LMB fly fishing 101, need help

Fishing Warm water Forum
1

I have some questions on fly fishing for LMB. I find that they seem to be hit or miss when I try to go out for them, I think more miss. I have read one book(author Wilson)and several articles and that didn’t seem to help. I think unless the bass are hitting on top, it is very difficult to get them unless it is in the spring, then it’s easier. Dog days of summer seem to be the most difficult. I have tied and tried several different styles of flies to no avail. Poppers, gurgler’s. purple rabbits strip worms, bluegill imitations, I even tied a clouser with a rattle and sili legs on back. I must say that smaller LMB are very easy to catch on a small yellow gurgler. I have been trout fishing more lately but that’s because they seem easier to catch.

I’d like to improve my success rates so I’ll take and any and all advice at this point. I think one of my big weakness is not retrieving the fly slow enough.

Thanks John

2

John,
Larger bass can be fickle at times. My response is based upon fishing at a couple of smaller lakes and a river … I have had reasonable success on a black leach pattern. It’s a simple tie … black zonker strip tail (tail length total of about 1 inch, and a black rabbit hair body applied with a dubbing loop. I think the dubbing loop application allows for the streamer to “pulse” or “breathe” when stripped. Late Spring and through the Summer the LMB have eaten this fly. As a bonus, trout will eat this pattern as well.:wink: Good luck.

3

Most people (fishing any tackle) underestimate the power of a slow retrieve coupled with a fly/lure that has a ton of movement even when it’s sitting still. I often have bass hit flies when they’ve been sitting motionless for minutes at a time or during long pauses between strips. This is especially important when fishing heavy cover as the bass needs time to leave his ambush point, find the fly, identify it as potential food, then eat the sucker. The bigger/smarter the bass, the longer this process will probably take. Lately I’ve been fishing flies with a lot of rabbit fur, marabou, rubber legs, or any other material that with move a bunch even when I’m not manipulating the fly. If the book you read was Terry and Roxanne Wilson’s, I found it to be very helpful, myself, but there are always things peculiar to the particular water you fish that you’ll have to puzzle out on you own.

One other note: Many of my largest bass have come on flies much smaller than you might associate with bass fishing. Big flies weed out the little bass, but even big bass will take small flies if they fit the forage profile of the water you are fishing.

4

Slow presentations are often most effective. Unless I see evidence that bass are actively chasing prey, and if attempts to draw reaction strikes are unsuccessful, I fish my flies just like I do plastic worms - slow and near the bottom or tight to structure.

To avoid donating flies to the lake, I tie most of my bass flies, including woolly buggers, with weed guards.

I will sometimes use a floating line, and I even use an indicator to keep the fly at a controlled depth if I feel I need to do that But I use sink tip and sinking lines quite a bit too. With floating lines and sink tips, you need to pay attention to what your line (or indicator) is doing. I think with about 75% of the bass I catch fishing slow like this I did not feel the grab, I just observed something in the line. A floating fly fished on a sinking line is always worth a try. The line sinks to the bottom and the fly floats up. I have tied woolly buggers with foam underbodies that will float. I change leader length to control how far above the bottom the fly floats.

5

Okay have any of you caught a nice LMB with a big streamer using a fast retrieve? Are most of the nice bass taken in the weed beds and near shorelines?

6

I have caught some nice LMB on big streamers, some flies as 8" long, on fast or fast stop and go retrieves. I have caught them like this right along shore structure, near weed beds, near deep structure (rock piles, points, submerged trees), along current seams in moving water, or in the pelagic areas of the lake where bass may be chasing schooled bait (threadfin shad, trout, smelt, etc). The bass need to be in the right mood.

During the spring and fall I will often cast a big streamer tight to visible structure, strip the fly back about 10 feet, then pickup and recast. The grab usually comes on the first couple of strips. Or I will cast near submerged structure and work it past quickly.

I have found that usually, a stop and go retrieve, consisting of 2 to 5 or so hard strips each 2 to 3 ft long followed by a pause works better than a steady retrieve. The strikes often come on the pause.

7

JK,

Bass Flyfishing 101:

Bass fishing is mostly presentation, seldom 'which fly?. Most bass fly fishermen forget that.

You have to fish where the fish are. You have to fish something at the correct depth, and then you have to fish something that bass will eat (this is the esay part, they’ll eat just about anything).

Location, location, location…just like real estate. Finding the fish is the most critical factor. Where they are in a lake will vary on season, weather, and water clarity. Millions of words have been written on this…but, oversimplified, the fish move shallow to spawn in the spring…deeper in the summer and winter, tend to be on the move in the fall. Luckily for us, they don’t move FAR, so if you can find a few good points on the main lake there will be fish on them SOMEWHERE all year long.

Correct depth is the hardest component of that equation. Bass don’t feed actively more than a couple of hours each day, and that’s usually at night. During that time, they will chase vertically, often amazing distances, to capture prey. The rest of the time, you have to trigger a strike, and to do that, your fly has to be close enough to them in depth for them to react to it.

Presenting the fly is both the easiest thing to do, and hardest to figure out. Retrieve speed is often critical to the DEPTH equation…usually if you fish slower, the fly sinks deeper…the only way to get it right is to first decide how deep you want to fish, then use a variety of retrieve speeds that work at that depth until you find out what the fish want.

To make is simple for a beginner:

Find two main lake points on your lake…a long one with a gentle slope, and a steep one that goes into the deepest part of the lake.

Fish the longer one spring and fall. Concentrate on depths from two to ten feet. Early spring and late fall, fish the sides of the point where there might be secondary coves or drop off. As the water warms in the spring, fish on top of the point around any visible cover.

Fish the steep one winter and summer. Get someplace where your cast can cover a range of water depths…(That’s why we want a steep slope). Concentrate on depths from ten to thirty feet (I personally don’t like to fly fish deeper than this…you can, but I just don’t like to do it). Once you find the correct depth, turn and cast ACROSS the point to concentrate your efforts at the dcorrect depth. Obviously, you’ll need a sinking line to do this effectively.

Some bass fly fishermen prefer to target topwater. It’s certainly more fun, if limiting, and it can be very effective. If you choose to do this, it simplifies things even more.

Wait for the water to reach 70 degrees in your lake. This limits you to spring/summer/early fall most places. Fish early in the morning, late in the evening, and on cloudy days. If you can get lucky and be fishing on a calm cloudy day, you will have a ball.

Fish around shallow visible cover. Again, spring and fall you’ll do better on the shallow point, summer. The steeper one will have larger fish.

There are exceptions to all of this, and nothing is ever 100%, but this is a reasonable place to start.

And, one presentation tip…it’s something that I call fishing fast slowly…bass can be triggered to strike by darting movements. But, they don’t need to be long darting movements…learn to move your fly with a short, quick snap of the rod tip. This moves the fly a very short distance much faster than you can by strippng, and can often trigger a strike. It doesn’t work all the time, but it works more often that you’d think. I always use it first for topwater fishing, and always try it with sunken flies.

As to which fly? A black and red semi seal leech has caught bass for me in EVERY lake I’ve ever tried it on from Minnesota to Mexico, Florida to California. But so has an all black wolly bugger…I think they really don’t care much, if it’s in the right place and moving correctly, they’ll eat it.

Buddy

8

Fishing unfamiliar waters, for Largemouth Bass, is a long trying process of being constantly “Skunked”!

You need a map of the lake your fishing, to see the contours of the submerged landscape of the lake. You need to find out the structure, of the lake, and the type of material on the lake bottom. Look for sunken islands in the lake, these outcrops, that are surrounded by deeper water, they are perfect honey holes, for Largemouth Bass. Use surface flies (with weed-guards) across these submerged spots. Cast into openings in the surface weed patch.

I live in Minnesota, so in the early summer (Bass Season opens in latter part of May), I concentrate on the shoreline on the northern end of the lake, where the water is warmer. Largemouth Bass, are sluggish, when the water temperature is below 70? F.

Later into Summer as the aquatic vegetation, starts reaching the surface, I look for deep water that is closer to the shore. Fish do not have eyelids, so they seek out overhead shade from the sunlight. Also deeper water allows them to seek for a layer of water in the lake that is to their liking and comfort, with vegetation to camouflage them for their ambush spot (aka: Honey Hole).

Docks, and Floating Rafts are also great search sites, for Largemouth Bass, as trees with limbs over-hanging above the water.

You can fish from the shoreline, but you increase your possibilities, if you have a watercraft (I use a Poontube). I fish during the week days, when there is little or not watercraft action on the water (everyone is a at their 9 to 5 jobs).

Take your time casting along a given area, first on the surface, then in the depths (I use two fly rods when fishing, one setup with a surface fly, the other for searching the depths). I am only allowed to fish one line, in Minnesota, so instead of switching fly patterns, I switch fly rods.

Once you find your “Honey Holes”, mark them in a log book. Once you found a “Honey Hole” there will always be a Big Bass in residence.

While on family vacation, my wife caught a 5 pound Largemouth Bass, three days in a row. Casting from the end of one dock, to the next dock, at 8 AM. Each day she caught a 5 pound Bass, each day it was a different Bass, because she always kept the one she caught. “She Who Must Be Obeyed”, aka: SWABO, was using a stout fishing rod with a bait-cast reel, casting a 12-inch long plastic worm! “Once a Honey Hole, always a Honey Hole”!

Memory is faulty. I use Marv Taylors Fishing Log, for all my fishing. You can find it in “Rules of Engagement”
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3

Actually I think the 29 articles Marv Taylor wrote for FAOL, are a must read for fishing Lakes and Stillwater, specially for Bass!

~Parnelli

Post Script: I created a PDF version of Marv’s “Fishing Log” so you can print out your own blank log sheets for your records.

If anyone wants my version of Marv’s Fishing Log Sheet (PDF), contact me at parnelli@comcast.net

Memory is faulty, the weakest pencil stroke to paper, is strongest than the human memory.

9

The last two post were very informative, thank you very much.

Any advice for fishing canals which are no more than 20’ across. There is one 5 min from my house which this spring I saw a very, very large bass. I’ve gotted skunked more times than I care to talk about on these. Very cloudy and hard to read. Didn’t even get any with a purple rabbit strip.

-JK

10

A lot of Bass fishing with the fly is figuring out the predator/prey relationships of the water you fish. Even large bass no doubt recall the time or two they escaped an eagle, osprey, gator or big gar. Fish for them where they can lie concealed and ambush their prey. Fish early and late primarily but don’t negelect the deeper water haunts in the day. Canal fishing at first appears to be featureless except for banks, entering canals and such. Look for snags, or anything that spells structure. Low water is a good time to mark the bottom features. Otherwise go for the near bank structure evenings and mornings when low light conditions favor the Basses vision and hinders the high flying predators that have given him problems in the past. During twilight and on into dark a frog pattern bounced off the cross shore and into the water is deadly in frog country. Let it hit and sit until you can’t stand it then twitch it ever so slightly.

11

JK,

Canals can be tough, primaily because so much of it looks all the same.

Bass will ALWAYS relate to edges and what we call ‘breaks’. A break is some kind of ‘change’ on an edge…picture a drop off with a big rock laying in one spot on it’s top…the bass will ‘relate’ to this rock. In a canal, these are very important…the main ‘edges’ you’ll find will be the shorelines, the bottom where the sides meet it, and the surface.

You’ll want to concentrate your fishing where something intersects or interrupts one of these edges…a connecting canal…any concrete or rock structures that jut out into the flow…a tree limb that’s fallen in…an old car laying on the bottom…things like that.

Canals generally have current. Current is your friend, as bass, just like trout in rivers, almost always face into the flow. So, when fishing a canal, casting upstream/across and working your bait downstream will have the fly moving where the fish will expect to see it most times.

There are three types of water clarity…scientist classify them as ‘clear’, ‘stained’, and ‘muddy’. If you can see a white object in direct sunlight five feet down or deeper, the water is clear. If you can only see it from one to five feet, then the water is stained. If the object disapears before one foot of depth, the water is muddy. Color of the water, like green, brown, etc., doesn’t matter here.

Since bass are sight feeders, this is important. Bass can and will use their sense of hearing, both audible and vibration, to ‘locate’ prey, but they will seldom, if ever, eat something they can’t ‘see’. Luckily, their vision underwater is several orders of magnitude better than what we ‘see’.

In muddy water, you need to fish larger flies that push more water. This puts out more of those helpful vibrations into the water, helping to let the bass know your fly is there. If the water is warm, rattles can be a helpful addition (cold muddy water is whole 'nother issue-drive hundreds of miles to avoid it if you can:( ).

You want to use black flies (black is the most visible in dark water because it gives a cleaner profile). Add a contrasting color if you like, but all black seem to be the most effective (most colors quickly fade to varying shades of gray in muddy water anyway).

Bass are very tactile, especially in muddy water. They like to be right up against whatever cover or structure they have chosen to inhabit under these conditions. Since they can’t see far, this means you want to cast/fish your flies right up against any cover you can. You may need to address issues like weed guards or patterns where the hook rides up to do this effectively.

Depth control can be an issue if the current is particularly strong. This means weight on the fly or a sinking line, and spending some time figuring out where your fly really ‘is’ as far it’s relation to where it landed, how far it sank, and where the current took it, etc… Only way to figure this out is to fish there a lot and pay attention while you do.

Make multiple casts to each target you find. Rather than fan cast and try to cover a large area, fish specific ‘spots’. Hit every inch of any visible cover with multiple casts. If there is a tree limb laying in the muddy water, you are much more likely to catch fish making a hundred casts to it than you are if you fish a larger area of open water.

In low light conditions, a large, noisy, black topwater bug can draw some impressive strikes fished right along the edge of the canal. You need to make it pop and splash to draw the fish up…just remember to have a good grip and a stable heart.

Good Luck!

Buddy