Bass Flies

[Banks10]

I will be on a lake this weekend that holds some pretty nice bass and pickeral. Does anyone have any recipes for some warmwater flies? And how to fish them?

[s2ary]

One of the best subsurface bass flies ever is just a grizzly bunny strip palmered up the hook shank with a 1-1 1/2 inch tail and lead eyes. Smallies, largies, brookies and LL's suck them up.

Another one I like is bunny strips with a small deer hair head.

And I'm just trying the MV Baitfish in perch and bass colors now. I bet this will be a killer pickerel fly.
http://www.aswf.org/saltwater_flies_for_web/steve_farrar/s_Farrar_mvbaitfishdoc1.pdf

[Chappy]

I like a Gurgler when it starts to get dark for some good topwater action. The lightweight non-absorbancy of the flies keeps it light unlike deer hair poppers.

It is a lot of fun. With a long tail of some unique hair, it will also work well for pickeral...

[Solid]

Big Chernobyl ants are killer!! it's only foam, rubber legs and a hook. Zip them across the surface.

[Plow Jockey]

Just remember Dalhberg Diver
Ask Steamtrain, he swears by them. A pain to tie, just buy them unless you've got some time to kill

[Banks10]

Here is a Dahlberg variation that I tied last night. Sorry the photo is a bit fuzzy, it was taken with my camera phone. That's a pretty difficult fly to tie. It took a lot of deer hair to spin. With all the hair I would imagine that this fly will float like a cork. Should I add weight to get it subsurface or should I pull it across the surface?

[Solid]

NO WEIGHT!

Nice job BTW on that fly, I haven't even attempted to spin deer hair yet. Looks like it will make a huge mess. Anyway, it will float like a cork for sure, but when you strip it in, it will dive then float back up to the surface leaving a trail of bubbles. Very fun fly to fish.

I will say this one more time, throw a couple of big Chernobyl Ants at them you will be surprised...

[Banks10]

I will definitely be tying up some ants. I am also thinking of trying out some big gawdy looking dry flies to see if I can get any takes.
Spinning hair isn't as hard as it looks, but it does get messy.

[Chappy]

Hi,

Here is a link to the gurgler.

http://www.jackgartside.com/step_gurgler.htm

You will be amazed how well it does. Simple quick tie. It is a great Striper pattern too.

It is great in black for night fishing and chartreuse, brown or green frog color.

Casts like a dream.

[Banks10]

Looks good Chappy, I should be able to tie a few of those tonight.
I know there are some trout (rainbows and lakers) in this lake as well. They are probably down deep by now (especially the lake trout), but if the temps aren't too high I might pull some trout streamers too and maybe even try some dries or nymphs at dusk. This lake gets always seems to have insects, ya never know.

[Chappy]

Hi,

If there are leeches there and you can find a drop from 10 ft to 40 ft, then take a long leader, full sink line and a big mean wooly bugger and cast it out somwhere on the break. Let it drop controlled. Often a lake trout can catch the silhouette and head toward it slowly and will take it strong on the freefall....kind of like I will eat what drops to the depth. This is what they call lakers stacking up. It could be over 50 or 60 ft too. Sonar works good for this...but fishing blindly can be less frustrating and more rewarding.

Once it drops to the bottom then strip fast and / or slow straight up. You can try with a streamer or even smaller nymps too. It helps tremendously with two full sink rods, that way one is sinking and the other you are fishing. Make sure you strap the one sinking down. They may hit and run and a rod is the last thing you want to lose.

PM me with the name of the lake. I might have other tips..

Good luck.

I will be on Lake Ossipee this weekend (never fished it before). Hitting Big Lake W. tomorrow...

[Solid]

I expect to see some images of the lunker bass you catch!

[clydesdalecm]

Nice work Bob. I will be looking for you this October or so when the season is slowing down. I anticipate that fly tying will be this Winter's hobby for me!