Over the last week I’ve set my fly rod aside (gasp!) for the ultralight spinning rod. I’ve been fishing the cove of a lake that is full of nice largemouth bass. In the afternoons darn near every cast results in at least a bite, if not a hooked fish. Very few of these fish have been less than 12". 18 1/2" is the largest I’ve gotten from there.
I’d like to go after these fish with my fly rod if I can. The lure I’ve been throwing has been so successful for me that I’d like to see if I can imitate it at the vise.
This is what I’ve been using:
An ugly thing, but really productive right now.
Any thoughts on how to create something similar? I was thinking maybe a twin-tail of rabbit strip and maybe a pamered rabbit body. I’ll probably use dumbell eyes for weight as it needs to be hopped along the bottom and hook point up should be a good thing.
You could always try supergluing that brushhawg to a big hook and throwing it. Or some silly legs in the watermelon color with some watermelon Crawdad dubbing from Wapsi and more sililegs for the arms. They even make those twister tails for tying flies. Your gonna lose your sensativity with the flyrod though and lose a lot of fish that will pick it up and then spit it back out quickly. Hard to match a bait action wise like that on a fly rod. Try…
Size 2-6 hook
8-10 silly legs on bend of hook, dubbing loop(theloop will give you a fuller body) watermelon green(wapsi crawdad dubbing) and then 4 silly legs on each side about half way up. That should be about as close as your going to get unless you order some flytying twistertails and then just tie them on the end instead of the 8 or 10 silly legs.
[This message has been edited by parrotheadcrb (edited 15 May 2006).]
This fly will not look like your plastic lure, but, I would give it a try. It is a very good LMB/SMB fly. You could play with the colors to match your lure.
Go to the menu on the left and click on Fly Tying and then in the Search Window type in “Pig Boat Fly”. It was a FOTW and a good one.
The Pig Boat was in the back of my mind when I was typing this up. I might give those a try. Though I may stick with the barbell eye to keep the hook point off the bottom.
I’ve been working on this for several months. I have been fishing the baby brush hog for about 5 to 6 years. I recommended it to someone earlier this year that was going to Lake Erie to fish for small mouths and wanted to fish using flys instead of baitcasting or spinning gear. I recommended trying to duplicate the brush hog.
The Brush Hog is a spring salamander not a craw. I have fished the Zoom Brush Hog and the Zoom Craw side by side, both in watermelon and there is no comparison.
This past Saturday I had over 60 Large mouths between 2 and 5 Lbs. I went through two packs of Brush Hogs. I have worked on this pattern for a fly rod for some time now with a friend I met here on FAOL.
If someone ever does get it right----LOOK OUT.
This information is from just a Rookie.
For the record, this pattern will work 12 months, in lakes, streams, rivers, ponds, east to west coast, north to south.
I am sharing this information so others can have the fun I’ve had. Now I have no more secrets.
Steve (Rookie)
[This message has been edited by rookie (edited 15 May 2006).]
Hi,
I would think an olive wooly bugger would do the trick. Say, olive maraboo tail, olive chen. body, grizzle hackle, and a red wire rib? You could mix a touch of red and black maraboo into the tail?
I recently was in the same boat as you. I have a pond near me which has a large Bass population also and had low success with the fly. I tried many patterns, caught a few but not nearly like the 7" twister tailed black worm was producing on the spinning rod.
I finally tied up a clouser type fly with rabbit zonker (approx. 5" long) with a cross cut rabbit collar, lead eyes and a bucktail wing. Tied them up in black & olive rabbit with a wing of purple or chartruse (spelling?). That thing really comes to life in the water. First cast resulted in a bass approx. four pounds. It’s now my go to fly in this pond and seems to do a good job.
The real bonus is they only take a couple of minutes to tie.
Give it a try and if you want a picture I’ll be glad to email you one.
It is me again. Just thought of another fly you could try if you want. Once again, go to the left and click on Fly Tying and type in the Search Window: Hard Hackle Worm
This could be tied with barbell eyes to get it down and I think it would work well for you. It has produced 17" rainbows so I think it would turn the heads of those bass. It has great action in the water.
I’ve another idea as well. A “highly modified” red setter (fuzzy wuzzy type pattern) might work.
If you search FAOL for red setter, the pattern will turn up (tail: black or red squirrel tail; body: orange cheneil (sp?); two hackles, one mid-body one at the head, tied in with 45 degree slant).
The idea would be to use olive maraboo for the tail; move the hackles “back one step”; ie, one at the tail and one mid body, none at the head; use olive furnace or olive grizzle feathers for the two hackles; and olive cheneil for the body; olive thread for the head.
To get the black and red “specs”, I suppose you could try an under body dubbing (mix of red and black seal fur) and pick it out to stick out between the wraps of the cheneil?
I fish for Bass (largemouth and smallmouth) in Minnesota. Our Bass Season start on Memorial Day Weekend, and ends at the end of September. Short season, but the fish take a long time to warm up after being frozen inside an ice chunk 7 months out of 12.
Anyway I have no problem catching Bass, using Salmon Fly Hooks, tying them in Scuplin, Crawfish Patterns. I also dress the hooks using Steelhead patterns, mostly hairwings. I also dress some salmon hooks using the Thunder Creek patterns for minnows. ~Parnelli
A coworker was talking about his trip last weekend (details below) and the bass he caught. He used a few things that I have no experience with since I mostly fish for trout and salmon, but I can ask what worked for him in this area if anyone’s interested.
Location: Lake Owyhee
At 139,000 acres, Lake Owyhee is Oregon?s largest reservoir. Used both to provide irrigation water for surrounding farmlands and for water-based recreation, the lake was formed by damming the Owyhee River, which flows out of the high-desert country and into the Snake River near Nyssa, on the Oregon-Idaho border. Lake Owyhee is located in a rugged desert canyon and has about 150 miles of shoreline. Average depth of the reservoir is about 80 feet. Maximum depth is 117 feet. An excellent warmwater fishery, it is especially known for its black crappie, although it also contains excellent populations of largemouth and smallmouth bass and channel catfish. Crappie here average around 7 or 8 inches. Largemouth bass are typically in the 14- to 16-inch range, while smallmouth grow to 12 to 14 inches. Channel catfish are typically about 2 pounds, although fish up to 8 pounds prowl the lake?s depths. Key Species: black crappie, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, channel catfish.
My best imitation is a crawfish fly that I tied to look like a rubber tube for smallies. I use a 3/0 stainless hook with a dumbell eye tied in near the hook eye to ride hook up. I use 2 marabou feathers criss-crossed at the hook bend for claws (rubber skirt). The rest of the fly is yarn tapered down to the hook eye. I then rough up the yarn using a velcro popsicle stick and dab silicone all along the yarn body keeping it spikey and then let it dry. Once it is finished it feels rubbery like a tube. By keeping it spikey insead of smooth it gives the fish something soft to chew on
To copy your tube I would just throw on some rubber leggs half way inbetween the eye and hook bend.
Who has time for stress when there are fish to catch.
Nick
One of the difficulties in translating spinning/casting lures to a fly rod equivalent is our human penchant for ‘looks’.
I could sit down at the vice right now, and with available materials and some trial and error, tie a castable fly that will look just like that Hog of yours. I guarantee that it won’t catch the same fish, though.
To get something that will ‘catch the same fish’ (which is what you really want, right?), requires knowledge of how and where you are fishing the bait-How are you ‘working’ it, how much weight is being used (that includes the weight of the bait itself, of course), how deep are you fishing, etc…
What you need to contrive is a fly rod lure that will have the same action and ‘triggers’ as the BrushHog. That will change depending on how you fish it.
More than likley, the best substitute won’t look anything like the BrushHog, but will work just as well in the same situations.
Just as an example, the Clouser Minnow, properly tied, is the best fly rod equivalent to the texas rigged plastic worm. The Gartside Gurgler will catch the same fish as the Zara Spook, etc…
Good luck with this quest, and please let us know if you find something that works.
