[Teamanglerx]

I was a tournament bass fisherman for many years and I am having problems adjusting to bass'n with a fly rod. I can use poppers easily (hard to screw them up) but that limits my fishing. What are good flies for bass fishing? Can you bottom fish flies like a plastic lures? Can you add weed guards to existing flies? Any help would be appreciated.

[ezamora]

i've flyfished for largemouth bass once and it was GREAT fun for me. usually i fish for trout on the fly, often dry flies so it was a bit of an adjustment for me too.

the one pattern a friend recommended which i learned to tie very easily (i don't usually tie but have a vise) was a bunny leech. so simple and it would have been just as easy to include a weed guard if i had pursued it. i'd fling out the weighted bunny leech, wait, and start stripping it in. i'm not sure how deep they went (10ft) but i hooked into plenty of largemouth bass that way. the leeches had barbell weighted eyes and were tied using either purple or black bunny strips. both were equally effective.

of course, having never fished for bass, i took some top water flies as well, poppers and such. that was fun as well.

with the bigger-than-trout-flies i planned to use, i of course needed a bigger rod and line and moving from my normal 4wts, i used a 7 wt rod i had just wrapped. i used a floating 7wt bass taper line with one reel and an 8wt type VI sink tip line on another reel (local shop did not have a 7wt line in sink tip) for the bunny leeches. the added 8wt line gave me more weight to cast the heavier leeches, though it's far from "casting", just lob the thing out there. i also had the luxury of using a float tube to move out into the small lake and cover more water than if i had fished only from the bank. hopefully this helps. there are others who have much more experience than i and hopefully they'll add some tips.

eric
fresno, ca.

[Jose]

Here are a few decent articles on Bass and fly fishing that might help you out.

Fly Fishing Techniques, Fly Fishing for Bass - MidCurrent

Fly Anglers OnLine, Your Complete Internet Flyfishing Resource.

Tying Up Weedless Flesh Fly Patterns - Alaska Flyfishing Online Tips

I'm partial to clousers, large muddlers, crystal buggers and dahlberg divers. You can always use shot or a sinking line if you want to go deeper.

I tie a simple deer hair head with black marabou and some green flash that also works well on bass, with and without a lead wraps.

The more sparse the better it seems for some of these- read this also if you tie: Bob Clouser's Deep Minnow