How to catch a 5lb bass on the fly?

Peyton

Peyton

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I have set the goal of catching a 5lb+ bass on the fly this year. I often fish an 8-acre farm pond for bass and bluegills. The biggest caught there was a 9.5lb bass by my brother, and a few 7 and 8's by me. Most caught on lures, except for the 9.5. I have caught over 30 bass that were over 5lbs there, so I wanted to get one that big on the fly, but have no bass fly fishing experience. I started to tie some big streamers for them, but have no idea what else I could use for them. What other flies work well for bass?
 
Gurgler, Clouser minnow, crayfish patterns.
These fish are super aggressive, 16" bass on an 8" swimbait, didn't even hit the 2lb mark. When I throw small things like that I never catch a bass over 2lbs, only giant gills, and crappie. I will have to tie up some gurglers then.
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tie em big and try not to flinch when the surface explodes. looks like fun.
 
Use flies that mimic the same bass lures they ate. Chances are those pigs didn't chase something moving very fast, but a slowly falling and correctly weighted hair jig/jig streamer or the rubber worm imitation flies that are out there should do the trick. Surface popper with a dropper too. Get their attention, then offer an easier meal...
 
Welcome to the club. I'm still looking for my 5# largemouth and smallmouth. I'm certainly no expert in catching big bass. I've caught several 20 inch Canadian smallmouth over the years, but this is the biggest largemouth I've caught on a fly rod. I couldn't find my scale or my tape measure so I had to settle for a picture, and I was lucky there was someone around to take the picture. It was caught in a lake in the Poconos, late May, post-spawn, and it's pretty skinny. I'd like to have caught in August or September. You can see the fly I caught it on in its mouth. I was fishing for bluegills at the time.
P5210249 7

It depends on the lake/pond. A lot of the lakes I fish are weedy. It's tough to fish Clousers or crayfish patterns in a lot of the lakes because of weeds. I use a lot of top waters, gurglers, sliders. poppers, weedless frog patterns for lily pads and surface weed beds.
The lake I caught the bass in the picture is not very weedy, and one of my non-fly fishing buddies and I are going to pay more attention to it this year when we go up in May. I don't fish a lot of Clousers but they are an effective. Tied in crayfish colors you can bounce them along the bottom or fish them as streamers in baitfish colors. I've been tying up some crayfish patterns and Ned flies, mainly for my Canadian trip in late August, but plan to test them around here first.
This is what my bass boxes are going to look like this year.
Subsurface
DSCF1129

The Ned fly is in the upper right hand corner, crayfish in the lower right corner.

Top water
DSCF1135

None of them over 4 inches long, which may explain why I don't catch a lot of bass over 5 lbs. I do have some streamers in the 6 to 8 inch range but they're usually for salt water or pike. I guess I should throw a couple in my box when I head up to the Poconos.
 
I have caught a 4# bass on a topwater frog, and most of the big bass come from rubber worms. I made some flies to mimick those and lots of bluegill flies.
 
If you like that lure. 0217D8DF BD67 4336 A12C EDFCA7AA5F8D
 
Use flies that mimic the same bass lures they ate. Chances are those pigs didn't chase something moving very fast, but a slowly falling and correctly weighted hair jig/jig streamer or the rubber worm imitation flies that are out there should do the trick.
This^^^^

I really don't chase LMB with a fly rod anymore but when I did, I created flies that imitated the lures that brought the most big fish to hand.

That meant 6" - 7" plastic worm flies, 4" tube fly lures and really long (4" - 5") Clouser Minnows that mimicked the Senkos I love.

The trick is to make 'em BIG, but keep them light so you can cast them because they will get even heavier when wet. The other thing is to mimic the action of the lures. The lures work because of their action and the rate they fall so sometimes experimenting with a little weight in different places is needed.

On my "plastic worm" flies, I'd thread a tungsten cone head on to my leader or use a smaller sized Water Gremlin Bull-Shot if I wanted it pegged.

I also used to do a drop-shot thing by leaving a long tag on the leader to fly knot and crimping a couple of split shot on the end of the tag. I like split shot because they will pull off if I got a snag.

Bottom line, you need a heavy outfit to fish this way which I don't enjoy using. That's why I gave it up in favor of chasing LMB with a baitcasting outfit.

YMMV and good luck.
 
I need to learn how to tie game-changers, bass or pikeral colors would be ideal for one.
GCs are actually pretty easy — just a lot of steps. Finesse changers are my thing. Skip the kits and just buy what you need straight.

Kona BGH: 2/O
10 mm shanks
tail Shanks
Marabou
Game changer chenille — I like it more than finesse chenille, but there are many options, and everything is subjective.
3D eyes — large like 5 or 6mm
Wire

My biggest tip is don’t crowd the eyes of each shank stop like a wrap or two earlier than you would want. It’ll swim better this way, and the chenille is so poofy you’ll never notice.
 
I've taken multiple 5 lb + bass on fly rods. Most have honestly come at night while fishing big dragonfly patterns or gurglers. I love when they smash topwater, especially in the darkness.
 
I have set the goal of catching a 5lb+ bass on the fly this year. I often fish an 8-acre farm pond for bass and bluegills. The biggest caught there was a 9.5lb bass by my brother, and a few 7 and 8's by me. Most caught on lures, except for the 9.5. I have caught over 30 bass that were over 5lbs there, so I wanted to get one that big on the fly, but have no bass fly fishing experience. I started to tie some big streamers for them, but have no idea what else I could use for them. What other flies work well for bass?
My 12 yr old is a bassaholic. Took him to Lake Toho in Florida on our Disney trip a few weeks ago. He wants to be your friend. lol

It is unfortunate we don't have big bass ponds near us for him. Kid already plans to live in Texas and Florida chasing big bass the rest of his life.
 
My 12 yr old is a bassaholic. Took him to Lake Toho in Florida on our Disney trip a few weeks ago. He wants to be your friend. lol

It is unfortunate we don't have big bass ponds near us for him. Kid already plans to live in Texas and Florida chasing big bass the rest of his life.
Can’t blame him, there is some good fishing down there. Try and find a private pond, most people let you fish them and it’s great to learn how to handle and land big bass
 
Much good info above. ^
Fish in the springtime during the pre-spawn when large bass are in shallow water and weeds are not so thick yet.
 
Much good info above. ^
Fish in the springtime during the pre-spawn when large bass are in shallow water and weeds are not so thick yet.
My goals for this year are 5# on the fly and hopefully a 10# on anything, I've seen a couple close to that size in that pond only. I'm going up after school today, but I think it's still frozen.
 
I have set the goal of catching a 5lb+ bass on the fly this year. I often fish an 8-acre farm pond for bass and bluegills. The biggest caught there was a 9.5lb bass by my brother, and a few 7 and 8's by me. Most caught on lures, except for the 9.5. I have caught over 30 bass that were over 5lbs there, so I wanted to get one that big on the fly, but have no bass fly fishing experience. I started to tie some big streamers for them, but have no idea what else I could use for them. What other flies work well for bass?
Poppers, clousers, Dahlberg divers
 
Today I am up at the pond and there already is 2” of snow, so I will be heading out to fish soon, still about 4” expected
 
Pond froze today so I tried to fish the only thawed spot, but my fly froze and the line guides and reel also froze up.
 
The best tip for catching big fish is to fish where there are big fish to catch. Catching big fish is no more difficult than catching a small fish there’s just less of them. Go south where they hatch at 5 pounds.
 
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