Summer bass by fly not the norm, but it works
Take a few tips from regional experts and improve your luck on fly-rod bass
During summer, the drill for catching black bass is early to rise or late to bed.
And during fishing hours, bass see their share of patterns of topwaters, and plastic baits such as worms and combinations of lead, and soft plastic — commonly referred to as jigs and trailers.
But what about putting the 6½-foot spinning or baitcasting rod down, and instead reaching for a 9-foot fly rod?
Indeed, consider casting a fly and taking some tips from a few experts from around the country.
From Texas …
Chris Shafer, a black-bass guide on the Brazos River in south central Texas, gave up conventional gear and fishing on a nearby lake to use a fly rod to and cast topwater bugs on the river.
State stuff.
A bass is what is called a superior fish. His lower jaw extends past his upper jaw. That means the fish feeds upward. During warmer weather months, when oxygen is a problem, they move shallow because that is where there is the most oxygen. Fly presentations are generally designed for surface fishing.
When you get him in river situations, especially where the water is shallow, he feeds at the surface continually. He can go left and immediately turn back right. He can jump straight up 3 feet in the air and shake like it's nobody's business and give it back to you. He can run at you so fast you can't catch up with him. With a fly rod, if you know what to do by keeping that fly rod loaded and the angle of attack like it's supposed to be, it's a gas. We are on the cutting edge on flyfishing for bass.
Shafer doesn't have any secret flies. Whitlock hair bugs and Porky's pets are two of his favorites. "This is all a hair-bug deal," said Shafer. "We are using Nos. 1 and 2."
… and over to Georgia …
Clay Jens, a Georgia bass-fishing guide, works on Lake Eufala, the Flint River, Lake Seminole and Lake Blackshear. He doesn't fish with a fly rod exclusively, like Shaver, but switches over when the circumstances and his customers dictate it.
"I would probably use a subsurface minnow bait," he said. That would something like the woolly bugger, which is employed to mimic many different types of food, including dragonfly nymphs, damselfly nymphs, leeches, baitfish or just something else that might appear to be alive and edible.
"Woolly buggers are really good baits here on the Flint River, primarily in a black or olive color, depending on how fast the river is running," Jens said. "We fish a lot of rocks on the Flint River where we primarily use a fly rod."
The water around the rocks breaks down into some deeper holes that break all the way to 13 feet. The primary location for the fish is from 18 inches all the way down to 6 or 7three feet. Jens fishes Arbogast topwater popping bugs.
If he wants a sinking fly, Jens ties on a hairworm, one of his own creations, as he explains: "It's a 1 to 1/0 hook that is tied with rabbit hair. It's a rabbit fur strip with some of the fur tied around the hook to disguise the hook, a couple of small bead eyes on it to sink a little bit and sometimes I will wrap it with a hackle."
… and up to West Virginia …
Switching to the Mountaineer State of West Virginia, guide John Cranston is a pure fly-rod angler for smallmouth bass. His favorite fishing location is the New River in south central West Virginia.
"One of the favorite flies is a size 4 Sneaky Pete. On an overcast day you can get away with fishing the fly all day," Cranston said. "If it gets bright and sunny, start switching to something a little bit deeper like Wooly Buggers or a Clouser Minnows."
Damselflies, which are like small dragonflies, are another of Cranston's favorite imitations.
"We get a really good hatch of Damsel flies throughout the day," he said. "You will see fish breaking water for them all through the day."
… and back to the Lone Star State
Jay Childs, a Texas bass angler who fishes tournaments, maintains that the fly-rod-equipped bass angler might do well targeting a river or stream, something with current. He also advises that the fly won't work well on deeper structure where traditional bass tackle excels, such as water covered with a mat of weeds or grass.
On the other hand, Shafer believes that a fly will find fish where a weighted jig, punching through the mass and sinking to the bottom will miss.
"If you were dropping weighted bait down into the vegetation at the bottom, you are actually going past fish strike zones. Fish are up under that cover," Shafer said.
"The bass is not really looking for something to come crawling by on the bottom. He's waiting for something to drop off one of those pads or hit one of those holes that's above him, and he can dart up there and get the prey, like a frog or any terrestrial animal, a grasshopper or a mouse — or shad or perch — where it is exposed. Remember that bass are looking upward."
If the fish are on the bottom, Cranston reaches into his tackle bag and ties on a crawfish imitation.
"It's a very heavily weighted fly," Cranston said. "Some of the crayfish patterns we use are three and a half to four inches for pretty big fish."
Is flyfishing for bass in the summer a legitimate way of catching bass?
The three guides we talked with think flyfishing is an excellent way to tie into some summer bass excitement.
To be sure, bassing by fly in the dog days is definitely out of the norm. But as a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologist and a fly-rod angler Mark Webb states, "It's just a different way to enjoy the sport, more than a better way."
