While I have caught a lot of bass on flies most of them were of the sub-surface variety simply because it is a successful way of fishing and most of the water I fish is off colored.
Yesterday I fished a reservoir where the water was fairly clear and also not very deep. I could see bass jumping here and there so I decided to try a popper I had received in a swap. To make a long story short, 4 hours later the popper was destroyed by the repeated attacks of the bass and my nerves were shot. Had maybe 60 hits and landed about 45 fish.
At the end of the day, this is probably my favorite type of fishing!! Nothing like a summer evening at dusk with feeding bass and a popper on your line.
Its a whole lot of fun. Try the Minnow Crease Fly also if you can (I think I sent you some? Don’t recall.). Sometimes the LMB here will stop biting poppers and a MCF will usually pay off in its place. I think the LMB start looking for minnows to eat when they get wise that the leggy looking thing on the surface isn’t a big fat juicy bug after all. If neither of those are working for me, I go subsurface with a streamer or a nymph usually either straight line, or under a mini-float like a VOSI if I think they might be suspending.
I think I’m addicted to fishing a deer hair popper even when the fish aren’t taking it as well as a sub surface presentation. There’s just something about actually seeing and hearing your popper that get hit that makes it so much fun!
I’ve fly fished for a lot of different species of fish for a lot of years, including saltwater. Around these parts there’s a lot of bream and LMB and a popper is a great choice. Although I’ve caught my share of both sub-surface, there’s something especially fun about a popper! But in all my time fly fishing I’ve never had the unique experience enjoyed with a LMB and a popper … and that being I’ve had the bass come right out of the water and snatch that popper in mid-air before it ever touched the water’s surface! Everytime (and not that often) that has happened it just catches me totally off guard and likes to have blown my mind!
What a timely discussion, all that’s been working for me lately is surface patterns! Poppers,sliders,gurglers all have been equally effective! I start every evening fishing session with subsurface patterns but until I throw a topwater, I go fishless! Some of the strikes by bass have been awesome! The kinda strikes that make you jump and usually I do which can be very exciting in a kayak! A 2lb plus bass on a 6wt is a lot of fun! I actually wore out a size 8 cork slider yesterday, it just fell off the hook from the vicious strikes.
I’ll have to try a crease fly pattern and see if that works once bass stop hitting other topwater patterns.
I love fishing in the summer evenings! Thaction is fast and furious and hardly anyone else is on the pond I fish.
Went back today for another stint at the bass. They were not as cooperative as last time. I still caught about15 fish in 4 hours of fishing. Tried different colors of poppers and it seemed they had a preference for yellow. Also tried Robert’s crease fly was caught two fish. Another interesting day.
Summer I’m finding is definitely a great time for top water. Anything that pops. I’ve been playing around some with of my own patterns and been having an ok time. Today, I tried something different. And got an amazing turnout from it.
Started to get dark today, and the fish stopped hitting though, so I left. But, all and all. I love summertime poppers:D
Sunday I was up on the Blue River near Tishomingo OK. The sun was high, the day was hot. But we caught some fun fun fun spotted bass and smallies, all on chartreuse and yellow foam spiders.
Forgot to add, I’ve been sneaking (well, not really sneaking, just going, but “sneak” sounds like more fun)over to a small neighborhood pond at night and dragging a Muddler across the top. At night those largemouth and cats come out to play!
I absolutely LOVE popper fishing! I will crawl out of bed at 3 am just to get to the lake before sunrise in the summer. In the dark, go for a dark colored, big popper. On summer evenings, try a smaller, light colored popper. In the morning, before sun up, I will fish the bigger poppers a bit on the slow side, but in the evening toward dusk, you’ve got to call them up, so I will chug a smaller baitfish profile fast and hard across the surface.
I took this LMB on a private pond one morning, with a 3/0 Shimmering Popper, (Signature Design)
