Suggested line weight for small-medium bass?

[anglerdave]

DS

Allot of good info and suggestions. The two rods that I personally use for bass, both largemouth and smallmouth are a 9' 6wt and a 9' 8wt. With those two, I can throw just about anysize fly I need and also in any conditions. The 8 really comes in handy if there is allot of wind.

I agree you can get by with the 5wt for now. In fact, you may want to use it when throwing smaller flys and keep the 8 for the bigger stuff.

Sooner or later someone will post that all you really need is a 3wt. They will tell you they can throw a 1/0 fly and land 6# bass on that rod. I'll leave it to you whether or not you want to go down that road.

Dave

[SkipS]

Your 5wt is fine for the fish you are after.Im using a 4wt uplined with a 6wt line to fish from my canoe and it works well.I also throw a 6wt,my favorite for fresh water.An 8wt is my standard rod for saltwater here.You just dont need to go that heavy for small bass,its overkill.

[Dead Skunk]

Thanks a million for all the great responses. I'm going to stick with the 5WT and practice my casting skills. Before spring I might get a 6WT line for my extra spool (my casts are short anyway), but I might just wait and see how it goes.

[Leo C]

Dead Skunk,

I would say that 5wt should do the trick for you; with a 6wt line will certainly help you lay out the larger flies. The exception would be in heavy cover.

While large bass will hit the smaller flies, small bass will also take large flies. I've noticed the larger the fly the more their hit by larger fish, so my preference has been to throw larger 1/0 to 2/0 flies and I find my 9wt does it nicely.

I also regulary fish a 4wt for bass also but do have many breakoffs when they head for the deep cover.

I have noticed that bass are not particularly shy of heavy leaders and would suspect that if you shortened your leader to 5 to 7 ft and used something in a minimum of 8# you would find they would turn the fly over easier.

To sum it up just about anything will work so just go out and enjoy it with what you have and if later you feel refining is necessary you'll have a better idea of what will suit your personal needs.

Leo C

[fly-chucker]

For the conditions that you describe, your 5wt should handle everything that you want it to do. Unless you really want to get a new rod that is.

Kevin

[Flyguy5910]

use the 8wt and that should help you out, anything smaller and you have to watch the size of the flies you can use and the harder it is to fish