Bass Tidbit .26

Flies for fishing ?deep?.

I?m not going to get into ?picking? patterns here, nor do I really care what ?fly? you choose to fish with. You can take one ?pattern? or ?style? of fly, tie it with different weighting and materials, and use it for all of your ?deep? bass fishing if you really want to.

It?s not ?which? fly, but how a fly is constructed that is the topic here. What do you want a fly fished ?deep? to ?do? in the water. .

First and foremost, though, is one point. If you are fishing deep for bass, that means on or along the bottom, with all it?s attendant rocks, brush, stumps, sticks, old tires, sunken cars, picnic tables, and such. Bottom bouncing flies should usually be tied with the hook point UP, and often a weed guard is helpful too.

Do you want your fly to move horizontally along the bottom? Do you want your fly to lift from the bottom, then drop back? Do you want your fly to dive towards the bottom, then rise? Do you want a fly that has some built in action? One that will move or breathe in the water at rest, or that ?wiggles? when pulled?

Most of the flies we use for deep water have some kind of weight as part of their design. Lead wire wrapped around the hook shank. Beads threaded onto the hook. Lead or metal ?dumbbell? eyes tied into the fly. How much a fly is weighted, where it?s weighted, and the inherent buoyancy of the materials used in the fly all determine ?how? fast and at what ?attitude? a fly ?sinks?. How a fly sinks is important for this type of fishing. Many of the flies you?ll use for deep fishing won?t have any ?action? built into them. Their ?movements? are controlled solely by how you ?pull? on them and how they ?sink? after you stop pulling.

The ?basics? of weighting are simple. Lots of weight at the ?head? or ?eye? of the fly, and it will dive nose down quickly after you take the tension off of it. Less weight in the same place and it does the same thing, but slower. Weight in the mid portion of the fly and it sinks ?level?, again faster with more weight, slower with less. Weight at the rear of the fly, and it will sink tail down, with the same weight to speed caveat.

Sparsely dressed flies will sink faster than heavily dressed flies, due to ?drag? from water resistance. Use of absorbent versus buoyant materials gives you another area where you can exercise some control on how a fly sinks.

Some materials have a ?breathing action? in the water. These materials will ?compress? or flow back along the line of force applied to the fly while being pulled through the water, then ?relax? or ?expand? once the fly comes to rest. Marabou comes immediately to mind, as do rabbit strips, but many natural and synthetic materials have a natural ?action? caused by the flow of the water. Building a fly with some type of flexible fibers that protrude at 90 degrees to the line of force can accentuate this movement. They are forced ?back? when the fly is stripped, then flex forward when the pressure is removed.

You can make a fly wiggle or work from side to side by building in an ?eccentric? or ?lip? to the front of the fly. Flies like wiggle bugs and wiggle fish, ?speed? shads, and such incorporate this kind of built in action. While many of these are made with foam or other buoyant materials, the addition of more weight or substitution of a less buoyant material can make this type of fly work down deep. You can get a slight wiggle from many streamer type flies by simply threading a sequin on the tippet ahead of the fly.

To get a fly that ?dives? when stripped, then ?rises? on the pause, all you need do is add a buoyant head to your fly and fish it on a sinking line. Something as simple as folding a piece of foam around the head of the fly and gluing it place can suffice. Some bass fly fishermen prefabricate floating ?heads? that they can attach any fly to. One of those foam ?strike indicators? that have a sticky back will work in a pinch. You can also just tie a fly that incorporates the head in it?s design.

If you want a fly that lifts and drops, something that you want to fish where a vertical presentation is desired, use a head weighted fly on a floating line (or a sink tip). Get a different sink and action by using the same technique with a TAIL weighted fly.

If you want a fly that works horizontally along the bottom, use a center weighted (or non weighted) fly with a sinking line.

If you a want a fly that will dig in a bit and ?drag? on the bottom, use a head weighted fly that incorporates a lip or protuberance that will dig in and kick up some mud.

If you need a fly that sinks horizontally, like an injured minnow, mid weight a fly and fish it on a floating line with a long leader.

If you think about a what you want a fly to do in the water BEFORE you tie it, you can fine tune the fly, by using different weighting techniques and different materials, to get the fly to perform as you want it to.

Good Luck!

Buddy