Daniel-San wrote:

"Conan The Librarian" wrote ...

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.

Excellent. I'll have to see if I can come up with a "new" fly to
tie for that one.

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.

Snob. You damn purists are all alike. :-) I much prefer it too,
but the waters I fish (small rivers) almost require that I carry some
streamers with me. It's not even so much a matter of getting flies down
deep (I usually tie my Clousers with small beadchain rather than those
big honking lead/dumbbell eyes), as it is mimicking the predominant food
sources.

Speaking of which, I can't believe I didn't mention woolly buggers.

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....

I plan to try it to see if I can get a reaction down here. (I'll
even be happy with bluegill.) I tied some as large as #6 (and some tied
more like a Trude, with a big hackle collar), but haven't had a chance
to toss them towards any fish yet.

When I got back from the GSMNP, we had flooding, and my home river
is just now settling down to fishable levels. And the temps have been
in the nineties around here, so I'm finding it tough to get motivated to
hit the water.

...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.)

Nothing wrong with ratty flies; in fact, I'll bet most fishermen
would probably say they've had better luck with flies that either start
out or become ragged. :-)


Chuck Vance