Originally Posted by
James Smith
While I also occasionally catch good sized bass on smaller flies, as a general rule large bass want large food. I'll share a story to give you an idea of how large a food that big bass will take. While fishing for crappie a couple of springs ago I found myself catching lots of bass in the 14 inch range. The water was very stained and as I got one of the fish about three feet from shore, he went straight down to the bottom and stayed there. I figured he was burried in weeds, so I lowered the rod tip to about a foot from the water and smoothly "lifted" the fish towards the surface. What came up was a VERY large bass that had my 14 inch fish half way in her mouth head first. When I got her to the surface, she saw me, spit out the "little" bass and swam away. If you stop to consider how big a 14 inch bass is when you're thinking bait, you get the idea that you will probably never cast a fly that is too large for a big bass to take. Just food for thought...
Jim Smith
I had the exact same thing happen to me!!! I was popping for bluegills with my three weight, and had about an 8" fish on. He dove and I thought I had snagged a log. Slowly started to lift the line and had probably an 8-10 lb bass at the other end. He spit the gill out and my heart has not stopped racing since!!
"Our real purpose is to fit ourselves to be of maximum service to God and the people about us."