Fly Fishing out of a boat ?

So I finally got my Jon boat up and running. Thought it would be fun to start Fly Fishing for bass out of it. Is there anyone that exclusively Fly Fishes out of a boat for largemouth?

I just got rid of my 16’ long 70” wide Alumincraft, but I only fly fished when in the boat. I stood on the bow seat or just below on the deck. A Jon boat works great for fly fishing. I’ve got a low profile pontoon now so I use that.

Not exclusively, but chasing LM, SM, and Stripers from a boat is the primary way I fish. But I'm not proud, I'll use a kayak and wade too.

The main thing is to keep clutter or anything with angles away from the loose fly line. That’s true no matter what platform you are fishing from. Line management may not get the attention the fly cast gets, but handling line well is central to enjoyable fly fishing.

yes.just use a cloth laundry basket as a stripping basket

True! Try to keep the dog off the fly line...

Ha, ha! Tate, my dog tends to hang out in the stern. Usually, a tungsten bead whacking the aluminum good and hard sends him that way. He does like to come and inspect the catch.

Love the fishing buddies.



Side Note: Also nice bass!

i could never get used to that, an old towel thrown over trolling motor works too, but I always toughed it out & after a while got to be good at avoiding snags on deck.

Yes, I’ve never used a basket. I watch where I stand and how I strip off the line.

Captain Mac should be chiming in before long

This is awesome. I had no idea there was that many of you out there. I went fishing today and (almost) took the fly rod. It’s going to be hard to leave the tradition tackle behind. I’ll do it soon though!

I went through a period where I forced myself to use the fly rod for 15-20 minutes, then I’d take a break and fish with baitcasting gear. I felt very competent casting and using bait casting gear, but not at all that way with fly tackle. If you know the pattern on the fish and say the bass will take a surface frog, then that’s probably a good time to work in the fly rod with something like a deer hair diver or froggy looking surface popper. If you are confident about knowing what the fish want and where they are using the conventional gear, then there’s often a fly rod approach that will mirror the conventional tackle. But if the fish happen to be very deep, I think the fly tackle is then at a disadvantage and that might not be the time to work on using fly tackle.

The more you cast and handle the line, especially under fishing conditions, not just out in the yard, the more second nature fly fishing becomes. It’s tough mentally when you feel like an old pro at the baitcasting or spinning gear, but then have to put the training wheels back on for fly fishing.

All that muscle memory you likely have with baitcasting or spinning gear works against you fishing with fly rods. The timing on the cast is all different between the one where the lure weight loads the rod and the other, fly fishing, where the line weight loads the rod.

I still have a tendency to overpower casts with the fly rod due to I think all those years tossing plugs or whatever with baitcasting gear.

Don't be scared, just walk away. Flycasting is much easier on your wrist, elbow and rotator cuff if done correctly

YES we guide out of our 20' Triton Boat it set up to take two people fly Fishing, been fly fishing east Texas Lake for Bass Crappie and Bream for the pass 14 years.

I have a bass boat and plan on fly fishing on lakes from it.

I did a lot of fly fishing out of my bass boat when I had it. Either throw a wet beach towel over the trolling motor and forward sonar unit, or use a stripping basket. The rear deck will accommodate a second fluff chucker, but fishing two fly anglers in the boat requires that they not be amateur casters.

Guys in Florida a few years ago were using a rubber spike plate on deck for line management on a flush deck skiff
My deck is 6" below the gunwale so I don't really need one but on windy days would be handy. Might try to diy one

Yes for me but mainly just spring and fall when bass are usually more shallow. When the bass go deep (8+ ft) I still have a hard time "mentally" accepting casting a sink tip line when with a BC setup I can get 2-3 more casts in the same time period.

I flycast out of my Skeeter Zx225 and generally have more than enough room on the front deck. I removed the rod tubes from the front lockers and can now easily stow my 9 foot rods and usually carry 4 thru 8 wts depending on my mood.

Fyi, this Gallop Bang tail fly in either olive/white or olive/yellow has been really good on Rayburn the last two months.

I don't fly fish exclusively for Largemouth Bass but i do a LOT of fly fishing out of a Jon boat - mostly for carp and sand bass. I've tried towels, old blankets, cast nets and a few other contraptions that i don't even recall now from back in the day, before i built my casting decks in my boat. I used to wrap fly line around gas tanks, trolling motor battery, life jackets, tackle and, occasionally, a dog or two. The thing that worked best for me was the "Home Depot stripping bucket". Just fill a five gallon bucket about a third full of lake water and set it next to your stripping hand. Even better is if you can set the bucket on some type of platform to elevate it to about mid thigh height. The water in the bucket helps keep the bucket from tipping over and keeps the line lubricated on hot summer days. Its a cheap, easy fix and works well enough. I have since built casting decks in my boat and don't really need the bucket anymore. Although, i still do occasionally wrap up a dog or two.

About any boat will work. I like to stand when I fish, fly or conventional, and can almost always find a spot on any boat I’ve been on. Sometimes, there’s multiple possibilities in a boat. My friend’s blue wave, I can fly fish in a little corner of the stern while the captain is on the bow with the electric motor. Same story off another buddy’s Shoalwater. Be aware of the feet so not to constantly step on the loose line. Loose fly line is going to get tangled on something occasionally and it just goes with the territory, nothing to freak out about.

Fly fishing has more than its share of perfectionism and perfectionists. Everything must be just so or it’s a no go kind of mentality. It wasn’t always that way with fly tackle being the norm for the average Joe prior to the proliferation of spinning tackle. Most people have so much money these days as compared to yesteryear and spend small fortunes on gear, but relatively inexpensive fly rods, reels, and line can catch as many fish as the premium stuff.

And you don’t need someone to teach you how to cast or invest in a bunch of lessons. How many folks had someone guide their every move with the baitcasting or spinning rig? Not many, I’m thinking. It’s the same with fly fishing. Watch a video or two, go out and give it a try. There’s joy working things out for yourself and the “experts” can’t even agree on how to hold a fly rod, optimizing arm angles, and the like. I don’t like this always turn to the expert or guide for everything as if the novice or intermediate is some kind of imbecile. My buddy took a fly casting lesson and the certified instructor treated him like an imbecile. The experience pretty much soured him on fly fishing. Lots of look down their nose at you types in fly fishing, unfortunately. Become your own guide and expert. The guide or expert likely has more experience than you, but even that’s not always the case. It’s more fun finding your own fish than having someone point them out.

Guides and experts are fine and there’s plenty of reasons to use their services, but they don’t have a monopoly on the secret sauce. There’s plenty of day job, fish when they can folks that I’ve fished with that can hang with any guide on locating fish and the like. I’m not against guides or experts and spend every cent you have on them if that’s what you want. There’s just no shame in working out stuff on your own and using your own talents and grey matter to teach yourself how to do things.

Forums like this one are great for shared experiences. I’m here to represent the anti-perfectionistic, be your own guide wing of fly fishing, Lol. Guides and perfectionists, don’t get your dander up on this, my rant is just a little nudge in another direction. More than likely, there will be ten posts to every one praising guides and experts versus the be your own guide/expert faction. Business and bookings will continue to boom. Any publicity only helps.

Really the point of my previous post is that don't let having limited means or imperfect gear, boats, etc. keep you from trying something so potentially rewarding as fly fishing. It's really just fishing by another means and not some esoteric, difficult to impossible to learn or afford activity that it might be made out to be, at least some of the time.

Thank you karstopo for your rant
You have just convinced me to give fly fishing a try.

Again thank you!

Definitely a good rant karstopo.

My problem switching to the fly rod is not casting, but setting the hook. Can't tell you how many tippets I've snapped jerking back like a baitcaster.

Karstopo love your work great rant

Coff I have the same problem in reverse, I'm always grabbing the line on conventional gear. Especially on spinning gear

Fly fishing from a boat might be the best kind of boat fishing! Note the tangled mess of line on the front deck.

That is one happy guy. Nice catch.

I see the line I also see the extremely large smile that comes with catching fish on the fly; not that conventional gear does not create a smile as well they just seem smaller in comparison to ones created by fly gear.

The thrill of catching that fish was absolutely on another level compared to conventional tackle. That was the first non-bluegill sized fish I have caught on the fly after about a year of fly casting practice, so I was definitely elated.

Nice catch.
Must have been really fun fighting it on the fly rod.
Good job, hope you get many more.

- HOPE I GOT that linkage right! -
You can fly fish out of just about any boat or kayak. I enjoyed the heck out of just running my trolling motor at Daingerfield recently.
The key, IMO, is eliminating the snags that a line can catch on deck. That is just so frustrating, and cost me a spot in a tournament on the coast one time (on kayak).
Decent (clean) decks and casting platforms are a bonus. And wet towels over trolling motors eliminate that problem. I won't shamelessly promote my superduper Line Tamer though!

Good advice, I have been fly fishing a long time and tend to shy away from the "experts" I have taught many to fly fish and almost all of those who took it up seriously now out fish me.
I am self taught and cringe at those who want you to pay them for instruction.
All the fancy talk about rods lines reels and flies puts me off. Advice is good but snobs not so.

I am 73 and just started fly fishing two years ago. I am not very good at it, but it is a hoot anyway. I have never caught anything over two pounds yet on a fly rod. I go to Broken Bow and fish the river whenever I can but I fish Lavon and Texoma out of a kayak more than in the river.

Wayne