I live in Alabama, “The Heart of Dixie”, and until about a year ago I had never fished in my life. Needless to say I now love fly fishing. However, I have never caught any of those BIG BASS from the ponds near my home. I can see them clearly and it looks as though they are laughing at me!!! Right now all I get are those little Bream. Sometimes they are kinda in the way! So, the post on Big Bass really caught me eye. You’ve provided such great insight. Here is some of what you posted.
Watch your visibility to the fish
Fish at low light- dawn or dusk
Fish slowly
Back up off the bank
Drink a Cold one & relax awhile
Maybe use a sink-tip line
---------Here are the suggested flies--------
Size 8 Deer Hair Caddis
Clouser with light weight eyes
Big Clousers
Dalhberg Divers
Hot Claws
Bunny Leeches with an in-line spinner
Hare Worms
Fly Rod Hula Poppers
Zonker type patterns
Large Woolly Buggers
Streamer or Salmon/Steelhead size 6 or 8 hook
Salmon Royal Wulff
Hornberg
Deerhair mouse
Present sunken w/leech or Rabbitstrip worm
Salmon/Steelhead Flies
If you had to pick only 5 flies for an Alabama Boy trying to catch Big Bass, WHICH ARE THE TOP FIVE??
Had a good day in Georgia today. Warren’s top five looks good. I caught a 5 pounder on a red and white Seaducer today so I would add that to my list. Have caught some nice one’s on Miss Prissy poppers too.
My dos pesos,
bd
AC,
Warren’s choices are alright, IF you can trust a Tennessee Vol! For pond bass, my top 5 would be:
1-Bunny strip worm (lightly weighted)
2-Deer hair frog
3-Dahlberg Diver
4-Sneaky Pete
5-Clouser
That’s my order here in Ohio, but works well for me. With the shallow water & weed beds here in Ohio, I prefer either surface or VERY slow sinking…as Warren said, I would suggest lightly weighted Clousers as well.
Mike
acorbin01,
I sure would like to accompany you on your venture there.
Our preferrence too, seems to almost always be to wait for top-water action…even if less #'s get pestered.
So…
1 - One of our favs is a Dahlberg diver (with a rabbit strip tail).
2 - We would substitute your Clouser (a danged good fish immi) with our “Embellished Deciever” for our baitfish immi.
3 - Your large woolybugger is right on. By changing color, size, where fished, and puppeteering, you can represent close enough, most anything LM’s will inhale. Crawfish, damsels, minnows etc.
4 - Deerhair mouse. Some with flat faces for more disturbance when desired.
5 - Deerhair caddis (grasshopper immi?)
We would tie EVERYTHING weedless. EVERYTHING!!! Well, at least 99.91224% anyway.
Enjoy the journey…
…lee s.
[This message has been edited by lee s (edited 31 May 2005).]
Bonedog,
Thanks for the information, I am jealous!! By the way, what is a Miss Prissy??
Lee,
You are more than welcome to come along!!
When you say big wooly bugger, what is big? Also, it seems that many of you advocate some sort of modifications to the flies that you recommend. That is the BIG advantage of tying flies. Can I possibly entice/beg any of you too tie me a few of these proven flies if we can settle on a price???
I’m sorry to add to the confusion, but I’d put right near the top of the list a black zonker style Gill Buster on size 8-10 hook. Then: Dalhberg Diver (or the equivalent in form); Clouser; White Bunny; and if fishing in the dark of night, that flyrod Hula Popper. Daytime I’d take the Gill Buster 95 percent of the time. After dark, the black Hula Popper. JGW
I am really impressed with the way that you have cataloged all the responses to your question. I’ve always had the feeling that a lot of people half read the responses and go on making the same mistakes they were making before. You seem genuinely determined to find the right answer. I fear greatly for the safety of your laughing bass.
I would add just one more piece of advice that may work in your situation. The bass pros have a saying that big lures catch big fish. I think the same rule holds true for flies. I would offer these laughing bass the biggest fly that you can manage to throw at them even if you have to “chuck and duck.” I don’t think it matters so much which fly you use as long as it’s large. Think big poppers, Deceivers, huge wooly buggers. Good luck! Please keep us posted on your progress. 8T
You had better learn to be a happy camper. You only get one try at this campground and it’s a real short camping season.
All of the things posted above will catch bass at some point in time. One piece of advice to be considered with all of this is to observe and go with what the fish want. If the fish are breaking the surface, a wider variety of stuff. If not active up top, you will need something noisy and bothersome to induce them, or just fish subsurface. What the “5 best” are will vary with the food sources in the lake, the cover, and what the fish are doing.
