Bass Tidbit .11

We know from both a myriad of scientific studies and the personal observation of thousands of anglers that bass instinctually kill and eat ?injured? prey. They are ?genetically? coded to do this.

In most situations where bass exist, they are right at or near the top of the aquatic food chain. As such, they are genetically predisposed to attacking and eating the sicker, weaker, or injured among available prey. Just as the lion will single out the weakest in a herd for it?s dinner, so the bass keys on the injured or weak among it?s prey. They are ?easier to catch?, thus less energy is expended.

Those are the ?facts?, but what does it ?mean? to us as anglers that want to catch bass with a fly rod?

Words like ?erratic? when used to describe how to work a fly sound good. I?ve used them. But how, exactly, do you work a fly ?erratically?? Or, what do you do to make a fly look like it?s ?injured? or ?weak? to the fish?

Starting with the basics, we?ll look at baitfish (that?s any fish the bass is likely to eat?). What happens to a fish when it?s injured or ?sick? or ?dying??

It can go several ways. The fish might float to the surface of the water (or ?towards? it), and struggle to swim back down. Or, the fish might settle towards the bottom and struggle to swim upwards. It might also swim in circles, blindly running into any obstructions, or do ?loops? in the water, suddenly change directions at random, or some type of unusual maneuver. Most are hard to mimic with a fly, but the first two aren?t, and they are effective techniques that we can use to catch bass.

In the first instance, the prey is struggling to remain swimming underwater. It dives under and then floats back in an ever weakening series until it?s just flopping around on top of the water, finally it?s just quivering in place, then it dies (provided the cycle isn't interrupted by a hungry bass).

We can easily ?do? this with a fly. We can do ALL of it, from the repeated diving/surfacing, to the final quivering ?near death? stage.

The second instance is basically just the physical reverse of the first. The fish has lost it?s ability to remain buoyant in the water. It is sinking towards the bottom, then struggling to swim away from it. The doomed fish gets weaker and weaker over time, finally settling down to the bottom where it expires.

Again, something we can do, and pretty easily, with a fly.

All you need for the first instance is some type of floating fly that dives when you pull on it. Lots of those out there, from deer hair divers, flies made with foam, even a few constructed with diving lips. You can vary the speed and length of the ?pulls?, from fast and hard jerks of the rod tip, to gentle pulls with the line. Not hard, very effective. If we put the same fly on a sinking line, we can do this at different depths.

The last part, the quivering and dying phase, can be done with just about any floating bug, popper, slider, whatever, as long as it floats.

The second instance is even easier for us. All you need is a fly that sinks, either inherently or weighted to do so. This one can be done at any level in the water column that you care to fish, from right under the surface down to as long as you are willing to wait for it to settle.

Again, you can be very aggressive to very subtle with this. Control how fast or slowly the fly sinks by it?s construction and weight. Control how ?fast? it moves by how you manipulate it . Jerk or rip it with the rod, work it fast or slow with strips of the line, or glide it slowly by just raising the rod tip.

This ?lift and drop? retrieve is probably the one thing that most of us do that is effective day in and day out. It?s inherent in the tackle we use, since, unlike those using a spinning or casting reel, a steady retrieve of a fly using just your hands to pull in the line is really impossible.

In any event, these two ?techniques? are effective and simple. I know there are other ways to get similar ?actions? from our flies.

Anyone else have any ?dying baitfish? techniques they want to share?

Good Luck!

Buddy

Unweighted muddlers with a long thin leader fished using a sinking line is the closest thing I can get to an eratic side to side motion of a baitfish. Hard three to four inch strip followed by a pause. It cause the fly to have a fairly side to side motion where the fly usually ends up.

Start by fishing it on the top waiting for your line to sink then use the hard short strips and pauses will get the fly down and cause it to somewhat suspend.

Adding weight to a fly in my mind kind of limits any other action other than the rise and fall.

Probably my go to setup for any species of fish.

OK, guys, I don't remember ever telling this one to anybody. Buy a sheet of the thin foam from Wal-Mart or one of the craft stores, a long, down-eye streamer hook at least 4X long, preferably longer. Cut a 1/8-1/4" wide strip of foam, and wrap it around the shank tightly, building a cigar-shaped body. Use any color or tail material you like, eyes are important with this one, use them. Keep the tail on the sparse side, you don't want much drag. With the down-eye hook, when you give short, sharp jerks, the fly will sashay left and right. The better your rhythm, the better the action.

Buddy,

Not much trout action up here in Ohio in the warmer months so bass are my main passion, smallies in the rivers and largemouth in the ponds. Your Tidbits are fantastic. Keep 'em coming.

You should write a book: Buddy Sanders's Fly Roddin' for Bass!

Thanks for keeping warmer thoughts about spring and summer in my mind. With this cold snap it's about 15 degrees outside!

With the idea of getting frantic action from flies, a group of west coast anglers have been experimenting for a few years with rear weighting flies. When balanced properly, which takes some trial and error, such adapted flies will dart very erratically when retrieved.

For several of the adapted patterns, the key to the weighting is to add the weight past the bend of the hook. This is usually accomplished by tying a length of very heavy mono (80lb test or so) to the hook shank so that it extends beyond the bend. Lead wire is wrapped around the mono and secured in place. The pattern is then tied normally. Dan Blanton wrote an article for Fly Fishing in Saltwaters that demonstrated this adaptation for the Sar-Mul-Mac. Other patterns have been adapted as well and at least one original pattern developed as shown here: www.danblanton.com/SSTstory.html

The result is quite unlike any other fly behavior I have ever seen.

I saw a deer hair perch fly, ( I thought it was here at FAOL, but I cant seem to locate it), that is designed to fall over onto it's side when it comes to a stop on the surface like a dying perch. I thought that was a clever idea.