I read all the posts about people using poppers this time of year and it makes me scratch my head in wonder. I catch over 90% of my warmwater fish sub surface and end up catching much more/larger fish. I’ve been out twice in the last week and caught around 30 fish each trip with a good mix of bass ranging in size from 12-18 inches long and bream with four or five 12 inch fish mixed in. I caught all these fish on one pattern (the Carter’s sculpin) in basic black. Later in the year, I’ll tie on a popper or foam spider, but I still get larger fish sub surface. Am I the only person that finds that much difference between top water and sub surface fishing this time of year?
James
I have to agree with you and have caught a few small bluegill and bass on poppers most of my fish and larger fish have come sub surface, mostly on small clousers and minibuggers. I still fish the poppers because I’m still hoping for the excitement of a large bass exploding on a popper. I’ve been reading Bluegill Flies and Fly Fishing and according to the book this is the time of year when your chances are best.
Greg
I gotta say my experiences here in SC are identical
to what your experiencing in Georgia. You can catch
the odd fish on surface fare but the bulk are coming
on wets. Same as every spring here.G
Warm regards, Jim
I will admit, I have very little expierence with subsurface fishing. If I catch fewer and smaller fish because of it, I’m OK with that. I LOVE topwater! Seeing a bass explode on my popper, does it for me. I know at most times I may be missing out, but that’s OK with me.
I will say though, that there are times when topwater is the only place to be. i.e. just before dusk when the frogs become active along the shore line. You’ll have all the action you have been waiting for, provided of course that there is a good frog population where your fishing.
Jim,
I’m on your page too. Got out today for a couple hours with my 3 wt. A black woolly worm took 2 decent gills, 2 nice crappie, & a freight train break-off (aka channel cat!). I always fare better sub surface on the ponds I fish in Spring, & take larger fish sub surface in all seasons.
Mike
praise to the subsurface flies as well. just got back from about an hour of fishing. brought about 15 to hand, bluegill and crappie. had a decent 9" gill and an 11" crappie. the rest were dinks, but fun. all on a #10 prince nymph and a #10 flashback hare’s ear.
Jim,
I agree with you, too. Right now here in north central Texas the bass are coming to the top and hitting poppers only about 30 minutes before dark, and that’s really only if the wind has died down almost completely, which is very seldom.
Joe
Just about ANY time of the year, bass do the vast majority of thier feeding ‘below’ the surface.
Subsequently, you can usually catch many more fish on subsurface patterns.
The lure, if you’ll pardon the pun, to topwater is the visual excitement it generates.
I know that if I fish subsurface patterns I’ll catch more and larger fish.
I just don’t care. I’ve caught enough fish. I just LOVE seeing them hit a top water fly. All that water flying, that peculiar ‘sound’ that a bass makes hitting a deer hair bug, that first ‘jump’ when the fish feels the hook…nothing like it anywhere else.
So, if there is a good chance I’ll catch a few on top, that’s what I’ll throw. I’m not a fanatic about it, I still fish subsurface when that’s the only way. Topwater is just a special way to catch a fish and I really prefer it.
Jack Hise and I fished the Duck River today and I just had to throw “Sam’s One Bug” for bluegills and caught around 6 that were hand size and they were a hoot! Also caught half dozen black perch around the 8" mark and they were caught below the surface on a Reverse Spider. I still like throwing the popper just for the fun of surface hits. By the way, Jack caught 8 rainbows today and I caught 13. So, Jack and I had a great time!
I fished a small pond late this afternoon in a local park. It’s fairly shallow and has LOTS of fuzzy gunk growing off the bottom. Fishing subsurface causes your fly to get gunk gunk gunk gunk gunk on every cast.
Suspending a nymph under a strike indicator works for the deeper parts, but for the shallower areas, the nymph is too close to the strike indicator.
So, I switched to a yellow foam spider while the others fishing this little pond stayed with nymphs.
After the second or third bluegill came to hand on the foam spider, other switched too and improved their results.
I’m not arguing with the folks in this thread. I’m just saying that sometimes, surface works better because there’s too much algea in the shallow parts and staying above it keeps the fly cleaner and thus working better.
Here’s where I was fishing today:
Once I figured out to switch to the foam fly, and where to put it for best results on this little pond, I had a half dozen of these (plus at least that many misses):
Mind you, I started searching this pond with a greenie weenie but quickly got tired of cleaning it after every retrieve.
I tried a small bead head nymph (olive bead head hare’s ear I think) but it too kept gunking up no matter how shallow I kept it.
After watching something trying like crazy to eat my strike indicator, I switched to surface flies and started hooking up (nothing was hitting the surface at that time which is part of why I started out below surface).
It might be, too, that your just not fishing the poppers correctly. I’ve been fishing poppers here in s.e. North Carolina for at least three weeks with pretty good success. Now, I can go sub-surface, but why would I want to when I enjoy fishing poppers more?
I also had the opposite of what is being said here. This time it was a 5 acre pond with a maximum depth of 12 feet, and I wanted to try the new flies I had tied so I first went subsurface. This fly is a glass beadhead mini-bugger with a hackle body and peacock tail. Very buggy looking and I really wanted it to work. I was having some success but my buddy was nailing them on a small blue popper. As soon as I switched, my action was on too. Color didnt matter, and the popper would barely touch surface when WHAM! These were mostly shellcrackers and Bluegills, but were very large, one well over a pound. The bass were lethargic even though the temperature was up.
Also, I am certainly farther north than some of the posts on here…so its warm but not that warm??
I don’t start using any surface flies until the spawn comes. Subsurface flies work better for me until then.
I think it is mostly the water temps. Those of you who don’t freeze ponds over probably don’t need to worry about it.
Being new to the warm water seen I must ask, does anyone out there throw BWO’s, Adams or Griffith’s Gnar’s or any of the “typical” springtime trout dries? Or do most warm water species ignore these insects?
To comment on the thread…I’ve had all my luck this spring on subsurface flies, but that is only b/c I haven’t seen anything coming to the surface and haven’t tried anything on top.
Usually a big factor around here is pond roll-over, however, we had a real mild winter this season. Another factor, again in these parts, just as with the nearby ocean fishing, is the spring equinox.
