i’ve asked this question before and am trying to gather more info. i have a pond that i fish occasionally and the pond is located next to a playground with kids and waterfowl that eagerly take handouts. the little panfish also like handouts and will take just about any fly i give them. but, there are some large, i would extimate, 18"+ bass that lurk just a ways off the shore. i can easily cast to them with a 3-weight, but nothing larger than a small popper. so, casting isnm’t an issue. the problem is these porky bass don’t take anything i give them. i’ve tried numerous flys and worked them over the cover, let them sit and twitch, sunk em, worked em fast, slow, you name it, and they just kinda stare and shrug. any suggestions for the bass that’s seen it all?
Are they educated? By that, I mean have they been caught a lot? If not, they might want a bigger meal than your 3wt. can give them.
For educated LMB (sometimes uneducated also), I use a size 8 Deer Hair Caddis (Trude) for one. The pattern is in Dick Stewart’s Bass Flies book. It has been effective for me when the bass have seen and been caught on a lot of large flies and lures, and have resorted to taking only small insects like caddis.
Maybe they want a meal, not an appetizer? A clouser with light weight eyes should still be castable on your 3 wt (just take your time when the hair’s all wet) and might look like more of a meal than the poppers.
I was going to suggest fishing dusk to full dark particularly if you have a good moon or at the absolute first light of dawn.
I would also suggest that if you can see these smart, old bass they can see you. Watch your visibility to the fish. I will often fish well back from the shore when I’m dealing with high IQ fish. Fish on your knees or from a sitting position 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.
They saw you (if you see them, they saw you well before that occured). They likely won’t bite, and fly selection won’t fix it.
Fish the ones that can’t see you. Try casting to the same depth level, just cast parallel to the shoreline and make long casts. Fish at low light. Be sneaky. Use lighter and longer leaders. Fish slowly.
Also, either a larger offering or a very small one can be helpful in this type of situation (say a 3/0 foam popper or a #16 Adams…).
Given the time of year, you also need to consider whether or not they are on the beds. This can change your approach, as the fish don’t ‘eat’ during this time, but will, sometimes, defend.
Give em’ some groceries. Try a big hair bug or a large hula popper. You’ll need a bigger rod to cast those lures.
Back up off the bank a good ways before you cast to them. If the fish are 20’ off the shore make a 60’ cast with 40’ of the cast on the shore. Let it sit for a good 5 minutes then give it a slight twitch and let it sit another 10 minutes.
Bass like the ones you mentioned like big easy meals.
Some great advice…Night is a fantastic time to fish…ESPECIALLY on waters that are “busy” during daylight hours. Also, Mike B’s advice to let a hair bug “sit” motionless is excellent. It’s amazing how long they’ll look at the darn thing, tempting you to move it…DON’T! Open a cold one & relax awhile.
Mike
I know of a similar pond and I’ve learned a few tricks to catching the big “cruiser” bass.Notice you don’t accept email,It’s simpler than you’d think.Those are truely some great suggestions. And you should try them,especially keeping low and staying well back.Good luck!
Like others have said, if it were me, I’d chuck the 3 wt. in favor of a 7 or 8wt. and throw some real meals at them. Do it at dawn or dusk or use day time stealth so they don’t see you. They didn’t get that big by being a “caution to the wind” feeder. Also during day light go deep. Maybe use a sink-tip line. My personal favorites are big Clousers, Dalhberg Divers, Hot Claws, Bunny Leeches with an in-line spinner, Hare Worms, Fly Rod Hula Poppers, Zonker type patterns and Large Woolly Buggers. Good Luck!
Have you tried dredging the bottom for them. Switching to a deeper presentation usually draws a strike for me when I know that the fish are there, particuarly in the spring. I had good luck this past weekend using a clouser with a sinking line in two to three feet of water when I saw that the bass were on their spawning beds. Sometimes all the silt and sounds that the fly makes scraping the bottom will trigger them to hit. Poppers are fun but not always effective.
Who has time for stress when there are fish to catch.
Nick
You can see them and they are very dour…are you targeting them during a spawn? If so, they may need to be “pestered” into hitting, which may or may not be easily done…and may or may not be to your personal acceptance of approach.
…lee s.
Best luck I have ever had in a pond such as you describe was to hook up with a 3"-4" Blue gill and play it for a while. The large bass come up from behind a swallow the little devil whole. The only problem is getting it from the water before it spits the gill. Lots of fun if it is the fight you are in for. Not a great method for putting fish on the table. kev
Hey, that’s fun when it happens – for all but the bluegill. I can’t recall ever landing a bass this way but I’ve had several hit over the years. How in the hell they disgorge the bluegill with the flared gills is beyond me. Buddy Sanders has probably done a study on it though. JGW
The hydrodynamaics of the 'gill, coupled with the force vector applied by the rod/line, adding in, of course, the coefficient of friction caused by the applied gripping surface found within the oral cavity of the bass all combine to make this a haphazard undertaking, at best.
Bass hits, pulls for a bit, then out pops the 'gill (provided, of course, the tippet tensile rating isn’t overloaded by the force application increased by the pulling bass…if that occurs, the bass keeps the bluegill).
In any event, and all kidding aside, it’s fun when it happens, but you don’t land many unless luck causes the hook point to pop out of the bluegill and lodge in the bass.
It is so nice to be widely recognized as the font of all fishing wisdom (or is that recognized for being just a wide wise guy??).
Try some Streamer or Salmon/Steelhead Patterns, on a size 6 or 8 hook. My bass, love to play “Tug of War” with me, on those flies.
~ Parnelli
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot.
[This message has been edited by Steven H. McGarthwaite (edited 13 May 2005).]
I had the same problem. There is a pond near my work with a lot of crappie that I fish with my 3wt. Most are real small and will hit anything, but I know there are a few big ones in there, I’ve seen a couple of dead ones floating. I switched from a nymph to a olive wolly bugger and hooked into something really large. unfortunally he ran into some heavy moss and got out of the hook. I’m going back this week with the 5wt and try a larger bugger.
I use a Salmon Royal Wulff on my local pond. The bass love them, using a slow popping retrieve. They’re big & float forever. May have a bit of trouble w/ a 3 wt.
I like a Hornberg. It can be fished on top, or as a streamer. They are large and light so you can cast them with a 3 weight. I use them with my 4wt. and find them a good fly for the purpose.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=“1” face=“Verdana, Arial”>quote:</font><HR>We’ve found that even if you can grow a 20-pound bass in a lake, if you can’t catch the fish, it has no value. No one wants to hear, “Yep, I’ve got some 12 or 14 pounders in that pond, but I don’t think you can catch one.”
We started out stocking the Florida strain of black bass when we got in the stocking business because we knew the Florida bass had good growth rates, especially after year three, and they lived a long time. However, we also knew from the beginning that Florida bass were hard to catch. But we tried to push that thought back in our minds because we really wanted to grow big fish.
Seven or 8 years after we stocked the bass, lake owners said they wanted to drain their lakes because they hadn’t caught a bass for 2 or 3 years. They thought all of the bass were gone. When we took our electrofishing boat with the monitor out onto the lake, we saw huge quantities of 6- to 10-pound bass. The pond owners were amazed, but they just couldn’t catch those bass.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
All in all it seems that there are some bigguns out there that are snubbing us honest, hard working anglers.
