re: Fly fishing for bass

Check out No Wake Outfitters in Metairie. Lots of fly fishing stuff and loads of flies, along with knowledge of what works best in this area.

Went to the ponds today after the rain stopped. I found a popper to use. I had two swipes but no hookups. Went back to bait caster and caught 6.

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I had two swipes but no hookups.

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How are you setting the hook? If you’re not doing it already, the correct move is a strip set, which I usually describe as “elbow the guy behind you.” I usually wait a half a beat or so before doing this when fishing top water. The rod stays pointed at the fish for this. Once the hook is in, you can start using the rod. Don’t put them on the reel, they’ll just go get hung up in something. If a bass needs to be on the reel they’ll put themselves there.

I go 0x or bigger for bass leaders. If it’s a small pond with small bass you can likely go smaller but I’ve had big bass blow up on poppers on 1x or 2x and snap it immediately. They abrade the hell out of leaders too so check after every fish and re-tie if it’s getting abraded.

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Instead of starting a new thread, hope I can jump in and get some recs on a good starter fly rod/reel setup for pond bass and bluegill.

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8-9' 5 weight will do about 95% of what anyone could ask of it. Most combo outfits consist of a 8.5' rod and 5/6 weight reel and 5 weight level floating line. The reel can be dirt cheap....in that weight class very few fish ever get on the reel and even fewer ever get into the backing so the reel is only there to keep the line organized. Just about any combo in the $100 range at BPS will be more than sufficient. Even those in the $50 range will do the job but the more expensive ones will have slightly better rods that may (or may not) be slightly easier to learn with.

I seldom ever use anything other than 6 pound mono for leader material when fishing for bream and bass. With the larger flies typically used for bream and bass mono rolls over just fine....unless you are fishing for wild brookies in a pristine, gin clear stream and fishing a size 22 fly rolling a tippet over is not required to have a helluva time with a long rod. Bream don't care...they will hit the damn fly line about as often as they do the fly...to the point that my Uncle, who taught me to catch bream on a flyrod, connected his 10 pound mono to the fly line via a #8 long shank hook tied to both lies with clinch knots. He was fishing for meat and that hook caught about as many big old titty bream as the fly did.


Fly fishing, even for trout on most rivers (most of the time) is no where near as complicated as most fly fisherman will have one believe. As far as bream and bass go anybody with one working arm can do it. Its almost the same for trout under most conditions. Saltwater fly fishing is only slightly more difficult due to wind, usually stronger, and at times having to handle far more line than you do fishing for bream, bass or even trout (most of the time). There are times when trout require high level of technical efficiency but it is not the norm, despite what most trout fisherman will claim.

Lines that roll over and the ability to cast in a manner that allows the line to roll over is important when fishing in very shallow water....not for bream, they could care less, but even bass will spook sometimes and redfish and trout will light out if the line slaps the water 10 feet from the fly.....

For bream any popper in about a size 8 will work. Chartreuese is the go to but any color will work. I cut about half the length of the legs off of almost all of them...it results in more hits and hookups. If for some inexplicable reason they are running up to it and not hitting it...it happens....I will tie a Betts Bee (hard to find) behind it and they almost never run up to the popping bug and not eat that bee. It works fine with the bug as well. Any sort of suitably sized fly that sinks will work in a similar fashion behind a popping bug.

I streamer fish a lot for bass.....just blind casting and start stripping as soon as the fly hits the water.....almost as exciting as straight top water and allows me to fish deeper and further toward the boat.

These guys are making reproduction of the classic accardo popping bugs

LINK

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classic accardo popping bugs

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Think I still have a few of those.
Grandpa used to have a bait shop and it everything one could want.
Good times.