Fly Fishing - Small Mouth & Large Mouth Bass Flies That Work?

joey · Location: Colorado

I am headed back to Maine over the fourth of July and although my time is limited I am going to do a little fishing on the lake where I will be staying. The lake holds some very large small mouth and large mouth bass. I have never really targeted bass before but have caught them on woolly buggers and muddler minnows off the dock. This year I would like to target these fish and see how I do. What patterns would you reccomend I try? I would really like to try and catch them on top water but any suggestions on fly patterns will be greatly appreciated.

ChrisR · Location: Southeast Massachusetts

Joey, slump busters work great for bass. If you get up to Mike's shop he has something similar that is orange and chartruese. I forget the name but it is a special locally tied and created pattern. Killer fly for just about everything. It really stands out in even murky water. For top water I have seen some nice spun deer hair flies that should work great. One I saw resembles a frog. Beans may have those in stock.

ChrisR · Location: Southeast Massachusetts

Oh yeah. Fishing a trib for stripers I had the smallies crushing a blue and silver mushmouth. It's a salt water fly by design but you never know.

AvidDavid · Location: Long Island, NY

Joey:

I have had pretty good success using poppers with rubber legs. Hula poppers work but even cheaper poppers with hackle on the hook instead of the "trademark" hula skirt that you can get at Walmart work. (I submitted a fishtale last September with a picture, but it's still in the "queue")

The simple solution:

1. Cast the popper next to the lily pads.
2. W A I T until the rings from it hitting the water dissappear.
3. Twitch it once to make it "pop."
4. W A I T until the rings from its "pop" dissappear.
5... repeat 3 and 4.

Usually the action happens at step 2 or Step 4 (the first time). Get out the 8 weight to throw these big poppers around. It is a HOOT!

AD

bigpopper · Location: Middle Tennessee

Poppers are an awsome way to catch bass! The cast and wait method mentioned above is the definite ticket. Just hang on tightly to the rod! Shocked

Hula pops are good quality and work, but so do the cheaper ones with the feathers for legs made by Betts. I pick those up at the local Bass Pro shop or Wal-mart carries them to. Tight lines to ya!

bonefisher · Location: chicago, illinois

here's what you do.. take a 2/0 hook.. tie some black feathers and some flash off the bend of the hook... then spin some purple rabbit or purple grizzly hackles up to the eye of the hook.. tie in some eyes depending on the depth of water you want to fish.. swim it like a leech and hold on.

bigpopper · Location: Middle Tennessee

darth_wader · Location: Niagara Falls, ON

Hey Gang:

I realize I'm real late to the "proverbial ball" and this post but the pattern that has flat out been my best bass fly... the Woolly Bugger. Tied in black, white, olive, brown and purple work wonders up north or in Lake Erie.

Alex

reeladdicted · Location: Port Charlotte, FL

Will any bass fly work every where or would you have to change patterns for say like Georgia or Florida?

AvidDavid · Location: Long Island, NY

I believe that they will work just about anywhere. I have used poppers successfully in Iowa, Maine, Pennsylvania, Maryland. I once brought a 3 foot gar to the boat (not into the boat) in Lake Okeechobee (Florida) with a popper; but, that's another fishtale. While that doesn't span the entire globe, it certainly is a broader area than Maine.

What may be more important is not the place (although these conditions change with different places) but the conditions. Bass tend to be a little bit wary and I suspect that they avoid risking to reveal their locations for no reward. I suspect that this anthropomorphic projection explains my observation that I have had less success with Bass during bright sun conditions at the surface. (Bluegills seem to be less wary and can be caught with poppers on the surface in bright sun conditions.) Shady areas seem to be more productive as are overcast days and dawn/dusk conditions. Warmer conditions may also lead to more sluggish behavior. Hence, the further south you are the more likely you are to have warm water, and/or sun high in the sky. Under high light conditions, the wooly bugger approach may be more productive?

An additional note... I prefer the poppers with rubber legs!

Dave

reeladdicted · Location: Port Charlotte, FL

Yea the poppers with rubber legs seem to act most like a bug accidentally landed in the water an buzzing around or about that an the bass love it

MidwestChrome · Posted: Tue 11/16/10 2:32 pm Post subject:

Poppers work, and its sweet to watch a bass smoke a popper off of the top of the water, but I like to fish with streamers for bass. I have a couple of my own patterns that work very well for bass in all conditions. I have directions for them on my blog. The one midnight mayhem is a killer fly for lake fish and can be tied in all different sizes. Also the jighead pattern works well.

Patrick
http://flybible.blogspot.com/

flyinredneck · Location: Scarborough, ME

I've been fishing smallmouth bass in maine nearly all my life. Over the past 4 years I've thrown away my spinning gear for a fly rod and reel. At first basically the tried and true tactics worked....poppers in the early AM and as the day went on I'd switch to a minnow pattern such as a clouser. This strategy certainly works however recently while fishing with a friend who uses a spinning setup and yamamoto rigged worms and was greatly out fishing me. So I stated looking for something new. I came across a hare worm pattern or something like a long leech zonker pattern. I tied several of these up in different colors. The fly mimicks the worm, yet it has twice as much wiggle and bass enticement as a plastic worm, with the rabbit fur. Try a few of these out, they have certainly rescued a few of my bad days!

MidwestChrome · Posted: Sat 07/02/11 11:54 pm Post subject:

I know that this is a few months late but for people that are still reading this, I have been using this new pattern of mine and it has been working well for both largemouth and smallmouth bass in rivers, lakes and ponds. I cant figure out how to post the pictures on here, but the fly and instructions on how to tie it are on here.
http://flybible.blogspot.com/2011/07/this-is-relatively-simple-pattern.html

Hope this helps. Tight lines,

Patrick
http://flybible.blogspot.com/