bass on the fly

Steve Nyhan wrote:

... I believe a fly rodder can out fish a
bait caster in shallow water anytime.

deja vu!! (eh, petah?)

6-8 weight rod, bass leaders, big popping bugs in various colors... hula
poppers, dixie devils, worm/leech ties, etc. fish edges and holes in
lilly pads, fish the drop offs. and...a good baitcaster or spin
fisherman will kick your butt everytime, shallow or deep water...
that's my opinion.

jeff

On Sun, 23 May 2004 14:47:12 -0400, Jeff Miller
wrote:



Steve Nyhan wrote:

... I believe a fly rodder can out fish a
bait caster in shallow water anytime.

deja vu!! (eh, petah?)

6-8 weight rod, bass leaders, big popping bugs in various colors... hula
poppers, dixie devils, worm/leech ties, etc. fish edges and holes in
lilly pads, fish the drop offs. and...a good baitcaster or spin
fisherman will kick your butt everytime, shallow or deep water...
that's my opinion.

jeff

ya, ya, ya -- that's why I said the fly rodder has to think out of
the box. If you're gonna fish like a baitcaster, take a baitcaster.
PJ would cast into the salad and rip the worm across the top. A short
(9 footer) fly rod wouldn't be able to cast as far nor keep the fly
line out of the salad. I spent a lot of time casting to fish that
weren't home, fishing the cold, empty shallows. The wind played merry
hell with the lighter line but it was of no concern to PJ's
baitcaster.

I didn't play to the strengths of the fly rod that day. Give the
weather we had, the fish weren't going to be in the shallows until the
temperature rose. They weren't going to be moving too fast either.
They were either in deeper water or under the salad that probably
acted like an insulating blanket for that water. I bet the temps
under the salad were one or two degrees warmer than the open shallows.

I should've been fishing the canals like a UK stillwater angler,
dropping damselflies and dragonflies into the canels and retrieving
them very slowly along the bottom. Would've driven PJ nuts as I took
the better part of five minutes to retrieve a single cast, but that in
of itself would've made the day interesting. ) If I ever went
back, I'd take a two-hander, blast casts 90' to 100' down the length
of the canals using a shooting head, then slowly retrieve a team of
flies along its length. Don't think I wouldn't pick up a few?

The interesting thinks about models, is that far more people follow
existing ones rather than use their brains and a bit of moral courage
to try and forge new ones. Fly fishing for largemouth exactly like a
gear chucker is a losing propostion in my books. IIRC, we had a
similar discussion before I left for NC.

Peter

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"Jeff Miller" wrote in message
news:in6sc.4324$zE6.5@lakeread06...


Steve Nyhan wrote:

... I believe a fly rodder can out fish a
bait caster in shallow water anytime.

deja vu!! (eh, petah?)

6-8 weight rod, bass leaders, big popping bugs in various colors... hula
poppers, dixie devils, worm/leech ties, etc. fish edges and holes in
lilly pads, fish the drop offs. and...a good baitcaster or spin
fisherman will kick your butt everytime, shallow or deep water...
that's my opinion.

jeff


Hi,

Jeff -
Recently in SouthWestern Nova Scotia, where there is excellent smallie
fishing, several tournamnets have been won by fly rodders!!!

Bill
http://www.tightlines.ca

On Sun, 23 May 2004, Peter Charles wrote:

Would've driven PJ nuts as I took the better part of five minutes to
retrieve a single cast, but that in of itself would've made the day
interesting.

Yeah, I've done the fly fishing thing quite a bit side by side with
hardware and bait *******. It's not very productive because there are
differing boat handling requirements that are suited to the different
methods.

Mu

bill - no kidding? but, i thought we were talking about warmwater
fishing for largemouth... still, i have no doubt a good flyfisherman
will do well, and even on occasions catch more...i just believe, day in
and day out, a good spin or baitcaster will catch more largemouth.
during our smallmouth float on penns, wolfgang - who is a much better
fisherman than i - caught more small smallies on the flyrod than i did
on a spinning rod...but i caught almost as many as he did, and i
definitely caught the largest of the smallies that day.

jeff

Bill Curry wrote:



Hi,

Jeff -
Recently in SouthWestern Nova Scotia, where there is excellent smallie
fishing, several tournamnets have been won by fly rodders!!!

Bill
http://www.tightlines.ca

"Jeff Miller" wrote in message
news:Eclsc.7558$zE6.6723@lakeread06...
bill - no kidding? but, i thought we were talking about warmwater
fishing for largemouth... still, i have no doubt a good flyfisherman
will do well, and even on occasions catch more...i just believe, day
in
and day out, a good spin or baitcaster will catch more largemouth.
during our smallmouth float on penns, wolfgang - who is a much
better
fisherman than i - caught more small smallies on the flyrod than i
did
on a spinning rod...but i caught almost as many as he did, and i
definitely caught the largest of the smallies that day.

Not sure that's true. I caught only four smallmouth. Rock bass were
another story altogether......got over a dozen of those.

I'd be willing to risk a small to moderate wager on my chances with a
fly rod against a spin fisher for smallmouth under most conditions,
but I think it would be a sucker bet for largemouth.

Wolfgang

This is also not a fair assessment. Flyfishing requires stealth and if
you are fishing with someone who is pitching hardware the fish will
become far more suspicious and go back in cover. This is the reason
crankbaits work so effective the splash may cause them to retreat but
the bead sound causes them to attack. The same goes with a good worm
fishermen the fish feel more comfortable in deep cover attacking even if
they are suspicious. The flyrodder relies on stealth to bring the bass
to his popper which causes comotion that is suppose to resemble a
natural behavior. Hardware fishing will try to envoke an anger strike
(most of the time) and have the bass throw caution to the wind. A
flyrodder tries to resemble a natural prey and have him attack prey. You
can't really fish next to a hardware fishermen in the same boat and
expect to consistently win. Flyfishing and baitcasting are two entirely
different styles of angling. You cannot be an effective flyrod basser
using baitcasting techniques just as you cannot be an effective baitcast
angler using flyrod techniques. They are not the same. Tha is my point
and the reson why I feel so many bass flyrodders are not as successful.
They are trying to use the same technique as the baitcaster with a
flyrod. It's the same as comparing an artificial angler to a live bait
fishermen.

Steve
Sebring, FL

On Mon, 24 May 2004 16:51:47 GMT, Steve
wrote:

[snipper-rooney]



Steve
Sebring, FL

I think I said that somewhere around here, once or twice before. Use
your flyrod like a baitcaster and the baitcasting guy will whup your
ass every time. Use it the way Nature intended and it'll be a
different story.

My point about models is that we fly guys persist in using the
baitcaster model when we go after LM and lake living SM. Time for a
better one.

Peter

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Peter Charles,

I most whole heartily agree

Steve

"Jeff Miller" wrote in message
news:Eclsc.7558$zE6.6723@lakeread06...
bill - no kidding? but, i thought we were talking about warmwater
fishing for largemouth... still, i have no doubt a good flyfisherman
will do well, and even on occasions catch more...i just believe, day in
and day out, a good spin or baitcaster will catch more largemouth.
during our smallmouth float on penns, wolfgang - who is a much better
fisherman than i - caught more small smallies on the flyrod than i did
on a spinning rod...but i caught almost as many as he did, and i
definitely caught the largest of the smallies that day.

jeff

Bill Curry wrote:



Hi,

Jeff -
Recently in SouthWestern Nova Scotia, where there is excellent smallie
fishing, several tournamnets have been won by fly rodders!!!

Bill
http://www.tightlines.ca




Hi,

There are no largemouth in Nova Scotia, so my experience with them is rather
limited - only on "out of Province" excursions, and even then I tend to
target trout, not bass, I must admit.
My point was simply that in tournament conditions up here, where presumably
one would be using the "best" method for catching the biggest and most
smallmouth, many people are now choosing to use fly fishing gear. I do not
participate in tournaments, preferring to fish on my own or I am out with
sports.
Tournaments aside, there are many locations in the Province which are, I
believe, better suited for fly fishing for smallies than for using
hardware - for one thing the lakes which get the most pressure, although
admittedly up here the pressure is much less than is likely to be seen below
the border, hold shallow water opportunities for a fly rodder in a canoe
simply because you can go where the bass boats don't.
I would also say that smallie fishing is a relatively new thing up here, and
so we are all learning - but one thing I've learned is that the TV show
methods certainly do not hold up for what we can do here. I can wade or use
a canoe (and soon will have a float tube to try) and catch all kinds of bass
in places where the trailed boat with all the gear (and weight) can't get
in. We also catch some very large bass, as big as I hear others catching, on
a fly rod - although I have never tried a direct "you fish with spinning
gear, I'll use fly rod" comparison.

Largemouth, it would appear from others comments, would be different?

Bill
http://www.tightlines.ca