LMB Reaction

[Panman]

Friday I went to an impoundment to fish for LMB. The water is rather shallow, weedy and has about 3 feet visibility. I was fishing in the middle of a clear day with no signs of bass activity on the surface.

I decided to use 2 flies, both large about 5 feet below a corkie strike indicator. Bottom fly was either a olive marabou leech or a black boa leech. Top was a white wooly bugger.

I would make maybe 7 or 8 casts in an area and get nothing and then the indicator would barely twitch and I would set the hook and have on a LMB. That is all I would get is just a small twitch in the line. During the session on 4 occassions after I hooked the first fish, I ended up with 2 fish on at the same time. I tried slow retrieve, fast retrieve, without and with the indicator and the only way I could get a take was with a slow retrieve.

I concluded that the reservoir must have a lot of fish in it, that they were not very hungry and to get a hit I had to have the fly pass real close to the fish and then after that fish was hooked another would get excited and take the 2d fly even though not very hungry.

Fish were not very large, 10 -14 inches, but on a 3 wt it was fun.

Any thought on this - Thanks, Tim

[tea stick]

Tim,

What about water temperture.....was the water cold? Could that have been a factor?

Scott

[Panman]

Water was fairly warm. I waded without waders and it was more than comfortable.

Tim

[flyandtie]

Thats cool!
Still tons of fun when you get 2 small bass pulling different directions!

[DShock]

Tim,
It doesn't sound like the LMB's were feeding. By fishing slow you just provoked them into striking. Might have hit some of them in the nose!
Thanks for the report!
Doug

[James Smith]

Many times I'vd observed LMB of all sizes slide up behind my fly and inhale it, hold it for a second or two and spit it out. If I had not see the fish, I would have never known that I had a hit. LMB along with large bream can be every bit as subtle in their take as trout at times.

Jim Smith

[jeffnles1]

Sometimes LMB will hit like a freight train, but most of the bass I've caught have hit very subtly. In clear summer water, I've watched them sneak up behind a lure and gently mouth it and then spit it out. They're aggressive fish and usually ambush feeders, but they can be as finiky as any trout and sometimes harder to catch.

I had a brown trout hit a hopper this weekend and he had so much momentum when he hit that the fish came completely out of the water when he hit the hopper fly. This trout measured just shy of 16". It's rare around here in Kentucky to see a bass hit something with that much force.

I love catching bass, especially smallmouth!

Jeff

[Panman]

Thaks for your comments. As mentioned by Jim & Jeff I too have watched LMB and gills mouth a bait and spit it out without hardly moving the line, but for some reason this slipped my mind.

I hope to get back up there in a couple of days and give them another whirl.

Thanks again - Tim

[billknepp]

Tim,
When you go back, Don't let your guard down and also don't expect a repeat of what you experienced that day....Bass especially the Large mouth's, Rarely stay in the same feeding pattern for very long...I've experienced some pretty weird stuff or atleast at the time it sure seamed weird to me...While fishing a local lake with water as you discribed...

[Big Bad Wulff]

It seems now(atleast here) the big ones are hitting on little/no movement and the small ones are hitting on fast retrieve.