[BrookieRookie]

Hey guys, my birthday is the 10th and I have a good feeling that my wife is getting me a really basic, basic 7 weight fly rod set up from beans (quest). We are pretty tight on the budget so that was a suggestion I gave a long way back. The thing is, I've done TONS of spin-fishing for largemeouth/smallmouth, but no fly fishing. Most of the patterns we talk about on here are more suited for trout and salmon. I may be jumping the gun a bit since I haven't actually even gotten the rod yet, but do you guys have any good sources for good bass patterns/plugs? Or even bass techniques on the fly? Do you use the same streamers for trout and bass, just different sizes? I am really getting ahead of myself, but thats what happens when the scent of a new rod is in the air....

[Pat Z.]

I use a lot of the same patterns for trout/bass. basic bunny flies (zonker strip tail, crosscut palmered body, maybe rubber legs). Sometimes I'll tie them with a spun deerhair head (leave the collar long, razor cut the head a la Zoo Cougar). a mix of weighted and unweighted, a few tied to ride hook up in common crawdad patterns, and a handful of gurglers in white, black, blue, and yellow should cover the bases. I mean, we are talking bass.

[Pat Z.]

Oh, and ps...

PM me or email me your address and I've got a 7 weight Scientific anglers quad-tip line with your name on it. Free.

[SmellTheGlove]

I don't do a ton of bass fishing with a fly rod (usually only a few times a year), but I've had plenty of good results using black leeches, clousers and various buggers. Whenever I've fished the St. George, I always seem to at least get one SMB on an olive bugger dead drifting/twitching through deeper pools.

[SJDickey]

I haven't targeted bass often on purpose but have caught many on dark colored leaches and buggers. Good luck!

[jimbob]

I grew up fishing bass on the Penobscot River. Everyday I fished and fished and actually struggled a little in my youth catching them consistently with a fly rod. What I mean by that is...when I threw live bait out on the river (20 plus years ago) it was a fish on every cast all day long. I wanted a fly that fished that well, especially after the state changed the regs. many moons ago to A.L.O.. Deer hair poppers were fun only when the fish were active. Other poppers work well and are fun to fish. But, again during the toughest times, Bass were finicky on the river. That is,,compared to live bait. Long story short, After digging in the muck and mire for a long time. I came up with this fly (25 years ago or so). It is the equivalent of live bait,, at least on the Penobscot river. Bass go nuts right into november over this fly. It will out fish any fly on the Penoby. I am that confident in it. It consistently out fishes buggers 10 to 1.. 6- 3x hook--big burned mono eyes on each side of the shank near eye,, olive marabou tail half the length of the hook shank,, light olive dubbed body with a gold or copper rib, olive deer hairlegs on each side..,one piece of olive mallard tied flat over the top behind the eyes to the base of the tail. Then, tie in a piece of green mallard behind the eyes,,, olive dubbing around the eyes and split the eyes by pulling the mallard that was tied in,,, over the hook eye. tie it off. scuff out the dubbing on bottom. I give this secret up because I just don't fish the river much anymore.. I play ocasionally, but there are enough fish for everyone.. I have no name for it,, I guess I just call it "JImbob"

[Kevin McKay]

black Chernobyl ants work well dead drift

[Bill Blake]

I like to use a Tapp's bug for largemouth in still water (I'm down in Texas). According to the its creators son, the fly also works quite well on Smallmouth in still water in Maine, if I recall correctly it was actually developed for fishing in Maine. The fly is basically a stupidly simple deer hair bass popper, a lot of people who don't recognize the name would probably recognize the fly.

[Mainiac]

Deer hair poppers,assorted clousers and shiny bait imitations all work.

[Water Rat]

jimbob, on 08 February 2010 - 04:12 PM, said:

6- 3x hook--big burned mono eyes on each side of the shank near eye,, olive marabou tail half the length of the hook shank,, light olive dubbed body with a gold or copper rib, olive deer hairlegs on each side..,one piece of olive mallard tied flat over the top behind the eyes to the base of the tail. Then, tie in a piece of green mallard behind the eyes,,, olive dubbing around the eyes and split the eyes by pulling the mallard that was tied in,,, over the hook eye. tie it off. scuff out the dubbing on bottom. I give this secret up because I just don't fish the river much anymore.. I play ocasionally, but there are enough fish for everyone.. I have no name for it,, I guess I just call it "JImbob"

Picture? Sounds similar to a dragonfly nymph

[macflyfish]

Try gurglers and sneaky peats. Several different foam fly patterns work.

[PFFlyer]

so this guide told me, 'peter, they are bass, dumb as a nail, they will eat anything, almost'. he is pretty right, my flys are not show stuff, and I have lipped a couple pig a/bass. go for it.

[Richter]

If you don't get the rod I have a 7 weight I could send you...

Poppers at dawn and dusk, otherwise a... oh boy I'm drawing a blank on the name of the pattern! What's the diving fly called with a spun deer hair head and feather/bucktail/rabbit/whatever tail? It dives and pops back up... Argh I've been tying them for years and can't think of it!

[mac]

Water Rat, on 09 February 2010 - 07:05 PM, said:

Picture? Sounds similar to a dragonfly nymph

Water Rat, do you have a recipe for a dragonfly nymph? I have searched the internet and can find photos and lists of materials but no tying directions and it looks like a fairly complicated fly. I want to tie some for still water fishing this year.

[jimbob]

It is my version of a D.F.N. Most D.F.N patterns resemble the real thing but lack movement. The olive mallard provides the siloette. The marabou tail provides the movement.. The eyes are def. the super trigger.. Use it without the eyes and you catch fish however, not like fishing live bait. That is the motivation. Fishing the Penobscot? I am not kidding.. I have used it in many colors, olive is the best.. Jimbob

[Water Rat]

Here it is Mac:



Hook: Size 6 Nymph Hook
Thread: Olive Dun
Tail: Olive Marabou
Abdomen: Olive Marabou (butt ends from tail, twisted and wrapped forward)
Rib: Red Wire
Thorax: Ice Dub
Wing Case: Peacock Tail Fibers
Legs: Peacock Tail Fibers
Eyes: Burnt Mono

The legs sort of fan out, hard to see it in the picture. I pulled this out of the fly box, certainly not a presentation tie

I have not had the same stellar success that jimbob has had, but his fly is significantly different than mine - I may give it a try. There is also a floating dragon fly nymph with a spun deer hair body that I intend to try this year. And yes, I leave the barbs on for bass flies, I find it hard enough to keep a 5 pounder on...

[joela]

I've been chasing smallmouth for a lot of years with a fly rod, and, in my opinion, you have to change your tactics considerably from trout fishing to consistently catch larger fish. For example, conventional trout and salmon streamer techniques will ctach you a ton of 8-10" bass, but few really big fish.

Fish slow and fish deep! The big sows don't like too work very hard for their lunch and don't waste much energy. Think heavily weighted flies bounced along the bottom; think upstream nymphing type presentations with a little rod tip action mixed in to animate the fly. Think flies like Clouser Deep Minnows, Shenk's White Streamer, Whitlock's Near'Nuff Crayfish, and Murray's Hellgrammite. You CANNOT fish these flies too slow! Watch that leader for strikes you might otherwise miss, especially when river fishing. If you wait until you feel the fish strike, you are missing the majority of fish.

Top water will work for big bass on occassion, especially during low light conditions, but again, fish them very deliberately. I like a size 4 Whitlock Floating Marabou Muddler for the task.

Richter: I believe you are referring to the Dahlberg Diver.

joel

[Water Rat]

On still water I do more with poppers and terrestrials (hopper flies, flying ants, crickets, chernobyl ants, etc...) Rubber legs on everything. You can probably catch more subsurface, but you can't beat surface hits of large bass on a pond. I'll take a 2 fold reduction in hits to catch what I do catch on the surface.

And by the time that the river and stream temps have climbed enough that I switch to bass, it is right in the middle of hopper season.

[Kevin McKay]

Joel, good advice

[PFFlyer]

thanks joel a good reminder, slow it down