Hello!!! I am fairly new to getting in to fly fishing, but was wondering if folks hit the white bass runs when they get in to the creeks? I've chased them with lures but this just popped in to my mind. If so, what kinds of flies should I be looking for? Thanks!!!

Clouser, cepert, and most baitfish imitations

Check out my ad up in the classifieds. I can get you set up. But like FlyFX said; clouser, cypert minnow, and just about any smallish baitfish imitation. I usually stay below 2 to 3 inches during the run with my flies, think #8 to #4 hooks. If you get the opportunity to hit 'em up in the lakes when the shad are spawning you can go a little bigger. My personal preference in most instances is a grey and white fly but there are times and places I will use pink/white, and or chartreuse/white clousers. Most of the clousers I use are bead chain worked real slow but again on rare occasion I will use a traditional dumbell eye fly. For me outside of the coast the whitebass run is my favorite time to break out the buggy whip,

Spawning whites are great fly rod fare. I generally prospect with a light spinning rod and a horsehead jig or a crappie jig, covering water til I find a bunch of feeding fish. Then switch to a light fly rod (I use a half weight and a two weight, but generally bring a five weight also, just in case I need to throw heavy flies). I usually throw short (1 1/2” to 2”) streamers tied on #6 to #10 hooks. A sparse pinch of pearl, chartreuse, or firecracker Krystal Flash is all you need, and I always take a few tied with white, olive, or brown marabou for variety. Most are weighted with small beadchain eyes or a snall beadhead, but occasionally you’ll need to get a little deeper with heavier flies.

My way certainly isn’t the only way, but it’s how I enjoy it the most. Those 15” & 16” hens are a hoot on the half weight, and while I generally release what I catch, I like to keep enough whites for a meal or two. If you like catching them on conventional gear, you’ll love catching them on the fly rod. Good luck!

@Jim Ford could you post some picks of the streamers you're tying?

Ditto on everyone's replies. The Cypert minnow is one of my personal favorites, great for local streams and perch too.

Never been able to post photos. I can take some and text or email them to you. I’ll be out of town until Monday, but if you’ll PM me a cellular # or email address I’ll take some photos next week and send them to you. I don’t have a computer so I’ll have to do it on this POS iPhone.

ingvar3000, go to the “ultralightflyfishing.com” site. Scroll down to the “Flies, Fly tying, & Entomology” section, and find a thread from 2015 titled “Ultralight Saltwater Flies” by hipshot. Toward the end of the thread you’ll find a photograph of a few of them. Hope that helps.

Oops! Bad info; my mistake. Go to the “Step by Step Fly Tying Tutorials” section to look for that thread. Sorry about that.

@jim ford, very interesting, thanks! So from this thread, these flies?

I'll have to try tying something like that.

I mostly tie very marabou-intensive little flies, trying to get the same size and profile as a gambusia mosquito fish.

These ones have some white-tail hairs to keep the marabou in shape. And this year I'm experimenting with the Matt Bennett philosophy of putting rubber legs on streamers.

Yes sir. I’m not a technical tier; I go for the easy ties that produce. Jazzing them up won’t hurt a thing. Good luck!

Clousers and minnow patterns are great. Early season a red shiner imitation is a great way to go and the later in the run as Shad show up a larger profile is good. I always net some minnows in shallows and then match the hatch. A lot of times early season all of the bait is tiny so you need to go small. Just be aware early in the sandbass run when they start to trickle in around early March those fish are not that easy to catch and I recommend a fluorocarbon tippet.

Capt. Mac
Excellent video.

Thank you sir!

New to fly fishing and wanted to see if Is it possible to rig up leaders and tippet from walmart fishing line inventory to fish clousers for white bass.
Have a cabelas prestige 2 and three forks 9' 6wt rod with wf floating line.
Wanted to try the fly rod on a trip to CBSP.