Largemouth flies/poppers

Fishing Panfish & Warm Water
1

I am looking for the wisdom of the group for the best flies/poppers for largemouth fishing in a farm pond in Northern Indiana. Thanks.

2

Welcome aboard FAOL. The new guy always brings the donuts, coffee and gathers the firewood the first time around. I’m a little north and west of you but I am certain the largemouth will love clousers when you want to fish deep. Dragon flies, when they’re out flying, are a real fun top water bait also. You can find the recipes on FAOL too.:slight_smile:

3

Welcome aboard Doc, my best advise is “match the hatch”. What are the bass eating, frogs, minnows? Flies that most closely resembly natural food sources will probably be most successful. Remember fish tend to eat what’s in the water more than what’s on the water.

Somebody will probably come along with some good advise but that’s my best shot, but I mostly catch bass while bream fishing. I have a couple of 5 1/2 lb. fish on No. 8 or 10 size flies fished under foam grasshoppers or poppers.

4

Doc,

Over the years I’ve had a tremendously good luck with deer hair poppers of various shapes and sizes. I’ve never found bass to be too picky, if it moves and they’re hungry, the’ll eat it. I used to troll a deer hair popper behind my float tube on a lake that I lived on when I was practicing in Michigan. I hammered them that way. I’ve also had great luck using the standard foam bodied poppers…and the little bluegill poppers.

If you’re fishing from a boat and have some weeds or lillies close to shore, then I’d cast as close to them as possible, or in a hole. I’ve caught bass by letting it just sit or by stripping it in…just about any retrieve worked for me.

Hope this helps,

TT

5

CowDoc,

Here are three of my favorites.

http://www.flyofthemonthclub.com/store/catalog.asp?item=774

http://www.flyfishsaltwaters.com/fly_rattle_pillow_pop.htm

And right here on FAOL … :slight_smile:

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw2/061603fotw.php

p.s. I’m like Uncle Jesse though. I catch most of my bass while chasing bluegill, shellcracker and specks (crappie). :slight_smile:

6

p.s. Don’t let the “Saltwater” in the fly’s name stop you from tying these. Scale them down if you feel you need to but to me, a popper is a popper is a popper. They’ll fish in salt or fresh!! :wink:

7

This is easy. The first choice is a Zonker Leech in black, or purple:

For Topwater, a Crease Fly, in any number of patterns. My favorite is Perch:

And when all else fails, go to a Clouser Minnow in Fire Tiger colors:

I know this is not a clouser. It’s my Fire Tiger Streamer. I couldn’t find a picture of my clouser. Just tie a clouser, and use these colors.

They only allow 3 pictures, I think, so I will continue this on the next post.

8

For Big, mean bass in big water, I use my baitfish patterns:

And, my Swiss Straw Crawfish patterns always work anywhere there are rocks, and crawfish:

And when absolutely everything else fails, go to a black, or olive Woolly Bugger. No need for a picture. Everyone knows what they look like. If You can’t catch anything on a Woolly Bugger, you might as well go home, because they aren’t biting anything.

9

Awesome. Thanks so much for the help. Now I have a Christmas list for my wife!
PS to “Turvy”: I used to live in DeWitt, Iowa so I know where Cresco is - stayed there on RAGBRAI many years ago.

10

CowDoc: I had 125 people staying in my backyard when you bikers were in town a few years ago. Fun time indeed. The group that stayed behind my house was organized out of Ames and came with a trailer equipped with five heated showers…all I did was supply them an outside faucet and they were good to go.