[GeorgeMcFly]

other day tried out a new spot and I got me a rock bass on my own tied rubber legged spider. 1st bass on a top water fly! then today i went back and same hole had bass following my spider but they were wary. so I opted for a bought black wolley bugger with beadhead. 1st 2 casts, 2 rock bass! ended up hitting 7 or 8 rocks from about the same spot! they had red eyes so they r rock bass right? I confuse um with smallies. went to another spot wher we hit the gills the other day too and nothing at 1st so i let it sink and sit and bam!!! took my line to the reel and took out drag. i palmed to try to stop it and it worked! i went to crank the big boy in and pop!!!! off it came. didn't lose my bugger but I lost a huge fish! could of been a big cat or sucker fish! maybe a bass but the way it stayed down made me think it was a cat or sucker. oh well always next time!!!

[Frank Whiton]

Hi George,

Most pan fish or bass don't have much interest in surface flies. There are times they will take poppers. If you stick to sub-surface you will catch more fish. When playing a fish from the reel you cannot reel in the fish. You reel in slack line. So only reel when the fish is moving toward you or you have slack line. When I say slack line I mean you are still in contact with the fish but it is not pulling against you. You never want complete slack line or the fish will toss the fly.

I am a little concerned about my use of the comment of "slack line". When fighting a fish the fish will ebb and surge in its fight to get away. It will pull against the currant, it well rest, it will run at you and it will jump. It is the periods of change, rest and moving toward you that you reel. The fish moving toward you can be the result of you applying pressure to the fish.

Frank

[GeorgeMcFly]

thanks for the tip frank. maybe It was my fault he tossed it. I tried to keep it tight but I am not used to going to the reel. only been there about 3 times since I started and this was the 4th. I also tried not to get too excited. next time I will take your advice. i didn't wanna man handle the thing and break my line so I kinda let him run while I palmed it. I could feel him shaking around trying to toss the fly and it happened to favor him this time. I am not sure if it was a cat because usually a cat has that tough lip and its hard to lose one of those. it might of been a sucker or carp. now i need to make me some of these buggers! it wasn't a regular wooley tho, it was a beadhead flash bugger. has some flashbak strip tied in all the way down the body and through the tail and its wrapped with copper or gold wire.