Having been a lifelong fisherman, I’ve only recently started getting into fly fishing. Until I get the opportunity to go to AR or CO or somewhere that is actually known for trout fly fishing, all I have to work with at the moment is the DFW and East Texas lakes and rivers.

I want to get some more practice casting and get a feel for the rod before taking a trip somewhere to find some trout hopefully in the next year or so, I want to start by trying to fly fish north Texas lakes for bass or panfish. The lakes I am most likely to go to include Ray Roberts, Tawakoni, Lake Fork, Lewisville, Lavon, Ray Hubbard, and Joe Pool. If I go to any of those lakes it is highly likely I will be either on a fishing boat or a kayak.

When I get more comfortable casting, I would like to venture to somewhere off the trinity or some other river or stream where I can practice on moving water.

What are some good flies I should have and techniques I can use on north Texas lakes for bass and panfish (and whatever else will hit on a fly around here)?

JR,

I would buy some poppers for topwater bass and panfish as well as wooley boogers and clouser's for bass. Any crayfish patterns would be good as well.

Good luck.

4W

Been meaning to pick up some poppers to try out. I have several woolly buggers and clousers in various colors so I could give them a shot. Other than crayfish patterns, are there any specific colors that seem to work well around DFW or the north or East Texas areas?

I'd recommend hitting up a few local ponds before you go out on a lake. Sitting down in a kayak is a pretty hard place to learn to cast. You'll want to have a level of proficiency before you go do that, both with casting and setting the hook. Just find a pond with some open space around it and go play for a few hours on a calm day. Once you get the basic casting stroke down then you can add in the variables of holding your kayak or boat. Moving water in a river is a whole other animal, and I'd highly recommend getting a guide to help you out there.

I pretty well agree with 4Weight's fly choices. As far as colors, I like buggers in black or brown, clousers in baby bass (white bottom, olive top). Not sure color matters with the poppers at all.

One other tip when learning to fly fish - leave your conventional gear at home. Frustration when learning to fly fish is unavoidable. About the fourth time you tie up your leader, or the second time you smack the back of your head with your clouser and you'll switch over to your old spinning rod if it is available.

I second the going to ponds to practice.

There are a lot of public parks and housing additions with ponds in the DFW area and many of them hold bass and panfish.

Some of the bass grow to quite impressive weights and provide quite a tug on a fly rod.

I just watched a guy catch 2.5lb large mouth at marine creek fly fishing.

So are you with boat or with kayak? PM sent.

Thanks for the tips, I just went and picked up some clousers, poppers, and buggers. I will try and find some time to go try them out and see what happens this week. There is a medium sized pond down the road from me that I will try out. Some guy pulled a 4lb bass out of there a couple weeks ago, though I think he was using crankbaits IIRC.

Good stuff, I should have mentioned colors. Thanks for doing that.

Y’all two were very helpful. I just walked down to a local pond down the street and practiced throwing my line and I caught my first fish ever on a fly rod! Nothing crazy, just a bluegill that I caught on a black woolly bugger. Thanks for all the help, I will definitely be using my fly rod more often now!

JR

That’s awesome man congrats. It will get addicting from here !

4W

Hone your casting skills fishing buggars in local ponds for bream and bass. Flies with rubber legs also work well for bream. It is almost too late, but in April and May you can catch white bass fishing clousers from the north bank of lakes when a strong south wind blows the shad close to shore. I use yellow/white and blue/white clousers that I tie for these white bass. You can head to OK to fish for trout all year in the Lower Mountain Fork and the Illinois rivers, and the Blue River in winter. Okie stock trout (which come from NE, MO or AR) put the puny Texas stockers to shame.