Bass on the fly
 

I do a bit of bass fishing in bc in the summers and I usually use tubes and worms. What do you guys like to use when it come to the fly rod? Any tips or tricks? One of the summer goals this year is to land one with the 6 weight.

Would imagine it would be the same as walleye.... Sinking line, black woolly bugger or variant. Stripped along structure.

If they're in shallow popping frogs along the lily pads would be fun.

Caught lots of bass on the fly both large and smallmouth.

Woolly buggers #2 or larger black, reddish brown, chartreuse/black, and blue/black. Small barbell eyes and a weed guard.

leach patterns, zonkers, and crayfish patterns work well

Dries frog, mouse, big hopper and big stimulater patterns work

Most of the time I run a dry line but will run a sinking in deep water. For the most part I catch bass in 2-10ft of water.

Focus on structure they are big time ambush predators. Weeds, docks, wood, rocks or anything out side of the norm. If you are not getting hung up or pulling weeds off your line from time to time you want to get closer to the structure.

They can be leader shy 6-9ft leader and 8-10lb because of getting hung up or if you need to pull a large bass out of the weeds. Fluorocarbon leaders is what I run.

Did a bit of flying for smallies a couple of years ago, out East. Microleech patterns worked great. Caught lots. But one evening, there was a hatch of HUGE mayflies. These things were enormous, with orange-ish bodies, and the bass were slurping them up. So I tied on a #2 stimulator. Second cast, the water around it just boiled, as it disappeared into the mouth of a 3-lb bass. Just saying, the hatch can be as important for bass as it is for trout.

I believe they are hexagina mayflies and they are big. Way bigger then brown and green drakes.

Yep 2"+ found in big slow moving rivers with a mud bottom. Ime the nymph is the killer. the dry adults get less attention. Big water moving flys catch bass. decivers, clousers, 2-3" minimum.

Here are a couple of bugs that I have used with success.

The top bug is is made using beach shoes glued onto popper hooks. It has rubber legs, marabou tail and a hackle. The weed guard is not clear but is installed using Mason Hard monofilament # 20 lb.
[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/DonAndersen/media/Flys/popper-black-grey1aw.jpg.html]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...ck-grey1aw.jpg[/URL


The bug below has a beach shoe piece within the front head which causes the slider to just sink slightly.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6.../slider3aw.jpg


Both of these bugs have caught hundreds of bass in BC. I fished them using a straight 15 lb. test leader of 8', a 9 1/2' rod and a 8 wt. line.

Regards,



Don