Fishing for Bass?

[Bump19056]

Bass Fishing with a Fly Rod has really intrigued me, I'd love to give it a shot, I'm just curious how many of you have tried it? Were you successful?

 

[David]

Yes and yes... it can be very productive and a lot of fun.

Poppers are my favorite, but only productive under certain situations.
big streamers can be successful on a more consistent basis.

 

[pro4mance]

Bump peruse your way thru thw Warm Water section lots of info

 

[PennypackFlyer]

I found out that if you speed up the top water popper you can move it fast enough to catch bass and not all the sunnies and blue gills, etc. Bass love moving targets.

 

[Fishidiot]

Bump19056 wrote:
Bass Fishing with a Fly Rod has really intrigued me, I'd love to give it a shot, I'm just curious how many of you have tried it? Were you successful?

There are many of us who are avid bass fishermen. Speaking for myself, I spend more time on streams and rivers pursuing smallmouths.
As mentioned, check the Warm Water Forum as there is much discussion of bass fishing with the fly rod.

 

[bigslackwater]

I love fishing for Large mouth with a fly rod, from a boat. I was on a trip out a few weeks ago in Orlando. We rented a boat at the resort. I used streamers on the fly rod, while my father in law used nightcrawlers with a bait casting rod he rented. He caught all crappies, I caught crappies and Large mouth bass. In that situation, drifting along weed edges, the fly rod performed better.

 

[Sylvaneous]

Bass fishing with a fly rod has replaced flyfishing for trout for me in the amount and intensity with which I do it. I used to live in limestone country, but now am in NW PA. I flyfish for smallies in the Allegheny mostly and fish for largemouth in a few lakes. It can be great fun stickin' sway-bellied hogs back in the slop and bushes. I fish out of a kayak and you get all wet and clumps of weeds and algae on you. As a fly, I really like the Rainy's Joom Diver heads in Medium. It's really cool tying bass flies, too. A total departure from trout flies. it's a learning curve to know the small intricacies in making a good weedless foam fly that stays weedless, floats right, rides right, doesn't tangle and has good action. While bass flies can last a while, I would recommend tying your own. Commericial bass flies are rather pricey. For rods, I'd recommend an 8 wt. for covering both. If you want individual rods, I think a 7 wt for smallies and a 9 wt for largemouth would be good. You don't need a 9 wt rod, but a 9 wt line and a rod that casts it would be good. You get right up on the largemouth. I'd look at Pat Ehler's 8 ft 4" warm water rods made by ECHO. I fish a fast 9ft 8 wt that I up-lined. Casting big, wet LMB flies a short distance into cover is easier than a 8 wt. It is important to get accustomed to setting the hook by stripping the line and NOT lifting the rod tip. It's just way too hard to set the hook through a weed guard using the rod tip. That's all speed, no power. You need FORCE, not speed. Keep your rod tip right at the waterline. Keep the tippet large, like 12 or even 17 lb line. Hopefully you can find someone around you to help you out. I'm about the only soul doing this up here, so I have to learn most everything new the hard way, through my own mistakes!

 

[BelAirSteve]

Absolutely give it a shot, and depending upon where you fish, you might get into some pickerel too. They short strike a lot, but if you see a huge wake following your fly, hold on! They love white buggers.

 

[Six-Gun]

Definitely give the warmwater fish a shot on fly tackle. You won't regret it. One of the best days I had fishing in Nevada (as opposed to slipping into the Utah mountains like I usually do) was at a reservoir a few hours north of me in late spring. I found out that a large, twitched damselfly nymph with a nice, wide-gap hook will tear it up for largemouth. Keep it moving around heavy cover and use stout tippet, preferably 3x or stronger. Bass aren't nearly as tippet shy as trout but can certainly thrash a light tippet in a hurry.

 

[sipe]

I'm mostly a trout guy...but. I fish Pinchot Lake with my kayak here in York Co, mostly with spinning gear. Every summer I spend some evenings throwing mouse lures at dusk...largemouth explode on them. This year I will be throwing big mouse patterns on my fly rod at dark and fully expect to have a blast...and much success.

 

[sandfly]

For bass fishing you must have good skills and patience. So you should keep some factors in your mind while fishing. Take a look at a few tips to know how to fish for bass like weather, water quality, best bait and many more things related to this.

Say what ?
bass are easy fish to catch. just go out with some poppers, buggers, streamers and have a ball.

 

[afishinado]

sandfly wrote:

For bass fishing you must have good skills and patience. So you should keep some factors in your mind while fishing. Take a look at a few tips to know how to fish for bass like weather, water quality, best bait and many more things related to this.

Say what ?
bass are easy fish to catch. just go out with some poppers, buggers, streamers and have a ball.

^ Sandy beat me to it! FFing for bass is fun and most times a lot easier than FFing for finicky trout.

Plop down a popper in a good looking spot and hold on....presentation and strike detection is not an issue ;-)

 

[marcq]

bass are great fish to target on the fly. I don't target them with the fly more then once or twice a year but always get a few as bi catches when trout fishing.
I think as fly fisherman smallies are a better choice cause they are more stream fish and large mouth then to like heavy cover but both are very doable. then there's my favorite species of bass that is white and silver with a bunch of black stripes the can grow past fifty pounds. have yet to figure them out on the fly in fresh water but the will be completed once they come up the Delaware this spring. hopefully.
regardless to witch ones you fish they are a blast to catch.

one other thing does anyone do well in heavy slop? me and my buddy would take his boat an throw those live target frogs and have a blast watching them blow them up but knida want to try it with a fly. the only issue is a normal weed guard would probably get hung up in the pads so I think it would be necessary to use a hook the is tied with a hook pointing up.

 

[dc410]

This will be my third season fishing for bass with the fly rod and I absolutely love it. I have to say that I enjoy it every bit as much as flyfishing for trout. I didn't do quite as much smallmouth fishing last year (kind of got side tracked by carp on the fly!). WW fishing in general is just a great sport all around. I still get a little depressed when I think about the fact that I wasted away 30 of my best years flyfishing without ever fishing for bass. I catch most of my smallmouth bass underneath on buggers, hellgramites, Clousers, etc., but catching a smallie on a popper when you get the chance is just a blast. Definitely give it a shot, you will be glad you did.

 

[PennypackFlyer]

Bass fishing on the river or creek with a flyrod is also one of the best times to coach someone else to fly fish.

 

[JerryC]

When I started fly fishing, it was for trout. What else would a fly fisherman fish for? But living in Philly, definitely not a mecca for trout if I wanted to catch fish on the fly rod I needed to expand my world view on what to fish for. I live a short walk from the Schuylkill and a short drive from the Wissahickon. So I turned to the darker side of fly fishing and haven't looked back. When I fished mostly for trout I fished dries, so I prefer poppers and top water bugs for bass. Not to big on traditional streamer or buggers but I do like to throw bait fish patterns for them.

 

[PASKIINGSUCKS]

Caught an absolute pig on my little eagle claw featherweight last year. 18 inches or so and fat. Probably the most fun fight I've ever had on a fly rod yet. Love using poppers, I think I need to find a new source for em though cause I had about 5 of em just die from action last year. Hook pulled right out of the body.

 

[bialeckij]

I love fishing for trout but one of my favorite outings is a warm water stream pretty close to me that's loaded with smallmouth catching them is a lot more action when it starts getting warmer

 

[skiltonian]

Nows the time to catch them in the stocked trout streams!

 

[somersetian]

My first time I ever targeting bass I bought the biggest popper I could find casted over some weeds on a lake, and stripped it back to me. I was on a dock and when the popper was about 10 ft away I stopped to actually think about what I was doing. I decided I should probably retrieve a little faster and harder to cause more sound, I stripped a little line off the reel to prepare another cast and a bass demolished the popper and it has been just floating there for at least 20 seconds. My point is just go out and try it, I'm sure I got lucky but I have had pretty good fun since then. It is also a nice change of pace from trout fishing.