Catching bass in a sunfish pond

[FishnDave]

I have experienced exactly what you did. In one pond, I had a "pet" bass, 20" long, that would follow me as I fished my way around the public pond. She would occasionally attack the smaller bass, bluegill, or crappie that I would hook, fight, and land on the fly rod. Those panfish were often 8"-10" range. I tried all sorts of big flies. I got looks, but no strikes. I did catch that bass 3 times in one year...twice on topwater bass poppers, once one a large weighted nymph pattern.

Here's a video I took of it once....I had an 11" bass on...if you look closely (I could see it fine with my polarized sunglasses, but it isn't as obvious on the video), you may see the big bass following the smaller one around.


At another public pond, several times I had a large bass chase bluegills and/or pumpkinseed sunfish I was fighting. A few times, the bass managed to catch the bluegill, and as it swam off with its prize, I would feed it line. After 5 minutes or so, I would start retrieving all the line the bass had taken. I caught that bass twice....once with a bluegill in its throat, and then the 2nd time the bluegill somehow got away, but the bass still got hooked by my fly. That bass was just under 22".

So...I don't have a good solution....but it seems like those bigger bass want a bigger meal. So, try larger flies. Big topwaters have worked best for me for larger bass, but they DO learn to avoid them over time. Perhaps try firetiger-colored baitfish flies.
One style of flies I haven't experimented much with for Largemouth Bass is the big bottom-bouncing flies that look like a crayfish, or a fly rod version of a rubber-legged bass jig (like the Grim Reaper fly).