Flies for clear water and LM Bass

I am fishing on ClearLake in northern CA. The water is fairly clear, but
not crystal clear. You can see LM Bass under the docks and along the rocks,
but they will not take any type of fly I use.

A lot of bass are caught in the lake with plastic worms of all varieties.

Any advice on a fly to try.

Post back on the net so others can learn.

Thanks,
Fred

"f.blair" wrote in message news:d2mjc.46283$aQ6.3467127@attbi_s51...

I am fishing on ClearLake in northern CA. The water is fairly clear, but
not crystal clear. You can see LM Bass under the docks and along the rocks,
but they will not take any type of fly I use.

A lot of bass are caught in the lake with plastic worms of all varieties.

Any advice on a fly to try.

First of all, what kinds of flies are you currently using? And
what is the forage base in that lake?

If you just want something that resembles what the baitcasters are
throwing, there are any number of worm imitations like the "Gulley"
worm (estaz or similar braided to make an extended "worm"), "bunny
leeches" or "bunny worms" (rabbit strips make the extended "worm"
body, but a word of caution, to quote BD, when these get wet, they are
like casting a dead cat), and oldtime feather worm imitations like the
Whitlock "eelworm streamer". Woolly buggers or woolly leeches in
various colors might also be worth a try. A Google search on any of
the above should pull up all kinds of options, and the colors vary
depending on many factors. (Purples, blacks and browns are all
common.)


Chuck Vance (who's partial to the eelworm streamer and woolly
buggers for fishing deep, and the Dahlberg diver or a spun deer-hair
frog for surface fishing)

Allot of times when I am fishing I encounter fishermen that complain that
the fish aren't "Biting". Being a flyfisherman I always catch fish,
sometimes not many...but atleast I catch a fish or two when the spincasters
aren't. It seems like the spincasters and baitcasters are sometimes hard
headed and if the fish aren't biting on the "Chartreuse and Black" Jig they
figure the fish aren't "biting". LOL I change flys until I find one that
works. It isn't that the fish aren't eating(IMHO) but that we just aren't
flinging them something they want. {:O) Thanks Mike
"f.blair" wrote in message
news:d2mjc.46283$aQ6.3467127@attbi_s51...
I am fishing on ClearLake in northern CA. The water is fairly clear, but
not crystal clear. You can see LM Bass under the docks and along the
rocks,
but they will not take any type of fly I use.

A lot of bass are caught in the lake with plastic worms of all varieties.

Any advice on a fly to try.

Post back on the net so others can learn.

Thanks,
Fred

Clear Lake is a natural lake with cooler water and it's in wine country.
You'll see lots of flying bees, dragon flies and damsel flies. And around
the many boat docks you'll see spiders and moths. Does this give you some
ideas?

Good luck!
John
"f.blair" wrote in message
news:d2mjc.46283$aQ6.3467127@attbi_s51...
I am fishing on ClearLake in northern CA. The water is fairly clear, but
not crystal clear. You can see LM Bass under the docks and along the
rocks,
but they will not take any type of fly I use.

A lot of bass are caught in the lake with plastic worms of all varieties.

Any advice on a fly to try.

Post back on the net so others can learn.

Thanks,
Fred

I use to fish Clear Lake a lot. It was where I started to learn that a
bass you can see is one that you won't likely catch. The bass you see
aren't eating but there are others around that are. There was a lot of bass
in the lake and they could be caught on poppers. Big noisy poppers thrown in
the weeds or in the tulies ( weedless or as weedless as they get are the
lures to use.) If you have a boat go quitely into the tulies and try just
dabbling a popper in an opening.
One of my earliest fishing mentors was an old man who lived in Lakeport. He
was in his 80s and taught us lots about catching bass, he taught us to
catch them off the boat docks, next to the swimming holes, lots of places
you would think a bass would run from. He was a spry old guy that everyone
said pitched for some New York team in 1919 or so. There was a bay about
where 9th or 10th street would have run into the lake and we had the
number of the bass in that bay. One thing the old man taugh us was that
there was no such thing as to-small a lure for bass. We ate all of them
back then and when we cleaned then we found they had eaten blue gills,
hitch, other bass, frogs, red wing black birds, and one bat.
Look up doodlesocking and try a variation of it with you fly rod.

"f.blair" wrote in message
news:d2mjc.46283$aQ6.3467127@attbi_s51...
I am fishing on ClearLake in northern CA. The water is fairly clear, but
not crystal clear. You can see LM Bass under the docks and along the
rocks,
but they will not take any type of fly I use.

A lot of bass are caught in the lake with plastic worms of all varieties.

Any advice on a fly to try.

Post back on the net so others can learn.

Thanks,
Fred

What is "doodlesocking "?? Thanks Mike
"B J Conner" wrote in message
.. .
Look up doodlesocking and try a variation of it with you fly rod.

wrote:

What is "doodlesocking "??

It's basically the Bubba version of dapping. You're just laying out
your fly/lure in a spot (usually in very heavy cover) without casting.

I'm guessing that the "flipping" craze of the 80's is an offshoot of
that technique. That's where you used short stout rods with baitcasting
tackle, heavy line and lobbed jigs and weighted plastic worms back into
the brush. The idea was to reach places that you couldn't with normal
casting tackle. Once you got a bite, you'd set the hook as hard as
possible, in the process launching the fish in the air. This would
throw him clear of the cover and possibly even directly into the boat,
thus saving you the bother of having to play him.


Chuck Vance (what I can't figure out is why anyone would suggest
using fly tackle for doodlesocking)

Why would anyone suggest doing that with any kind of tackle? (unless you're
a commercial fisherman)
I think most of us do this for the fun of the sport of it.

Gene


"Conan the Librarian" wrote in message
...
wrote:

What is "doodlesocking "??

It's basically the Bubba version of dapping. You're just laying out
your fly/lure in a spot (usually in very heavy cover) without casting.

I'm guessing that the "flipping" craze of the 80's is an offshoot of
that technique. That's where you used short stout rods with baitcasting
tackle, heavy line and lobbed jigs and weighted plastic worms back into
the brush. The idea was to reach places that you couldn't with normal
casting tackle. Once you got a bite, you'd set the hook as hard as
possible, in the process launching the fish in the air. This would
throw him clear of the cover and possibly even directly into the boat,
thus saving you the bother of having to play him.


Chuck Vance (what I can't figure out is why anyone would suggest
using fly tackle for doodlesocking)

My answer was to give Fred Blair an ideal of where some of the ifsh in
Clear Lake were located and how they could be caught. . There are acres and
acres of tules in the lake and impossible to fish any other way. You can
can find open spots in the tules that you can fish with convential methods
( fly tackle included).
"Gene Cottrell" wrote in message
...
Why would anyone suggest doing that with any kind of tackle? (unless
you're
a commercial fisherman)
I think most of us do this for the fun of the sport of it.

Gene


"Conan the Librarian" wrote in message
...
wrote:

What is "doodlesocking "??

It's basically the Bubba version of dapping. You're just laying out
your fly/lure in a spot (usually in very heavy cover) without casting.

I'm guessing that the "flipping" craze of the 80's is an offshoot of
that technique. That's where you used short stout rods with baitcasting
tackle, heavy line and lobbed jigs and weighted plastic worms back into
the brush. The idea was to reach places that you couldn't with normal
casting tackle. Once you got a bite, you'd set the hook as hard as
possible, in the process launching the fish in the air. This would
throw him clear of the cover and possibly even directly into the boat,
thus saving you the bother of having to play him.


Chuck Vance (what I can't figure out is why anyone would suggest
using fly tackle for doodlesocking)

"Gene Cottrell" wrote in message ...

Why would anyone suggest doing that with any kind of tackle? (unless you're
a commercial fisherman)
I think most of us do this for the fun of the sport of it.

Er ... yes. I hope no one thought I was advocating anything of the
sort; I was simply describing the practice. I referred back to fly
tackle, since that is (ostensibly) what this group is about.

I thought that the following text would have made my position clear
and hopefully have been recognizable as sarcasm:

Once you got a bite, you'd set the hook as hard as
possible, in the process launching the fish in the air. This would
throw him clear of the cover and possibly even directly into the boat,
thus saving you the bother of having to play him.


Chuck Vance (oh well ... guess I should have included some
emoticons)