White Bass Flies

Well, it's that time of year. We are already catching white bass in the Yegua. Robert is probably sleeping with his 3 weight by his bed and waking up in cold sweats with anticipation!!

I have been reading and watching a lot of videos on white bass flies. A lot of the information points to using very sparsely tied clousers or crazy charlies. I started experimenting with some crazy charlies and silly leg nymph patterns. (All advise is welcome)

What are your favorite white bass flies and color patterns?

What are your thoughts on sparsely tied patterns? What is too sparse? What are you trying to achieve?

in the case of sand bass flies sparse is actually better- think ghost minnows. I like these flies.

Les

I caught lots sandies with these flies:

Greatness right there

Thanks Peepaw, great bait fish and color pattern. That should work when they are feeding on shad vs. ghost minnows.

Great ties and color patterns Moon. Thanks.

I'm not sure I will enjoy catching them that small though, LOL!!

Thanks Keebranch, good advice.

No advise from here. My lake is always "stained". So I like some size and flash. I use only Crystal Flash in a combination of chartreuse, silver and copper with chartreuse as the dominant color. If I over load the fly with too much flash that it effect the rod load I just trim it off on site. Gamakatsu size 1 hook, 5/32 brass dumbbell, red thread for the head with clear Loon coating. I'm going to try tying some this weekend using a kink shank popper hook an idea I got from the net.

Great alteration Zip-ur-Fly. I'm going to try that. I actually used flash to wrap around the hook shank on one of the flies. I was thinking about doing the whole thing in flash like this but wasn't sure if the action or look of the fly would work. Now I know, thanks.

White works best on the Yegua.

Thanks. Usually my first tie is to wrap the hook from head to bend with the red thread. I like red flash on the shank also. Sometimes use a red hook. I feel the touch of red actually produces better. IMHO.

That actually brings up a good point. Red, from what I have read, can represent either a gill pattern or bleeding fish. I have also read that a bleeding fish pattern only works well at certain times of year. In this case, I would assume the red head would represent a gill pattern. Now, I just need to figure out what color gills the ghost minnows have and how the white bass see that color at 8' deep in stained water, LOL!!!

Don't get my lying here IMHO... In 8' of stained water you can tie on a pink slugo and its black. I agree on the bleeding pattern. If you will allow me some latitude...over the 35 years of fishing my backyard, this configuration has caught almost every species of fish in this lake with the exception of Gar and Carp (which I intend to target this spring) if there is any water left in the lake.

Since I usually chase whites with the 2 weight I tie a small tuft of Krystal Flash, about an inch or an inch and a quarter long, on a #10 or 12 hook with small beadchain eyes. That's about all I can cast with the light rod, but the whites seem to like 'em okay. Usually chartreuse or firecracker work pretty well. I also use some sparkly nail polish (the cheap stuff from Walmart, naturally) to coat the heads.

That fly Zip-ur-fly showed, on a # 10 hook, and perhaps a tad sparser, would look like one of mine.

I too, sometimes like to use a bit of red, but it's probably not all that sound a principle in truth. If I remember correctly, red is one of the first colors to disappear as the depth increases and the light fades. It might be interesting to take some light readings in some of the murkier rivers we fish, just to see how deep they can actually see that splash of red. Anybody still have one of those old Combo C-Lectors?

Thanks Jim

I was reading through Aggroman's thread on the spinner blade flies. There were a number of great white bass / striper flies posted by Rex and George.

That brings up another point. Ben often fishes with his rooster tails because it adds noise for the fish to find the lure.

Do the blades add noise? Do they help in murky water? Are there any disadvantages to adding blades in certain conditions?

The blade adds vibration, and flash, which helps to attract fishes.

That's right, my bad, vibration was the word I should of used. Noise can be added by rattles. So blades do add vibration like inline spinners do.

best white bass/yellow bass/crappie fly:
rabbit fur jigs; hook runs upside down; tuff fly, fur indulates in the water; lots of available colors in rabbit zonkers; better than marabou-p-

Great stuff Pearow!!! Those can definitely be mistaken for a ghost minnow by a white bass.

I have been learning about white bass fishing from a friend with 45 plus years of experience fishing for white bass with conventional tackle. He purchases cheap white marabou jigs, then stomps them down in the mud before using them. So I can see why the coloring and action of theses jigs would really work well.

Why do you use unpainted jig heads?

Fur indulates in the water? Can you explain the difference from Marabou?

For a "Ghost Minnow" patterns it is hard to beat the simplicity and effectiveness of Hart's Ghost Minnow...but I prefer to call it the "Hart Attack".

Developed by an old friend of mine, Richard Hart of Granbury, this fly is generally underrated because of how simple it appears. However, it is EXTREMELY effective during the white bass run each spring. It can be tied with a a variety of beadheads, generally on Mustad 3366 hooks in size 6, but it must always be sparse. The lack of bulky materials helps the fly get down to where the fish are feeding. It's sparseness also mimics the transparency of the actual baitfish.

I can guarantee you, these things are deadly!!!

Tight Lines,

Great, thanks for sharing Tony!!! I had not seen that pattern before. Looks like an easy tie too!!

This year has been the first in five that Lake Sommerville has been at or above level. So it's the first time in 5 years that there has actually been a great white bass run in the creeks. I've been catching them on jigs and conventional gear so I decided to try with the fly rod on Saturday.

I fished Yegua creek. The white bass are holding in the deeper pools on the creek which are between 6 and 10 feet deep. The lure must be retrieved right off the bottom. The creek is tree lined and full of underwater structure and hangs. I worked my way up the creek fishing the deep holes. I lost 4 lures in about the first 10 casts. So it didn't take me long to figure out I needed to use a fly with the hook pointed up.

Along the way up the creek I met a fellow TFFer that gave me some advice on a good location to fly fish. He also told me that the fish were now biting much better on rooster tails than jigs. So I tied on a spinner fly and headed to the location identified.

I caught a couple of white bass and hooked an fought a big buffalo before finally losing him when he made a run downstream on me. I ended up losing my only spinner fly a few casts latter and called it a day. But is was a great day of exploring, learning and talking with fellow TFFers.

I tied up several flies this weekend. I experimented with bucktail, marabou and palmer chenille. Here are the flies I tied for my next outing.

They should work...........
Mike

Nice baits. Good job.

Those look great! You should do well with those!

Thanks guys. I think I will tie up some traditional clousers as well. I was just experimenting mainly with the marabou, palmer chenille and spinner blades. I know the types of conventional lures and colors that work on the Yegua. I figured I might get lucky and come up with something that is unique and works better than the norm. You never know unless you try.

glad to hear y'all got some water. We can't say the same here. Water is better, but we need flows.

Les

The Yegua is flooding today. It is a muddy mess now and may stay a mess through the rest of spawn. Good for the fish but not so much for the fisherman.

When I went fishing on Saturday the creek was as clear as I have ever seen it. Chartruese and white were the color pattern of choice. Now the Yegua is flooded and muddy so I'll have to go back and tie some in black and yellow. The good news is the LMB like the flies just as much as the white bass.