Pike and Bass flies

[Caliborn]

So I want to try and catch pike and bass at 2 local lakes here in Wyoming. I presently have a Cabelas stowaway 6wt 9'0" rod and an old 11'0" custom made rod from the early 90's. And this year I won't be able to save money for a new 8-9wt. I'm wondering what flies can I look at tying or buying that I can effectively cast with these rods? Big, bushy, and light enough to cast. Or material that'll give me fly length without too much wind resistance.
Thanks, Tim

 

[trev]

Just about any streamer that you'd use for trout will catch bass if it represents minnows found in that water, Most of the "traditional" feather wing streamers, flatwings and buck tails of the 30s-'70s were designed to be easy to cast. (those guys didn't have high speed carbon rods and super lines to work with)
Lefty's Deceiver was designed especially to get a very large fly that was easy to cast, I believe.
Anything that adds bulk and pushes water will also have more air resistance, compromise
I'd personally not use lead eyes or cone heads with a light line.
My go to flies on bass streams Tap's Bug, Gartside's Gurgler, Zonker, Woolly Bugger typically on #2-#4 hooks, for smallmouth <4#- with the exception the Zonker, I can fish these with a #5 line and a short stiff leader, although I normally use a #7. Streamers I tie to be 3"-5", and usually fish at the surface- I think I can disturb more water at the surface than I can deep.

Experiment with your line and leaders to see what works for you, my 'standard' bass leader is about 3' of 20# butt and 2' of 8# tippet. If I want longer, I'd add to the butt and maybe use 25#.
If you are floating so that the casts can be kept short, you might consider a heavy line for larger flies, I would.

 

[SkipS]

Two flies you really want to use are the deciever and the gurgler,as Trev mentioned.Both of these can be tied with long saddle hackle tails to give length without bulk.A seaducer is another good choice and I never bass fish without some bendback streamers.We dont have pike here but pickerel love all these flies.I also tie some Clousers with bead chain eyes for shallower water that are easy to cast.I usually upline my 6wt with a #7 line as I fish from a canoe.This gives me more options on what I can throw.My bass leader is a 6-7ft piece of #20 mono.This turns larger flies and poppers over easily and bass are not leader shy.It also makes it easier to retrieve flies out of the weeds and lily pads.

 

[trev]

seaducer

I could not think of that name even picturing it in my mind. An early bass fly from the 1800s that still works.

On the leaders I step mine down so that I can break it off if hung up in a submerged root wad or limestone crack, a straight leader of 20# would be fine if hangups like that aren't a problem.

 

[LOC]

So I want to try and catch pike and bass at 2 local lakes here in Wyoming. I presently have a Cabelas stowaway 6wt 9'0" rod and an old 11'0" custom made rod from the early 90's. And this year I won't be able to save money for a new 8-9wt. I'm wondering what flies can I look at tying or buying that I can effectively cast with these rods? Big, bushy, and light enough to cast. Or material that'll give me fly length without too much wind resistance.
Thanks, Tim

For tying this guys spends a good deal of time on how to make big predator flies made to cast.
He is great at the vice, good at explaining it as well, plus no nonsense.

Headsup, his opening music on the intro is better for moshing or crushing a tallboy on your forehead than fly tying but once you get past it he is one of the better tube-tyers.

 

[philly]

I use a 9' 6 wgt for most of my bass fishing. I've added some larger flies that I'll have to use my 8 wgt for this coming year. Some frog patterns and poppers in the 4 to 5 inch range. They're just a bit bulky for my 6 wgt. Generally, you can catch bass on flies 2 to 4 inches long. I caught the bass in my avatar on a fly that was about 2 inches long. One thing I would suggest is finding out what type of bait fish are in the lakes you plan to fish. That way you can tailor the flies you tie or buy to match their size and color. The Deceiver is a good pattern. I don't really use it, preferring to use artificial hair for my bait fish patterns. Unweighted or lightly weighted Zonkers would be another choice. Top water, gurglers work well, easy to tie out of craft foam, you can change up the materials. I use marabou for the tail and add legs to them for bass. You can buy pre-soft foam popper bodies. They're usually white but can be colored using permanent markers. Just need to add a tail and legs. I like eyes on my poppers, but they're not necessary. White and yellow have always been good colors for me. I use size 6 to size 1, usually on 2 or 3XL, hooks. Another salt water top water pattern that crosses over to fresh is the Crease Fly. Made out of craft foam it's a fairly easy pattern to tie. Tail is usually made out of buck tail. Use permanent markers to color it to match the bait fish.
The only time I do any serious pike fishing is when I go up to Northern Ontario. Hopefully, the border will be open by the time my friends and I head up there in late August. My best fly for pike has been another salt water fly. I use a variation of Bob Popovics "Semper Fleye" It's not a hard pattern to tie, basic materials are bucktail, saddle hackle. . You can easily tie one 7 inches long that can be cast with a 6 wgt. Most of the weight of the fly is the hook. All white has caught most of the pike. This is what my version looks like. I've added estaz grande between the hackle wraps and a head and eyes to it.

It's tied on 3/0 Daiichi 2461
I use a weight forward floating line most of the time, though I do have an intermediate and a sinking line on spare spools for my 6 wgt. I use a bass grade furled thread leader with 4 or 5 feet of 25# fluorocarbon tippet.
Based on past experience you can probably land both bass and pike in the 5 to 6 lb range on the 6 wgt. It can get interesting at times though.

 

[peterk1234]

I am a big fan of any type of white and chartreuse streamers. But my favorite are foam poppers. I use an 8 wt though but if you tie them a bit smaller, a 6 should get them out there. The hits from the pickerel are insane! They miss half the time but they fly out of the water. Oh, and they are easy to tie.

 

[philly]

That's an interesting looking fly. I've never thought of tying knots in craft foam to make legs for frogs. That's a great idea. Something new to run with.

 

[Caliborn]

Thanks everyone. i appreciate the info. Trev thanks for the leader into too. I'll plan on the deciever and gurgler for sure. Philly thanks for the fly I'm glad my 6 and 7 wts won't be too light for pike. And LOC thanks for the video I'll watch it tomorrow on my day off. Peterk1234 that's a cool looking frog I'll have to try it. It'll be cool to see a pike or bass smash a popper. White and chartreuse will be on my list then.
Theres still plenty of ice on our lakes but I'm hoping by the end of march or beginning of april to have some pics to post of my catches.

 

[Caliborn]

here is my first attempt at a semper fleye

 

[Caliborn]

I'm using what materials I have now. I plan on ordering some schlappen feathers soon.
will this 5-7" schlappen from hairline work or is there some larger that I should get?

 

[smoke33]

When I spincast for pike I always use a steel leader. How or what is used for fly fishing for pike? Is there a fly steel leader?


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[smoke33]

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[philly]

When I spincast for pike I always use a steel leader. How or what is used for fly fishing for pike? Is there a fly steel leader?

There's knotable steel or coated wire available to use as leader material. Pretty much the same stuff you would use for wire leaders when spin fishing. I don't use wire leaders when I'm fly fishing for pike or chain pickerel. We go up to Northern Ontario in mid to late summer when the big pike are deep. If you catch a pike bigger than 30 inches your lucky. Around here, I mostly fish for chain pickerel, a good size fish would be in the 24 to 28 inch range. I tie my pike streamers on 3 XL hooks, which will act as a bite guard unless the fish totally inhales the fly. Normal set up for me is a 5 foot tippet of 25 lb fluorocarbon, if I am getting bite-offs I'll go up to 30 or 40 lb tippet.

here is my first attempt at a semper fleye

Nice job. Only suggestion would be to make the head smaller by adding a few more wraps of the red hackle. That will definitely catch fish.

 

[Caliborn]

Thanks Philly. I will add more red hackle.

 

[NJ Catch and Release]

When I spincast for pike I always use a steel leader. How or what is used for fly fishing for pike? Is there a fly steel leader?


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I've used the SA pike/musky leader with wire and a clip. I like that setup but I have also just used heavy mono. Pike aren't leader shy!

 

[Joey Bagels]

Guys assume big, gnarly flies with pornographic names attract big, gnarly fish.
Sometimes.
But I’ve caught more huge bass and sunfish on a #4 olive wooly bugger than anything else.
Like this 6# specimen yesterday. On 6# tippet and a 3 wt rod.

 

[bigjim5589]

Some great advice given here. my big streamers that I use for LM bass and Striped Bass are based on the Deceiver. I like the flatwing versions too as they can but rather large, but still comparatively light.

Check out Joe Bruce's Bullet Head Darter flies too. Joe's caught a variety of fish on them and they're a productive style that is not difficult to tie.

These can be scaled to any size you like, or feel will work with your gear.