I have fly fished a little bit but I am going to start bass fishing with my fly rod. My son is interested in this so I will put down my bait casters some and we will give it a try.
We are going to try our hand at tying some and I am looking for a good avenue for instructions. I have the equipment but need a little help on tying the flies.

Thanks very much.

For bass fishing with a fly rod, I would recommend this book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1571882...ks&v=glance

This goes into good detail and you'll learn alot of great stuff.

But here is some info to get you started:

Assuming you are new to fly fishing but experienced at bass fishing....

- topwater - the easiest and most exciting (in my opinion) way to fly fish for bass. Just like regular topwater fishing, but you either use hard bodied poppers or deerhair poppers. There are various designs... all have different pops/action.
Walmart usually carries Betts poppers, and smaller popper called "Miss prissies" which can be deadly. Also if you look where the regular Hula Poppers are at you can usually find some "flyrod" sized small hula poppers too. Academy has a decent selection too.

- subsurface - the most popular patterns are weighted wooly buggers (white/black/olive seem best colors), clousers, deceivers. Others that I use are spoon flies, cypert minnows, and I have even created flies with attached spinner blades which work great, and work kindof like spinnerbaits or roostertails.

- there are some worm immitation flies too,usually made out of rabbit fur strips, with lead eyes, that can be fished like worms. I have actually fished small worm on fly gear and it works OK too.

- Dont limit yourself to just floating line... There are also sink-tip and sinking lines that will help you get to deeper fish. The catch is that they are a bit harder to cast.

If you want some ideas, try web searches for the flies I mentioned above. Also check out flyanglersonline.com as a good resource.

That's great advice Ccabal.

I've been experimenting with small Colorado spinners on a Clouser and wooly bugger...any results and/or lessons you've learned so far with spinners?

Pretty hard to beat the Wooly booger! See Saturdays catch at George Bush Presidential Library Click Here to go to my photo archive

Ccabal nailed it on the head.


Spinnerbait, there's a pond at the GB Library???!?


My biggest bass catch of around 5 pounds was made, no joke, about 10 feet away with an 8-weight(imagine that) where I could see the bass and it could see me.

When it comes to April, or even March, look for the paired bass on the beds... you'll know the ones... in the creeks all the way up around your favorite lakes. Get a big ole' fly in there and drag it through the bed slowly stripping to create puffs of dust/sand/silt(works best on a silted bottom). The bass' natural response is to "pick it up" and move it out of the bed, or even attack it like it is an intruding egg-eating perch. My favorite fly for this situation is a crawfish imitation like THIS ONE (link).

Killer bass fly that is!

You can catch some HUGE bass this way. I don't care what some folks say about bass being spooky close in, if you use the right techniques, you can catch them anywhere.

God Bless, Good Luck, and Welcome to this great sport!

-TXFly.

Crawdad: ccabel is on the right track here. If I had to add anything it would be that starting out, pick a few patterns that you are comfortable tying (wooley buggers, cyperts minnows and a foam spider are easy and effective) and work out from there. Once you have those down, then add from there.

I often think of bass flies in comparison with conventional lures. If there are certain colors, depths fished or imitations that work for you with conventional lures, then those characteristics will work with flies. Take what you like and apply it to your flies


Spinnerbait: They are letting people fish that pond!?! If I had know that, I might not have rushed through all 5 years. I went out there between classes but never saw movement.. good to know for the next time I'm in b/cs

for me, i've had a rough time using dry flies for bass. i always end-up harassed by bluegill. i've had better luck with clousers.

I wasn't watching who I was logged in under and my daughter had been using my computer! The spinnerbait2 post was really me! Yes they do allow fishing at the GB library pond as long as it's with barbless hooks - catch and release. It has crappie, bass and some huge bream. I fish there every one in a while because it's close and easy to fly fish. Sometimes the bream go crazy and they can be caught on almost every cast. The biggest bream has been about a pound and the largest bass we have caught was pushing 4 pounds.

Thanks, Meadowlark,others...
yeah I have had pretty good luck with spinner/wooly bugger combos, and with spinner,streamer combos. I havent tried lead eye clousers with spinners since I figure the weight the spinner adds is enough for a decent sink, so I havent felt the need to use heavy clouser eyes, but just use beadchain eyes.
I've caught good number of bass on a brown bodied,weedless (with mono loop), red bucktail 3 inch long streamer, with inline spinner blade, but suprisingly my best luck with that fly has been at night with large cats. I caught 2 cats this summer fishing at night, both around 6lbs each!
So spinner flies are always a part of my fly arsenal. I just use regular small inline spinners available at any tackle shop, use both silver and gold.

Dry flies will catch bass, but mostly small dinks. Now I have caught a few decent bass on small dries, but its real rare. Probably the only bugs that I think a bass would bother eating are dragon flies, and grasshoppers,of which there are some nice patterns for. But in general the bass fly patterns will immitate either shad,minnows or other baitfish, perch, frogs, mice, crawfish,worms, or other sizeable meal... heck some patterns will look like nothing a bass has ever seen but they dont seem to care. My favorite bass poppers are black/red/white deerhair poppers. These dont immitate anything natural, but they work! I tend to like to fish with the biggest fly practical for the gear I have. I fish 1/0 poppers on my 5wt.... it not a pretty cast though.

Is the Pres. Bush library the one at Texas A&M , btw i go to Texas and i must say there are some good spots top fish over here in Austin...

I believe the Bush library is on the western side of campus near Bush Dr. right?

While we're on the subject, can you fish at the golf course on the northeast side of campus?


-TXFly.

crawdad375

Sorry your thread got hijacked, we'll try to move it back to the original question.

I'll second the above, poppers, clouser minnows, woolly buggers, really any streamer pattern. Let me also add in the Muddler Minnow.

Poppers can run from el cheapos from Wal-Mart (great for losing as you aren't out a lot of money. Always hated losing a $5.00 bait!) to the beautiful deer hair poppers.

My personal observation on poppers is that they seem to be far more successful in the wee hours as day breaks or dusk as the sun sets. Not they aren't good other times but I have had best luck at those times.

I have got to say you guys are awsome. It absoutly amases me the wealth and quality of information you can get from this forum. The information that transpires over the short duration of just a couple of days would sometimes years of testing and countless dollers to figure out yourself.

Thanks,
crawdad375

Keep asking crawdad375... we love talking about this stuff... also check out texasflyreport.com for good info too.