Fly Fishing for Bass

[bostonsox2904]

Anyone get out there fly fishing for bass? It's a great complement to conventional tackle and works well in highly pressured waters. My go-to fly has been the clouser minnow, which can be swam or jigged on the bottom in shallow waters. Seems like a good technique for spawning fish while the big girls are in the shallows.

 

Feel free to share your pics of fly rod bass.

 

[Lucas Cooper]

I really want to learn how to fly fish. It looks like a fun different way to fish. What power rod do you have and what starting reels would be good?

[bostonsox2904]

I've been using a 7wt outfit - 7'11" St Croix Mojo Bass rod. It's much more manageable than the standard 9ft rod, and it has enough backbone to wrestle bass out of the florida weeds.

 

Fighting any fish on a fly rod is a blast. I definitely recommend taking the plunge!

[Mobasser]

I sometimes fly fish some ponds near my home. Mostly popping bugs. I use an old Hendon 8wt. As said,great fun and very effective. All bass feel bigger on a fly rod. Love it

[Graham]

Just received an L.L. Bean Quest II in 8wt, excited to get the hang of it, played with it in the yard and the learning curve was not as steep as I had imagined. 

 

Anyways nice fish  and thanks for the post!

[Abby]

Smallies are a blast on a fly rod. I have only caught them in the rivers and stripping streamers is loads of fun. Limited fishing for bass as I usually by accident catch a few on popping bugs or spiders for bluegills. I did catch a pretty nice one a few years ago stripping streamers for Muskies in a local lake.

[BuzzHudson19c]

I have never targeted anything but bass with my fly rod. Trout are lame.

 

I don't do it often but a few times during summer I'll go after smallies with wooly buggers or streamers. I actually caught a decent channel cat on a dry fly last summer (my mind was blown).

[flyfisher]

I do it all the time.  It is a lot of fun but it is also limited unless you like chucking sinking lines when you get past about 10' deep.  Not my favorite thing to do.  

I like nothing more than fishing a lilly pad field with a fly rod and bunch of frogs or divers.  It is more of a finesse style of fishing in the slop than the fish are used to seeing and it results in some good fish.  

[thinkingredneck]

Any rod 7 to 9 wt will do.  For LMB I use an 8 wt.  Top water, shallow divers or streamers.  I only use it around cover in fairly shallow water.  I recommend a furled leader from Feather Craft to help turn over big, wind resistant bugs.  Lots of fun.

[snake95]

Really interesting post. 

 

A friend took my 9 y.o. son smallmouth fishing with streamers in a shallow river in Canada last fall, and he did great.  

 

I had never fly fished and was surprised at how quickly he took to fly casting.

 

I bought him a 6 wt combo to try fly fishing here in Georgia largemouth country, but maybe I went too light...

 

We have not had a chance to try it out down in GA yet.

[bostonsox2904]

7 hours ago, snake95 said:

Really interesting post. 

 

A friend took my 9 y.o. son smallmouth fishing with streamers in a shallow river in Canada last fall, and he did great.  

 

I had never fly fished and was surprised at how quickly he took to fly casting.

 

I bought him a 6 wt combo to try fly fishing here in Georgia largemouth country, but maybe I went too light...

 

We have not had a chance to try it out down in GA yet.

I feel like people get intimidated by fly fishing before ever picking up a rod. A couple days of practice and anyone can cast 25 yards. I think 6wt is a great choice. Might be a little light for fishing around weeds, but it should get the job done. Get out there while the fish are in the prespawn / spawning phases. Should make for some great fly fishing!

7 hours ago, thinkingredneck said:

Any rod 7 to 9 wt will do.  For LMB I use an 8 wt.  Top water, shallow divers or streamers.  I only use it around cover in fairly shallow water.  I recommend a furled leader from Feather Craft to help turn over big, wind resistant bugs.  Lots of fun.

I see you're in Central MS. The fish in my profile pic is from Calling Panther. Junebug all day!

I'll have to check out the furled leader. I hear that polyleaders are slowly starting to replace sinking line, and could be something to look into for waters deeper than a few feet. I know Calling Panther has some deep spots so maybe conventional tackle is best, but there's some nice coves where fly fishing would be sweet.

[thinkingredneck]

Yes.  I have fished in Calling Panther and planning to go next week, weather permitting.  A 6 wt would be a little in the Ross Barnett pad fields.

[snake95]

1 hour ago, bostonsox2904 said:

I feel like people get intimidated by fly fishing before ever picking up a rod. A couple days of practice and anyone can cast 25 yards. I think 6wt is a great choice.

 

Yes, the 2 cents I can offer to this thread, and maybe help a few anglers out, my son's experience shows there is no need to be intimidated. 

 

My son had just turned 9.  He had never even held a fly rod, and had zero fly casting preparation of any type.

 

The afternoon we went out, we had a friend with fly rod experience  teach him in some basics in about 10 minutes about how to cast wet flies and streamers into a river.  About 10 minutes after that, he was reeling in smallies.

 

Sure, he was not exactly graceful and couldn't cast more than perhaps 20 yards.  More practice would help!  But he could certainly catch bass on the fly in no time.

 

And @bostonsox2904 thanks for the encouragement, we will see how he does with his new rod.