I'm pretty new to the fly fishing world, but I am loving it so far and devour every video/article I can on the matter. I have seen in several of them that large brown trout like to hang out under outside cut-banks, and that they will often be some of the biggest fish in a given stretch of river. While daydreaming at work today, I got to thinking...do bass hang out in the same areas? And if so, are they also some of the larger fish in a river stretch? What have you guys seen in your experience? If this is true, I love the idea of letting a slow-sinking woolly bugger or streamer drift under a cut bank to a 5lber...

You bet. Whenever I am fishing a stream I always look for structure like cut banks, logs, ledges, etc. Bass are predators, and they tend to strike from ambush. It's just a matter of caloric efficiency. If they have to chase prey down, they are likely to expend more energy than they gain. Also the structure offers them some protection. I remember an article I read many years ago. A guy went down with scuba gear to observe bass. He did this over an extended period of time so the bass became accustomed to him hanging around. He found that the largest bass had the most protected site and the best ambush site. The next best site usually went to the next largest bass, and this pattern tended to extend downward with size. If the largest bass was caught or left for a while, everybody moved up one slot, like musical chairs.

Larry

I always target crappie on under cut banks...used to target cutthroats there as well. I love an undercut bank for fishing...

If you see an undercut bank on any of the local waters, definitely chuck a fly at it. I don't see many cut banks in the local waters though. In the north Texas rivers, bass seem to love wood in about any form, such as laydowns on the bank, dead tree in the middle, brush pile, etc. They also like back eddies and any rocky bank that has any decent depth in front of it.