Big Flies for LMB?

[HideHunter]

I'm a firm believer in big baits for big bass. When I'm actually targeting bass I'm thinking at least 3# and hoping for 5#+. 80% of my bass flies are tied on various 1/0 hooks. I use a 6 and 8 wt rod for these - not so much for casting but it takes that for me to get the hook set. And the waters I fish have lots of wood. Sometimes you have to put some pressure on a fish to land her. A lot of my Stealth Bombers and Dahlberg Divers will have 6" "tails".

[rrhyne56]

Makes me want to tie up some shoelace flies and have a go at some pond bass.

Two-hook rig, connected by a section of mono. A piece of shoe lace tied to front as well as back hooks. A little lead wire on the front and/or small piece of closed cell foam on tail to give some wiggly-waggly action.

The length is dependent upon how long you want it to be.

The benefits are that it's got a pretty good sized profile compared to how much water it soaks up compared to, say, a chenille woven worm. An obvious down side is casting it can be a booger.

[Wild One]

You guys have really got me thinking now. I've just got to convince myself to buy and tie BIG stuff.

[Rick Z]

I rarely fish for bass, but when I do all the flies are at least 4 inches long.
I still catch a good number of larger bass with smaller flies. I use size 10 & 12 alot for bluegill. If I get it right in front of a large bass they will not reject it.
I think presentaion has alot to do with getting the bass to hit smaller flies.
If you don't make them move far ( expend energy) they will hit the fly.

Rick

[rollcast]

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!!

[Big Bad Wulff]

Caught 3 bass yesterday on a bream killer. Small flies will catch bass.

[Gigmaster]

Big Bait=Big Bass

My best bass fly is Richard Komar's fantastic Hard-Hackle Worm. I tie them around 10" long. The best color is purple.

[okflyfisher]

We fly fish warmwater(bass,crappie ,catfish,carp) a lot here in Ok. Usually we are not targeting a specific fish so most of the time we fish a two inch crayfish(size 4 4xlonghook) or a variation of a leadeye bunny leech on the same hook. if we go much bigger we lose the opportunity for crappie or carp. If We fish a popper on top we leave out crappie and catfish. We still fish on top when conditions are just right

We do fish satlwater size flies in the early spring and late fall when the majority of the surviving young fish of the year are bigger.

In june and july the ponds have a high percentage of small young of the year, and most of the bigger predators are keyed in. During this time of year we genrally fish with small marabou trailers behind are main fly and the trailors catch the majority of the fish.

Just my personal experience

[peregrines]

Wild One
I don?t get a chance to fish FW bass very often, but do a bit for their cousins in the striped pjs in salt. One of the challenges is presenting a big fly that?s also easy to cast. These are easy ties with bucktail to give a big profile in the water, with minimal bulk. They all more or less suspend in the water, and you can fish them very slowly. You might consider these as alternatives to EP Flies, Rabbit Strips and spun deerhair divers.

The flatwings can even by dead drifted in current to wiggle waggle their way around. The key to tying all of them is tying them very, very sparse for easier casting and better action in the water. I like to blend colors to match some of the iridescence, for example in the white first layer of the rays fly, I?ll throw in few strands of yellow and pink too. Use whatever colors and sizes float your boat. In stained water black and chartreuse seem particularly good.

I?ve included links with step by steps because it?s key to the construction of these things.
Here are the ones with BT:

Ray?s Fly Ray Bondorew (gives a long narrow minnow profile) I tie them on a 2/0 hook about 8? long.
http://www.stripermoon.com/flyarch/arc1.html

Hollow Flye (a Bob Popovic pattern) (deep bodied profile that pushes a lot of water even when sparse.)
http://www.aswf.org/saltwater_flies_...ob_hollow.html

Flat wings:
The hardest part about tying these are finding long narrow saddles. When I can find them I?ll tie them up to 18? long on a 3/0. Stripers rarely short strike and aim for the heads of baitfish so hook ups aren?t a problem. Hopefully LM and SM do too. Bluefish have a tendency to cut off the tails.

RLS Nine Three and RLS Supervisor Flatwings (Kenny Abrams patterns)
http://www.stripermoon.com/flyarch/arc2.html

East Coast Ghost (based on Kenny?s style)
http://www.stripermoon.com/flyarch/ecg/ecg.html

All of these are best tied on a short shank hook to prevent fouling I use Eagle Claw 254. Eagle Claw 253 is also a good choice, and I?m sure that there are others out there that are comparable. Using an easier to find Mustad 34007 or 3407with a standard shank isn?t a catastrophe, but stay away from 4 and 3xl streamer hooks. I pinch down the barbs and use one of those yellow handle Luhr Jensen hook hones ($6) to put a cutting edge on the top and front of the point (not a needle point) to allow solid hook sets (use a strip set, not rod tip) before tying.

Hope this helps. Have your father-in-law buy you a beer at the Brown Jug when you out fish him.

Good luck,
peregrines

[Thwack]

Big Bait=Big Bass

My best bass fly is Richard Komar's fantastic Hard-Hackle Worm. I tie them around 10" long. The best color is purple.

Great looking fly! I Googled to learn more about it and of course, it's right here on FAOL (former Fly of The Week). Anybody else looking for it can find it at:

Hard-Hackle Worm