Light Tackle Bassers

[Russ C]

I know there are a few of us on here that use light rods, 4 wt and under. I like to use a 3 weight. I am wondering what type and size of flies do you ultralighters use when you are targeting bass? I have some small bugs, similar to a gurgle pop or a chernobyl ant, and long skinny sliders that work well, and for shallow running flies I use an upside down marabou muddler in size 8 or something similar.

What about for deeper fishing? What size and weight flies do you guys throw to get deeper than a few feet?

I feel like I do okay when bass are active in shallow water, but my confidence level goes down a good bit when I start fishing deeper with flies that are more like the size of bluegill and crappie flies. DONT GET ME WRONG, I like to catch bluegill, but tangling with 2 and 3 pound bass on a 3 weight is a lot of fun.

Russ

[Greg F]

One fly that works for me is a little clouser minnow with white and olive bucktail and gold lateral flash on a size 8 Tiemco 200r to look like a baby bass. I can throw it with the 3 wt.

[flyandtie]

I'll help.

I fish a 7' 3wt for bass alot, Great fun!!

I use mostly a black, olive, or brown woolly bugger. Unweighted for shallow. and weighted( IE: Beadhead, cone head, lead wire) for deeper water. Around a size 8 is my most common, 6 if I want to have more confidence with a bigger fly.

My second most used would definately be the clouser minnow in chartruese over white. With medium sized bead chain eyes to make 'em ride hook point up, and then a body under the bucktail of wire which makes it weigh more(read that sink faster) I use those in a size 6.

Other flies I have confidence in for bass are smaller versions of zonkers, buggers, leeches, and many others.

Another fantastic fly for them is a bead chain eyed woolly bugger, has bead chain eyes up front and rides hook point up. works like a charm for some reason.

I also recieve good success with small size 8 crayfish patterns, just simple...but they look like a crayfish. ( I put bead chain eyes as weight for these to.)

I don't have success with muddlers, never have. Thats not to say that they won't work fine for you though.

I will use a longer leader on my floating line to get them deeper. I hear of people using intermediate lines on three weights for this kinda fishing, But I think it's not nessecary.

The surface stuff, I use gurgle pops, chernoble ants, and hoppers. I can tie and throw them up to a size 4 gurgle pop and a #6 chernoble ant on the three weight. You just have to have the right timing when your casting em.

I however use the subsurface stuff wayyyy more than the surface. It's more effective an produces bigger numbers of fish, and alot of times more quality fish, At least for me...

The bigger bass on a 3wt is a hell of a lot of fun, wait till ya tangle with the 5 pounders and up!! My personal best on the three weight is a 5 1/2 pound bass. It had it bent to the cork! amazing.

Wow, long post. sorry bout that.

[EdD]

I've had bass up to about 12 inches grab mayflies that I was casting for bluegill and red-bellies. A foot long smallie is a lot of fun when it surprises you. I've had bigger bass go after streamers, spiders, woolly buggers, etc... When I tye spiders for bass, I think more like a streamer. I tye them with long, soft bodies that are supposed to give a better mouth feel for the bass. Also, I often use a couple of wraps of good, dry fly hackle for the collar. I think that it gives better action when stripped along with small pulls. The tip of the rod is a lot better at imparting action than my strips, so I try to use it to make the fly move while I take in the line.


Ed

[James Smith]

I use a black seal fur leech tied on a size 8 hook on my three wt every spring. I regularly catch very large bluegill and redears (15 inches in my PB) which is what I am targeting and I also catch quite a few bass ranging in size from little guys 10-12 inches long up to very nice 4-5 pound fish. I caught a very nice 4 1/2 pound bass this past spring on my 3 wt that I quite frankly didn't think I had a chance of landing. I was fishing near a blowdown and the fish got under and around thick branches of the submerged tree. Somehow I managed to work him out with out breaking the 4 lb test leader which really surprized me. Typically I would use my seven wt for bass, but springtime with my three wt out in my kayak is just too much fun to pass up.

Bottom line, bass fishing with a light wt rod is loads of fun, but you are usually limited by the size of flies you can cast and the amount/type of cover you can fish and reasonably expect to land a nice fish.

Jim Smith

[flyandtie]

the amount/type of cover you can fish and reasonably expect to land a nice fish.
Jim Smith

I have to disagree with that,

The reel and tippet is what fights the fish. The tippet is the weakest link in it all.

When you have the big bass on the line and it's going for cover, drop your rod until all the weight is in the butt of the rod. This is where all the power will be in the rod. After that it is all in your tippet and reel, To steer him away from the cover.

And if you don't believe me, Go and tie some 20lb tippet to a water jug. Fill the jug with some water.
Get a ladder and stand on it.
Now try and use the tip half of the rod to lift that,,,It wont move anywhere now will it.
Now try it again but using a very low rod angle and all the power is in the butt of the rod,,,The jug lifts off the ground easily now.

See what I mean?

[Greg Hunsicker]

Hey Russ

When I'm using the 2 wt I strictly target panfish but I do pick up the occasisional bass. If Im going after Red Ears and LMB I like to use my 7.5' 3wt because Im either fishing larger or weighted flies and the 3 wt just handles them better.

For fishing deeper I usually use clouser style flies because of my bass fishing roots. Much fewer snags on rocks and stuff. Normally I use a WFF line but if I need to get deeper I use 6' sinking line extensions which doesn't seem to cause any casting issues. Just connect loop to loop to the floating line and since I'm a bank fising type it isn't practical to carry more than one rod. When using the sinking line extensions I use a 6' or 4' piece of heavy tippet. If I'm just trying to get down to about 10' I'll just add longer tippet to my leader.

Flies: Like I said I like the hook up on most of my flys unless the bottom is just sand. So either barbells or bead chain is normal for me. Clousers, Crawdads, Wooly Buggers, Leaches and mini-jigs in different colors and sizes 10 to 4 depending on conditions. and whats biting.

There is no more viscious strike than a strike on a crawdad!

Greg

[billknepp]

Fishing from a yak, allows me to throw much bigger flies, As I can slide right into feeding fish without much fan fair. Anything under 4" is fair game on my three wt rod, Still carry an old 7'6" 7wt Eagle Claw Fiberglass rod for the bigger or bigger weighted stuff and it's still just as much fun in my book...

[rrhyne56]

Biggest streamers you can throw, Poppers are problematic as they are about the most non-aerodynamic flies that exist (right up there with Calcasieu Pig Boats - and they both catch the you-know-what out of bass).

I have found that less tippet/leader makes it possible to toss bigger poppers.

_________________
RRhyne56
http://www.robinscustomleadersandflies.com
http://robinsrumination.blogspot.com

[Royal Wulff]

Russ, RW here

I was fishing for bluegills with my son last month using a 1-weight. We were using wet flies along a weed bed when I nailed a 5 1/2 lb. largemouth. He wasn't nearly as much trouble landing than I thought he would be when I first hooked him. Light tackle has alot more backbone than most folks think if you play the fish properly. In fact, the bass didn't take any longer to land than a heavier weight rod does. Knowing your tackle is a key ingredient in this kind of situation. How much presure you put on the fish has more to do with the tippet strenth you're using than anything. It sure made the little Hardy reel sing though.

If I specifically go after bass I'll use small streamers or one of Jim Hatch's sliders. Usually in a size 10 which is about as big as a 1-weight can handle comfortably. I've taken quite a few smallies up to 4 pounds in Maine with the 1-weight too.

Later, RW