning time for the SMB and later after their spawning season use Steelhead/Salmon fry flies, which they often will fight to get. Then on a fairly windless day use a top water Blue Damsel fly during the noon to 2 ish time. I use a long floating fly line and a long 15' leader with a couple of feet of tippet and do helicopter/parachute casts where the fly goes up high and floats down. If I do that cast correctly into a feeding path, it is often struck right before it hits the water or right after. For some reason, catching a SMB and landing it will drive the other SMB in that area, away or down for a minimum of 10-15 minutes.
Picture of an easy to tie Blue Damsel Fly. I use a barbless size 6 long dry fly hook:
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