Bass flies

[anokpeas]

Is it just not enough practice or do I really have to double haul bass flies really hard, like bigger poppers and weighted wooly buggers.

 

[anokpeas]

Oh yeah I have a 8.5" 5/6 weight 5x wf line 5x leader and tippet

 

[BrookieBuster101]

More practice my friend. Unless we are dealing with 3oz bass flies i dont think a double haul entirely necessary. I prefer a stiff rod with little flex when i fish larger flies. It provides the backbone needed to throw that big ball o fur out there.

Practice never ends. Take one of your old chewed up bass flies and cut the hook at the bend. Go out in your back yard and try to figure what technique works for you and your outfit. Maybe if you have a fast action rod a double haul is necessary or there could be another way around your delema.

The ability to experiment is one of the key skills a fly fisher must possess

 

[bam]

a 5/6 rod isn't ideal for throwing bass bugs but you might be able to work with it depending on the size of your fly. A 5x leader and tippet shouldn't be used and is probably where you're running into trouble. Try an old knotless tapered leader and attach your fly to the heavier section. If you don't have one just use a 5 ft piece of straight 10 or 12 lb mono fishing line

 

[BrookieBuster101]

Also there is little need of a long leader when fishing big flies in most situations. Four or five feet is really all you need. I learned this fishing the Potomac River for shad.

A long leader makes it difficult to turn a heavy fly over and your loop will collapse.

 

[anokpeas]

Wow that was quick hah thanks alot for all the advice

 

[afishinado]

anokpeas wrote:
Is it just not enough practice or do I really have to double haul bass flies really hard, like bigger poppers and weighted wooly buggers.

Oh yeah I have a 8.5" 5/6 weight 5x wf line 5x leader and tippet

Your rod weight, more precisely, the weight of your line is too light to cast those bass flies very well. A 6wt line on you 5/6 wt rod would help, but don't spend a ton of cash on that. A heavier rod is really what you need, like say a 7wt.

For now try casting smaller, lighter and less wind resistant flies for bass on that rod. You're sure to catch fish on those flies (maybe more) and casting will be much easier. HTH.

 

[anokpeas]

Yah I did 16 wraps of lead wire on the shank by the bead head. I should cut it in half

 

[afishinado]

anokpeas wrote:
Yah I did 16 wraps of lead wire on the shank by the bead head. I should cut it in half

I'm not sure what diameter lead (.015, .020, .025...) you are using, but that sounds like a lot of weight. Cut down on the weight, but also wind resistant flies and big poppers with lots of bulk are not made to be cast with a 5wt. As I said, cut down on the size of your flies and casting should be much easier.

Since it sounds like you tie you own flies, try tying a Gartside Gurgler for surface fishing. You can make it fairly big, yet it is very easy to cast.

http://warmwaterflyfisher.com/flymonth/FOTM102002.htm

You can skip the hackle and use something like cactus chenille (or some other shiny stuff)

http://www.madriveroutfitters.com/pc-554-304-cactus-chenille.aspx

to wrap around the body and make the fly easier to cast. Also keep the tail rather sparse.

The GG casts and catches very well.....

Good luck.

 

[Brownout]

Try some lighter flies too, as was suggested. Get a bunch of white and black marabou material, and fasten a clump near the hook eye. This material, when twitched, looks like dancing forage. You can alternate between a twitch and strip motion, as if it were a real bait fish. Bass love these streamers, and they are extremely easy to tie and inexpensive. Great for farm ponds, coves of reservoirs, and shallow stretches of rivers. Those frog hair deals are not worth the trouble in most scenarios. I've caught more large bass on the light and long marabous than the tanker-frogs. Try taking some 6lb regular spin fishing line and tying it off directly from the fly line loop, it will simplify things. Keep an eye on that stripping hand, because they will stop it dead and turn on it and pull it right out of your hand if you're not on it.

 

[gfen]

I've been doing alot of this recently (I believe I clocked just shy of nine hours in two sessions today, alone), and the last few days have been using a 5wt rod that's advertised as both "fast" and "moderate-fast" depending on where you look, with both a sink-tip and a floating line.

First off, the sinker casts far easier than the floater does. I don't have this same benefit when I go big, but whatever.

Aerodynamics in flies matters more than you'd think, weight be damned, I can chuck a slender bugger way further than a double bunny, and gurglers seem to much more efficently than hairbugs.

The leader I'm using for my sinker is 8# mono, hand twisted to a total lenght of about 3' in three sections (the two strand is longest, then the four strand, and the eight strand is maybe 6"). From there, its about another 3' of 8# mono on the end to the fly.

The floater had a longer leader, same twisted style but about 5.5' long. 8# mono tippet clocks in at about 2' here.

 

[Padraic]

gfen wrote:
Aerodynamics in flies matters more than you'd think, weight be damned, I can chuck a slender bugger way further than a double bunny, and gurglers seem to much more efficently than hairbugs.

Can I get an Amen on that? Amen!

I used to use sliders for bass almost exclusively and that was half the reason.

 

[jjsjigs]

hey anokpeas...

I have an 8wgt for ya to try out. You will feel the difference!!!

We should meet over at Tozer's Landing and fish the pool above and below that first big riffle.