anyone tried Fly Fishing for Bass?

[fishingkidPA]

i know alot of people fly fish for trout but it also seems popular for bass. i think it would be really neat and interesting way to fish, anybody hear ever done it or consider trying it?

[MrWrinkle]

It's very popular -- I've seen several folks on here talking about it.  I've done it a lot, too.  You tend to pick up smaller bass, but I've had some very large smallmouth in particular using bass bugs.  It's fantastic fun fighting a 2lbs smallie on a light fly rod!

[oteymc]

I never have, but looks fun!

[NateFollmer]

I do and a lot of other people do too

For trout, I usually use a tapered leader (goes from 7 lb test to 4lb.) and then I use a 3 foot piece of 3lb test (they call it tippet). You use that so you don't have to keep replacing leaders.

For bass, I just tie a 6lb. piece of mono onto my fly line and don't worry about the leader. I use pretty much the same lures for bass or trout (wooly buggers, crawfish, etc...) They will even hit the bigger dry flies (size 8 and bigger). Poppers are really fun to throw for bass on a fly rod, once you catch a smallie on a fly rod, you'll be hooked for life. A fight with anything on a fly rod is like fighting a monster

[J Francho]

This fish, caught by my friend Tina on a fly. Tina ties her own, and her results are amazing.  She's pretty much dedicated to the fly, though throws a frog when the time is right.

[NateFollmer]

That's a nice one! She should tie a frog pattern, mice pattern's seem to work well, I'm sure she could create some kind of frog with foam?

[Shane J]

Never have, but I have a friend that swears it's the most fun you can have catching a bass. He uses mostly tiny poppers.

[webertime]

If you Flyfish for Smallmouths do yourself a favor and get some "Barr's Meat Whistle" flies.  They are the best/durable/consitant fly I have ever used.  Besides it has the best name of any fly/lure, ever.

Here's one of my brother's clients.  4.5lbs on a Meat Whistle.

[NateFollmer]

I have seen some VERY odd names for flies, but Meat Whistle wins...

If you want to get into this, try and get your hands on some rods before you commit. I personally use a pretty long, stiff rod (yeah, laugh it up) even on tiny creeks. Everyone else I fly fish with likes the shorter, faster action rods. Don't be intimidated by all the different lines and flies though. Get yourself a decent rod, some backing line, floating forward weighted line (make sure it gets on the reel the correct way ), a leader and some tippet (or just run a piece of mono for bass) and a hand full of poppers, wooly buggers and streamers and you'll be set

[fishingkidPA]

If you Flyfish for Smallmouths do yourself a favor and get some "Barr's Meat Whistle" flies. They are the best/durable/consitant fly I have ever used. Besides it has the best name of any fly/lure, ever.

Here's one of my brother's clients. 4.5lbs on a Meat Whistle.

i wanna catch smallies like that!!!

[islandbass]

There is a part of me that wants to try, beckoning me from time to time. But I am very afraid to try it for fear that I will be even more hooked on fishing than I already am and I need a need baitmonkey like a hole in my head. ;D

Fly fishing seems awesome to me and talk about ultra stealth. My other fear is that my regular gear might become glorified dust collectors as a result. ;D

[I.rar]

ive always wanted to learn to fly fish but all those choices of lines , flies , rods , leaders , tippets etc seem overwhelming to me. i almost picked one of those fly rod combos (pflueger or fenwick) but decided not to. would one of those be OK to start out with , or would you be better off with something else..?

sorry to thread jack OP.

[NateFollmer]

sphertz I got the Pflueger combo from Dicks ($49.99 i think?) It's decent for the price. It's one of those things that if you use it and never used anything else, it works great, but if you get your hands on a Sage or a GLoomis, you'll wish you had one of those

The only things I hated about the Pflueger was the tippet and leader it came with. I ended up buying some Cortland leaders and a spool of 3 lb. flouro seaguar for my tippet. The flies it comes with are kind of cheaply made too, the wooly bugger in the pack is decent, but the rest of them fell apart after 2 or 3 trout...

Ranting here, but that Pflueger makes an awesome river fly rod. I've caught carp on it with no issues either. Just get some wax or something to rub on the rod sections. Before I did that, it would fly apart after about an hour of casting. I put some wax on the ends and it's to the point now that I can't even get it apart with a struggle.

Get that to start, then you can buy the more expensive or specialized set ups once you know you'll stick with it... but you will

[I.rar]

cool , thanks. 

[BrianSnat]

I used to do some bass buggin' with my fly rod.  My problem was that I would try to set the hook as if I was using my spinning rod and broke off a lot of expensive bass bugs.

Haven't done it in years, but I may give it another shot one day.

[SoFlaBassAddict]

I mainly use my fly rods offshore. I've used my smaller rods for bass fishing though. Pretty fun. I've mostly used small poppers, Clouser Minnows, and Deceivers for bass. Great fun. Even more fun when a Peacock nails one.  I go through a bunch of minnows and deceivers, they're very easy to tie.  Great flies for a wide range of gamefish.

[BASSclary]

I've tried, but im not all that good at it 

[Bassn Blvd]

Absolutely!  You'll probably catch more on a flyrod than your partner using conventional, as long as you have access to the bank.

[webertime]

My Bass set up is a 25 year old 8 ft 6 wt. Orvis Green Mountain (IM6), it was an entry level rig even back then. It has 7wt. Cortland weight forward line. I really don't think you need to go much heavier than that. If you are fishing heavier cover there probably isn't all that much room to get a good cast anyway so you are better off with standard gear. I like a shorter rod for that reason.

More unsolicited tips:

If you are trying to cast like you see in A River Runs Through It... please stop... Fish have eyes on the top of their head for a reason, most of their predators come in from above. So if they see some ballet-dancer having some sort of seizure above them they'll be a bit spooked.

When casting a fly rod try to keep the rod tip moving forward and backward in a horizontal line. You don't want the tip to move in an arc.

Practice your casting without a fly, concentrate on landing the line softly. If it lands gently, your fly will too. If your line slaps the water, who cares what your fly does because you just scared the poop out of the fish.

Keep your elbow at your side. Don't let it flare up/out.

Get the Orvis Guide to Flyfishing by Tom Rosenbauer, it's cheap and worth it's weight in gold.

[NateFollmer]

Good advice weber! Another thing I was doing wrong was how I was moving the rod during the cast. You have to keep a rhythm almost, forward and backward should take the same amount of time. You also want to keep your arm up fairly high (you will think you look like a goof, but you don't).

Remember that your casting the line, not the fly. I actually find it harder to cast the heavier my flies and weights get (especially when you start running multiple nymphs and split shots ha)

Bassclary I didn't realize that was you... Freakin' kids and their pictures changing all the time

[Missouribassman95]

I've gone fly fishing for bass before, I actually ended up catching a huge bluegil.

[bass or bass ?]

I love fly casting. My arsenal of rods on my boat consists of 3 baitcast, 3 spinning, and 1 fly cast.

If you are considering fly casting, do yourself a huge favor and order the instructional DVD "Basic Fly Casting" by Doug Swisher from Scientific Anglers at the Bass Pro Shops online catalog. This DVD made learning fly casting a non painful and fun experience for me. I highly recommend it.

[RandySBreth]

I love using fly gear for Bass. You just have to know the right time and place. For Smallmouth in rivers, and anytime the are hitting topwater I'll usually be using one of my fly rods.

When people ask about what kind of frog to throw for big bass, my answer is usually this:

[Dave P]

Oh yes...All the time!

[oteymc]

Holy smokes, I can't imagine catching that on a fly reel.