Rather than telling about a lesson I've learned, I'm going to tell about something I haven't solved yet.

Twice in the last week I've had a bluegill on my line get chased by a much larger largemouth bass. Both happened in manmade ponds that are quite different from each other. One is a 5-acre or so pond in a public park that sees daily fishing pressure, is surrounded by weeds, and has very wary fish. The other is in a remote pond deep in the woods that is rarely visited and is small enough to throw a rock across.

On one of these occasions, the bass actually got the bluegill in its mouth while I was playing it, waiting to see what the bass would do. When I pulled on the bluegill, the bass let it go. After each of these occasions, I tried various types of poppers and streamers but without getting any interest from the bass. I could however, still see it swimming around the area. I would guess that these are fairly aggressive fish that are not looking for a dead lure, but for a live fish to eat. Possibly, I don't have any streamers large enough to interest these bass. One of the bluegills that was being chased was about 8" long.

This is not my picture, but it captures the moment pretty well.


The first two ideas that came to my mind were to try a spinnerbait on my spinning rod, or to catch a smaller bluegill with a nymph and then put a big hook through it and use it as bait. But neither of those ideas involve catching the bass with a fly rod.

What suggestions do you have to catch these bass with a fly rod?