"Conan The Librarian" wrote ...
Daniel-San wrote:

Stay tuned for a bass fly swap...coming soon to a ROFF near you.

Cool, so the "trash fish" swap is still in the works?

Yep... it'll be a nice break from the Donnelley Company archives. I'll
repost the announcement in a coupla weeks.


In the meantime, my usual suspect for bass flies are all topwater deer
hair concoctions. Mostly a spun head with various colored feathers and
hair out the back. I'll toss a couple pics up over in binaries.

Plus gurglers ... and clousers ... and hoppers.

In NE Illernoise, I've had crapola luck wth gurglers for bass. Most likely a
problem with the Indian rather than the arrow. As to Clousers, I guess I
just prefer topwater fishing.



And I'm guessing that Wolfgang's Pass Lake in large sizes would work.
(And I plan to find out if I can ever get some time on the water.)

I've tied the Pass Lake up to a size 8, IIRC, and have had fair luck with
it, but like the gurgler, it seems to be mostly a 'gill bug around here. The
bass have ignored it so far. Or, perhaps more likely, I haven't put it in
front of enough bass....



...and don't forget the Madam X -- size 6 or so

Ah, so you've been using those, too? I don't know what the fish take
them for, but I've had good luck catching Guadalupe bass down here on
them. When fishing rivers I make a normal upstream cast and then let them
swing downstream from me before retrieving. I probably get almost as many
hits on the swing as on the drift.

Great fly. One of my favorites for warmwater fishing. I've had good luck
with it for bass and gills. I usually toss it to the edge of a weedbed and
fish it as if it were a floating Rapala. Let it sit a second or three, then
a very slow, "twitchy" retrieve. For rivers, I do the same as you with
about the same results. I have no idea what the fish think it is, but I do
have more luck with the rattier, used flies than with the new ones. (Of
course, my "new" flies tend to look a little ratty, so I guess I'm ahead of
the game a little.)

Dan