Tips for sub surface newbie

[icall2much]

Admittedly, I'm a topwater fly fisher.

I can catch gills and bass on the surface hand over fist, but just don't know or feel comfortable fishing a fly subsurface.

Any tips? This might be taboo on the forum - but last night I caught the hell out of the bass in our pond with a buzzbait and lizard both. I'm SURE I could do the same with a nice #6 streamer if I did it correctly.

I have strike indicators, and normally just use #4 mono for my leader.

So, I'm open to any tips and help, please.

Thanks, really appreciate it. Looking forward to expanding my horizons in the fly fishing world.

[Uncle Jesse]

I would suggest a dropper unter what you normally catch bream or bass on on the surface. A wooly bugger, wooly worm, bream killer, etc., 18 inches or so under a popping bug works great. The real fun is when you get a fish of both flies at the same time.

[Rick Z]

Watch the end of your flyline. Any type of movment with then end of the fly line, probably means there is a fish doing something with your fly.
I watch for twitches, movment up , down, forward nor back.

Rick

[icall2much]

OK, thanks guys.

That's the other thing, I only have WF floating line. Do I need to get a sinking line, or will floating line with a 9' leader be sufficient?

[Uncle Jesse]

I have a sink tip line but use floating line 95% of the time or more, especially when fishing for bream and bass. But its like using a pig and jig or plastic worm, not as much fun as a Zara Spook or buzzbait but frequently more effective. I would probably catch more or bigger fish sometimes if I used the sink tip more. It also depends on where the fish are and water conditions. It's difficult to get a fly down to fish 20 ft. deep.

[EdD]

What kind of waters do you fish and which species are you pursuing? If you only want to go down 4-5 feet, then a 9' flourocarbon leader should handle it on still water with a slow retrieve. There is always the option of using split-shot on your leader to get down faster. If you want to fish with streamers, then cosider using a dark, heavily-weighted streamer tied on with 6-8" of tippet left over. To this tie on another piece of tippet, possibly one size smaller, with a surgeon's knot (double half-hitch), or, if your knots are like mine, a triple half-hitch. To the end of this dangling bit of tippet, tie an unweighted or lightly wighted streamer. If you want flash, this is the place to use it. Use a bobbing retrieve with a lot of action from your rod tip. The heavier fly, tied directly to the main leader, will apply the weight that makes the dropper streamer dance and wiggle. In theory, the dropper if you fish catcher. But if you use a leech pattern, then the weighted fly can pull its weight too. (Please pardon the pun. I'm afraid it was intentional.)

Ed