Stan Fagerstrom
04-30-2003, 05:53 AM
Fly Rod And Right Flies Are Deadly
Combination For Largemouth Bass
By Stan Fagerstrom
Part One
The lure demonstration tank at the city's big outdoor show was loaded with largemouth bass. Some of them were big-bellied beauties of 6 and 7-pounds.
A large crowd gathered to watch the bass fishing professional at the top of the tank detail how he used different lures to catch fish. The fishermen in that crowd were interested in what the pro had to say. The bass weren't. They appeared bored by the whole affair. No matter what kind of hardware the bass pro pulled by their collective snouts, those fish didn't event blink. It was the third day of the show and the fish had already seen a steady parade of lures as one pro after another climbed the ladder to demonstrate his skills. They weren't having any, thank you
That situation changed on the last day of the show. A friend of mine was one of the last to take his turn on the tank. There was a difference in the kind of gear he had in hand. Unlike the pros before him, this expert carried only a fly rod. He climbed the ladder to the tank, made a false cast or two, then laid his fly gently on the surface of the water and let it start fluttering toward the bottom.
The fly, its hook point removed, didn't get far. A bass slashed in to grab it before it had moved a foot. When it finally turned loose of the fly, two more fish went after it. And that's the way it went all the time my friend was up there on the tank. Those fish simply couldn't leave his flies alone. They had finned their respective noses at the assortment of lures the other pros had paraded by their snouts. They hadn't seen the flies before. The flies looked just like the stuff they'd been gobbling ever since they saw life.
http://www.ifish.net/sffr2.jpg
Fly rodding for bass is a tremendous way to fish but it's often overlooked.
That didn't surprise the man who was up there on the tank. He's had the same thing happen again and again around the United States. His experiences, and I'm in complete agreement, have convinced him just what a tremendous opportunity bass fishermen around the country are missing by not using a fly rod more in their search for fish.
The man I'm talking about is Glenn Young. Glenn, a former fishing guide, is one of the top executives of Gamakatsu Hooks. "Most fly rodders think about surface fishing when they're after bass with a fly rod," Young says. "The majority of my bass fishing is done beneath the surface because it's so much more productive."
Glenn is right. Ask most bass fishermen about fly rodding for largemouth and the first thing they'll talk about is fishing a bug on the surface. Now there's nothing wrong with that. Bass bugging is top-drawer sport. I flat love it. But the unfortunate truth of the matter is bass don't always bite on top. As experienced bug throwers well know, there are those windy days when throwing a topwater bug is next to impossible.
What all this means, of course, is that more often or not you're up that well known tributary with no means of propulsion unless you know something about using fly rod lures beneath the surface. That's something I've not done a lot of. And it's why I sought out the thoughts of this former guide who cut his fishing teeth bamboozling bigmouth with the long rod and underwater flies.
http://www.ifish.net/sfyb1.jpg
I caught this nice bass on the yellow bug you see attached to its big mug. An expert like Gamakatsu's Glenn Young, a former guide, will tell you surface bugs aren't always the best way to go. You'll generally catch more fish with the patterns designed for underwater use.
"I grew up in the Salem, Oregon area," Glenn says. "Most of my fly fishing was done in the Willamette River sloughs ." Unlike many of us who have fished topwater bugs exclusively, and I include myself in that group, Young realized early on he had to get his flies down if he was to catch bass consistently with a fly rod.
"My flies are tied to resemble an insect of one kind or another," Glenn says. "A bass won't refuse an insect. It's a natural part of their diet. They might not pause to look twice at a large lure like the plug pitchers throw. But you get an insect-resembling fly in front of their nose and they'll eat it."
You'll never get to first base throwing bass flies without having the proper balance of line of rod and line. I asked Young about his preference in this regard. "I prefer," he said, "using a rod that's rated for seven or eight weight lines. It's necessary because you need to be able to get the line to turn over when you're using the larger fly patterns. I usually employ rods of from 8 to 9-feet."
The lines he uses are bug tapers especially designed for handling large flies. These are weight forward lines that make it possible to turn a large fly over and punch it out there on the cast. He uses a tapered leader of 7 ½ to9-feet. He gets by with 6-pound test leader if he's using smaller flies. On the larger patterns he prefers a leader tapered down to 8 or 10-pounds.
Glenn ties his own leaders and I asked him for the specifics in that regard. "Actually," he says, "a 7 ½-foot leader is long enough for most bass fishing. Typically I use about 4-feet of 30-pound mono, 2-feet of 20-pound and a foot or so of 10-pound for a tippet."
In the next issue of this column we'll take a closer look at how this former guide, a proven expert who has taken bass of more than 8-pounds on the long rod, goes about it. We'll get into the specifics for the kind of flies he ties for beneath the surface fishing and also probe his thoughts on how to handle those flies to get results.
Combination For Largemouth Bass
By Stan Fagerstrom
Part One
The lure demonstration tank at the city's big outdoor show was loaded with largemouth bass. Some of them were big-bellied beauties of 6 and 7-pounds.
A large crowd gathered to watch the bass fishing professional at the top of the tank detail how he used different lures to catch fish. The fishermen in that crowd were interested in what the pro had to say. The bass weren't. They appeared bored by the whole affair. No matter what kind of hardware the bass pro pulled by their collective snouts, those fish didn't event blink. It was the third day of the show and the fish had already seen a steady parade of lures as one pro after another climbed the ladder to demonstrate his skills. They weren't having any, thank you
That situation changed on the last day of the show. A friend of mine was one of the last to take his turn on the tank. There was a difference in the kind of gear he had in hand. Unlike the pros before him, this expert carried only a fly rod. He climbed the ladder to the tank, made a false cast or two, then laid his fly gently on the surface of the water and let it start fluttering toward the bottom.
The fly, its hook point removed, didn't get far. A bass slashed in to grab it before it had moved a foot. When it finally turned loose of the fly, two more fish went after it. And that's the way it went all the time my friend was up there on the tank. Those fish simply couldn't leave his flies alone. They had finned their respective noses at the assortment of lures the other pros had paraded by their snouts. They hadn't seen the flies before. The flies looked just like the stuff they'd been gobbling ever since they saw life.
http://www.ifish.net/sffr2.jpg
Fly rodding for bass is a tremendous way to fish but it's often overlooked.
That didn't surprise the man who was up there on the tank. He's had the same thing happen again and again around the United States. His experiences, and I'm in complete agreement, have convinced him just what a tremendous opportunity bass fishermen around the country are missing by not using a fly rod more in their search for fish.
The man I'm talking about is Glenn Young. Glenn, a former fishing guide, is one of the top executives of Gamakatsu Hooks. "Most fly rodders think about surface fishing when they're after bass with a fly rod," Young says. "The majority of my bass fishing is done beneath the surface because it's so much more productive."
Glenn is right. Ask most bass fishermen about fly rodding for largemouth and the first thing they'll talk about is fishing a bug on the surface. Now there's nothing wrong with that. Bass bugging is top-drawer sport. I flat love it. But the unfortunate truth of the matter is bass don't always bite on top. As experienced bug throwers well know, there are those windy days when throwing a topwater bug is next to impossible.
What all this means, of course, is that more often or not you're up that well known tributary with no means of propulsion unless you know something about using fly rod lures beneath the surface. That's something I've not done a lot of. And it's why I sought out the thoughts of this former guide who cut his fishing teeth bamboozling bigmouth with the long rod and underwater flies.
http://www.ifish.net/sfyb1.jpg
I caught this nice bass on the yellow bug you see attached to its big mug. An expert like Gamakatsu's Glenn Young, a former guide, will tell you surface bugs aren't always the best way to go. You'll generally catch more fish with the patterns designed for underwater use.
"I grew up in the Salem, Oregon area," Glenn says. "Most of my fly fishing was done in the Willamette River sloughs ." Unlike many of us who have fished topwater bugs exclusively, and I include myself in that group, Young realized early on he had to get his flies down if he was to catch bass consistently with a fly rod.
"My flies are tied to resemble an insect of one kind or another," Glenn says. "A bass won't refuse an insect. It's a natural part of their diet. They might not pause to look twice at a large lure like the plug pitchers throw. But you get an insect-resembling fly in front of their nose and they'll eat it."
You'll never get to first base throwing bass flies without having the proper balance of line of rod and line. I asked Young about his preference in this regard. "I prefer," he said, "using a rod that's rated for seven or eight weight lines. It's necessary because you need to be able to get the line to turn over when you're using the larger fly patterns. I usually employ rods of from 8 to 9-feet."
The lines he uses are bug tapers especially designed for handling large flies. These are weight forward lines that make it possible to turn a large fly over and punch it out there on the cast. He uses a tapered leader of 7 ½ to9-feet. He gets by with 6-pound test leader if he's using smaller flies. On the larger patterns he prefers a leader tapered down to 8 or 10-pounds.
Glenn ties his own leaders and I asked him for the specifics in that regard. "Actually," he says, "a 7 ½-foot leader is long enough for most bass fishing. Typically I use about 4-feet of 30-pound mono, 2-feet of 20-pound and a foot or so of 10-pound for a tippet."
In the next issue of this column we'll take a closer look at how this former guide, a proven expert who has taken bass of more than 8-pounds on the long rod, goes about it. We'll get into the specifics for the kind of flies he ties for beneath the surface fishing and also probe his thoughts on how to handle those flies to get results.