Fly Fishing

[craww]

Don't see it get a great deal of discussion here, but how many of you guys fly fish for bass? What are your favorite techniques? Santa brought me a gift card for Christmas and I'm about to get a new outfit. I have an old hand me down st croix fiberglass rod from my grandfather Ive used to catch farm pond bluegill, but I'm going to upgrade soon (TFO BVK 7wt 9' ). I have some awesome shallow small mouth waters convenient to my home. I have other things in mind, but the thought of a brown fish inhaling a popper in the pools is quite tempting.

[NBR]

For many years I flyfished forbass almost exclusively. Not so much today but in the early to mid summer I always have a fly out fit in the boat in case of a mayfly hatch.

[0119]

You wont find that much talk on using the fly here. I use a 6wt now and dont agree with the 'experts' that a 8wt+ is needed. Ive had much more luck with streamers, e.p. minnows and glass minnows. You'll find many who use strictly the fly at warmfly and thebasspond.

[A-Jay]

I'm not a big Fly bass guy.

But each June there is a couple of Big Fly hatches here that are just too good to pass up.

It's strictly a surface bite and almost any Big Mayfly imitation will get slurped . . . . .

Mostly brown bass but there are times when the green bass are mixed in along with a few bonus walleye that inevitably end up as dinner.

A St Croix Bank Robber 7wt works for me - it has no problems delivering the bulky offerings and then pinning and landing anything in my area - at least so far.

Sometimes if it's windy I'll go up to an 8wt line.

A-Jay

[craww]

I'm not a big Fly bass guy.

But each June there is a couple of Big Fly hatches here that are just too good to pass up.

It's strictly a surface bite and almost any Big Mayfly imitation will get slurped . . . . .

Mostly brown bass but there are times when the green bass are mixed in along with a few bonus walleye that inevitably end up as dinner.

A St Croix Bank Robber 7wt works for me - it has no problems delivering the bulky offerings and then pinning and landing anything in my area - at least so far.

Sometimes if it's windy I'll go up to an 8wt line.

A-Jay

Thats great AJ! Never paid much attention to the mayfly hatch... I have a couple other insect scenarios in mind.

1. A lake I fish has one of the sickest dragonfly bites in late summer. Bass jumping out of the water by a foot and sometimes more everywhere, grabbing the things when they drop down to lay eggs. My solution has been slinging a weightless black Yamamoto Nories bug...Figure a dragonfly pattern would be a riot.

2. Late summer grasshopper bite. Alot of the ponds I frequent are killer on crickhoppers late in the year, bass,bluegill everything are eating them.

[craww]

You wont find that much talk on using the fly here. I use a 6wt now and dont agree with the 'experts' that a 8wt+ is needed. Ive had much more luck with streamers, e.p. minnows and glass minnows. You'll find many who use strictly the fly at warmfly and thebasspond.

Thanks for the heads up. Do you have much experience presenting streamer type baits in current? Figure the smallies would like them

[flyfisher]

you have a great set up in mind for smallies. I like my 7wt for smallmouth because you can throw pretty much everything. It is hard to turn down a topwater bite on a fly rod and honestly there are days that is all i will throw because they seem to hit flies more readily on top than conventional lures.

As far as techniques go i usually take three fly rods with me when i go out and plan on using the fly rod. One will have a topwater of some sort usually a popper, the second will have a streamer like an EP or the CK baitfish fly and then a bottom bouncer which last year consisted of clawdads almost exclusively and the occasional mad tom or clouser thrown in for good measure.

I have found that some of the best fish i have caught are when i dead drift the fly through likely looking spots. This applies for all areas of hte water column but i can't help myself and strip streamers in.

I also just got into flyfishing for largemouth last year and i love it but it is a little more dificult being it is flatwater. Where it does shine is in the spawn and you are hitting beds and also in lilly pads or other surface vegetation. With the fly rod you can literally plop the fly down in the pockets twitch a couple of times and if nothing hits move to the next one without having to reel in. For spawning bass i think the flies just look more natural and i caught my personal best off a bed on my fly rod after she wouldn't hit anything....measured in at 26" and fat as can be

On a river you can easily go flyfishing exclusively without problems but on flatwater i always take both fly and conventional gear with me in case there isn't a shallower bite going on.

Also as far as rods go, the old sage bass series rods are on sale pretty much everywhere and are worth every penny...i have the newer series largemouth model and am probably going to pick up a smallmouth and a bluegill model this spring.

[craww]

Man, a thick 26" Va fish is a borderline DD. I bet that was intense on a flyrod! I have the oppurtunity to fish the private section of the dominion power warm water pool (schoolie size stripers are abundant). May give them a shot with the flyrod.

Any suggestions on a line? Want to throw a mix of streamers/dry flies/poppers.

[flyfisher]

Yeah i think she was 10lbs but i don't carry a scale so all i got was a board measurement. The fight was pretty good and as i was trying to get a picture with my hands all shaking from the adrenaline she flopped out of my yak and into the drink...oh well. I plan on going back next year cause i know where she lives

I would say stick with your standard floating weight forward line. Unless you are fishing really deep or in really strong current you won't need a sinking line. I personally like the Scientific Anglers GPX lines myself but there are a lot of nice lines out there with Rio being my second favorite.

If you need to get deeper and are using a floating line there are a few things you can do. First is throw a heavier fly, second would be use a flouro leader as it sinks and third would be get a sinking tip line

[craww]

Awesome, thanks for the info its greatly appreciated!

[Bass Junkie]

Check out the Clouser minnow.

[0119]

There are also many worm and senko imitations that work well. Check in Flytyer magazine. There are even jig n pig flies.

[flyfisher]

And i know i will anger the fly fishing purists out there but i have been known to thrown Zoom tiny flukes and 4" yum dingers on my fly rod Works pretty well actually if you have a heavy enough rod to throw it without playing chuck and duck all day.

[A-Jay]

And i know i will anger the fly fishing purists out there but i have been known to thrown Zoom tiny flukes and 4" yum dingers on my fly rod Works pretty well actually if you have a heavy enough rod to throw it without playing chuck and duck all day.

LOL ~ I've played and Lost that game more times than I'm willing to admit.

A-Jay

[flyfisher]

We all have. I became pretty proficient at teh chuck and duck technique when i was a poor college student and only had 1 4wt fly rod that i used for everything from trout to bass to carp. I broke the rod probably 4 times from the weighted eyes hitting the blank and knicking it and eventually breaking it.

Hence the reason i always say a warranty on a fly rod is a huge part of the purchase because it is not if you break the rod it is when you break the rod.....