Bass and dragonflies

[nboucher]

I was out yesterday literally in the middle of blue-sky day throwing a horny toad at a big batch of white waterlilies to see what might come up. I caught one small LMB, but as I was fishing, three or four explosions happened in other parts of the lily pads bed; one bug guy jumped so high I could see his nice fat profile. As I wondered what they were feeding on, I noticed an abundance of big dragonflies flying around above the vegetation. I'm guessing the bass were jumping after them as they buzzed and landed. Which made me think a small Senko moved slowly around the pads might work. It didn't.

Anyone else see bass feed on dragonflies? If so, what bait might best imitate that?

[Raul]

Poppers and prop topwaters work very well when there 's an abundance of dragonflies. BTW, don 't waste your money on those dragonfly lures like River 's 2 Sea dragonfly, they are JUNK in all the extent of the word.

[fishingrulz]

YES! We have those beastly lookin dragonflies up here. I caught a bass and looked in his mouth and i see and wing so i grab the pliers and start pulling it out....and pulling it out. The thing was huge! I didn't know they could get that big. It was probably 4 or five inches from tip of the tail to tip of the head. I saw the same thing you did with the dragon flies. First thing I thought of was a senko like yourself. Except Wacky rig it instead of Texas weightless. See how that works.

[jtbassman]

Dragonfly fly maybe?

[RandySBreth]

I flyfish some weedy little lakes and ponds, and bass will eat the "insect helicopters" whenever they are active. I use normal poppers, not dragonfly imitations. On regular tackle, small poppers (like the small Pop-R) w/dressed rear trebles work well. Work with very small constant twitches to make little "rings" like it is stunned, but still trying to move instead of popping it.

The usual bank sitters get a good show between me using the fly rod, flippin stick and frog rod, probably looks like I can't make up my mind. I can't. ;D

[Shakes]

Your solution is here my friend...

http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catalog.TextId?hvarTextId=61656&hvarTarget=search&cmCat=SearchResults

[Lane]

Bass LOVE Dragonflies!!!!!!!  I was visiting Doug Hannon (The Bass Professor) a few

years ago, and watched the BIG bass in his pond HAMMER one dragonfly after another.

It was a sight to see!!!!!  This is the time of year for dragonflies and grasshoppers!

GO FOR IT!!!!!!!!

[Guest bigtex]

Bass just love dragonflies.  When I see bass smashing these creatures I will tie on a Smithwick Devil Horse.  That always seems to do the job.  

[CrazedL.IFisherman]

that link basssnacther added, does anyone know what type of hooks those are, because i have those dragonflies already just without the hook, you can find them on ebay very easily

[Randall]

Take a watermelon zoom vibra craw and rig it weightless on a hook and fish it like a horny toad. Works for me almost everytime.

[ernel]

As far as bass and dragonflys go, I look forward to the end of May through the first two weeks of June here at home every year.  Reason being is that it is the time of year that the Dragonflys are in full force here. Not just early morning or late afternoon, but all day long. You can catch some really big bass on top all day long.

The bass in my avatar is one of the bass I am refferring to. She came out of 18" of water on a bright sunny day around 2:00PM. (Memorial Day 05) I found that the Strike King 3x floating lizards work very well with 10-12lb mono and a 2/0 hook. (3/0 hooks or flourocarbon pull the lure to far down and doesn't work as well.) You can cut off the head or legs to get the right size if you need to.  If too much is cut off, then you will need to go down to a 1/0 or smaller hook. The only draw back is the set-up is so lite, you can not get great distance on the cast. You have to keep a low profile when fishing from shore, and be very quiet while in a boat.

I normally will let the lure hit the water let it sit for a few seconds and then twitch it once. If no takers, then I will make the lure hop out of the water landing 6-8 feet away from the first spot. I do not drag the lure across the surface, because I have seen too many bass completly ignore the lure as it swims through the water. I have thrown back to those same bass landing the lure just inches from thier heads and they will crush it. Most of my bites happen within just a few seconds of the lure hitting the water. A few have even come as the lure was moving a few inches above the water.

[nboucher]

I was just looking at my baby brush hogs. They're about the right length and they're slim like a dragonfly. Do you all think they might work?

[Raul]

Gee man I don 't know  , never fished with a sinking bait when dragonlies are fluttering all over the lake, always fished with top water cranks.

[Guest the_muddy_man]

Hey Norman I tries this recently on a Dragon Fly Filled Pond

 I took the Ribbon Tail and about 2 inches off a 10" ribbontail worm and used a light spiining Trig (Weightless) . I cast it in and around the Lilly Pads and rocks where I saw bass clobberin em. ANOTHER IDEA GONE AWRYI kept at it for 2 hours till my arm hurt( I WAS CONVINCED THIS WAS THE IDEA OF THE CENTURY)  NOT ONE BITE  oh well it was wiorth a try  

[nboucher]

Raul, I was thinking about dragging those baby brush hogs along the tops of the lily pads and not letting them sink at all. These pads are thick; I can only get my kayak partway into them.

If I didn't have so much darn work to do, I'd be out trying it now, hopefully not with the same results you had with your ribbontails, Dominick. . .

[GAMEOVER]

When you see Dragonflys your best bet is to throw a Torpedo out imo, it makes a buzzing noise that bass go crazy for, you can also catch and use them for live bait, they 100% without a doubt work.