Fishing catalogues are starting to arrive, trees are showing signs of early budding, and it could be another subnormal rainy season with milder temperatures. Even if we get a hoped-for deluge, the climate is changing, with subtle signs of global warming, and the annual movement of bass to their spawning beds has been coming weeks earlier. Back-to-back mild winters have seen bass move into the shallows as early as February. In Mexico, they are in prespawn mode even in January. I used to focus on April, May, and early June for surface action, but have learned that fish can be caught high in the water column much earlier. Ten years ago, my best top-water days were in early May. The past two years, they have been the first half of April.
For fly fishers who haven’t yet made the move from trout fishing to bass angling, these changes offer a great way to escape from the winter doldrums and try something new. Even now, at this point in winter, it is time to begin thinking about flyrodding for bass.
Casting a big, air-resistant bass popper is not the same thing as casting a size 16 Pale Morning Dun, and the equipment needed to keep a big largemouth from breaking you off in the tules is not the same as what you’d use for brook trout in an alpine meadow stream. Gearing up for bass takes some thought about how to deal with those differences.
Back before Thanksgiving, I began working on how to become a fly-rod bass angler with Christie, a visitor to Grass Valley, where I live, from the Santa Rosa area. We had met at my March 2014 lecture “Fly Fishing the Upper Water Column for Large and Smallmouth Bass,” at the Russian River Fly Fishers. She and another woman came up to talk after my presentation. They were trout and bluegill anglers who wanted to get into fly fishing for bass on Clear Lake, the largest natural body of water in California, pegged by the Lake County Chamber of Commerce as the Bass Capital of the West. A waterfront home and the prospect of targeting a new fly-rod species at the lake were the motivating factors. Both were frustrated by a lack of good information on techniques and appropriate rods, lines, leaders, and fly combinations for West Coast bass angling.
I told them that part of the secret is to use a rod that is capable of throwing a big bug or subsurface fly and to take advantage of the new generation of fly lines designed with this in mind. Today, there are a number of choices among specialty bass rods at different price points. Most of these specialty bass rods are intentionally designed to have a length of just 7 feet 10 or 11 inches, a specification that allows them to be used in bass tournaments where regulations prohibit longer rods for dipping lures into tule pockets. I find that these short rods fish best from an elevated boat deck, and I prefer using 9-footers from a float tube.
Also, any saltwater fly rod, lined properly, does a magnificent job throwing bass flies. (See “Gearing Up For Bass, California Fly Fisher, May/June 2012. It is interesting to note that saltwater anglers are now using the heavier line-weight specialty bass rods for tarpon and other large fish.) Rods designed for saltwater use are intended to cast heavy lines long distances to hard-fighting fish, requirements that serve well when delivering bulky flies to bass. A useful rule of thumb is to overline these rods by one-line weight. It helps if you have the luxury of testing the equipment before buying. I still favor older 9-foot saltwater graphite rods with their slightly slower lower modulus.
Where advances really have happened for fly-rod bass anglers is in specialty lines. We can now buy fly lines with aggressive, weight-forward tapers that load easily at short and medium casting distances, yet can also be cranked up and cast 70 feet or more by experienced casters. The line I currently use is marketed for “big flies with minimal back casts,” which is exactly the design feature you need when fly fishing for bass. My line loads a rod like you wouldn’t believe.
With all that in mind, e-mails flew back and forth between Christie and me. My new friend soon purchased a second spool for her larger trout reel, and I used eBay to find her an older, like-new 9-foot 6-weight saltwater rod that we lined with a 233-grain aggressive weight-forward taper for a 7-weight. We added a 9-foot 0X tapered leader and my favorite light-tackle bass bug, a chartreuse size 4 Sneaky Pete.
Christie was nervous about being able to cast larger flies. But as friends in the fly-fishing industry tell me, women make better students, perhaps because they listen well and use finesse and timing, rather than brute strength. After a little instruction, Christie was throwing that Sneaky Pete slider 45 feet, aided by a line that would load the rod nicely at short and medium distances and by concentrating on her casting plane, rod-tip movement, and timing. It is a very fishable distance, particularly from a float tube, and allows a stealthy approach. She developed a tight loop, with the bug turning over nicely and the line and leader laid out in a straight line — all important in accurately placing a bug tight to cover, which is crucial for enticing bass. It helped that she could conceptualize the mechanics of a good cast, correct as needed, and that above all, she allowed the rod to load and do the work for which it was designed.
There is a good reason I suggested she start out using a chartreuse Sneaky Pete. The bug is a classic fish catcher with a proven track record over many decades, and it has bouncy white rubber legs that are fish magnets. Equally important is the fact that a slider’s conical head is more aerodynamic and casts much more easily than a cup-faced popper or other air-resistant bug, particularly in the larger hook sizes. I use this slider about 90 percent of the time, tied on with an action-imparting Lefty Kreh Loop Knot. As the sun goes down and darkness gathers, I switch to an all-black Sneaky Pete, which provides appropriate contrast. If you buy your poppers, look for ones that have a large hook gap, one not obstructed by the slider’s body. Better yet, make your own. The crafting of hair bugs and poppers has its own niche in fly tying. It’s almost an American folk art.
At my next casting session with Christie, I will introduce an attenuated single and double haul to facilitate line pickup and line speed. It’s like the steelhead double haul, but with shorter pulls. The added line-hand pull in large and small increments helps salvage less than optimal casts and facilitates casting into the wind. It also helps tremendously when one graduates to cup-faced poppers and larger, bulkier flies.
I like to maximize the effectiveness of my equipment, so I pay attention to the grain weight of my bass lines. A 6-weight rod with about a 230-grain line is great for small to medium-sized aerodynamic flies, but for larger flies, I step up to an 8-weight with a 290-grain line and then to a 10-weight with a 330-grain line. (It’s for casting the huge Charlie Bisharat Pole Dancers, which allow you to “walk the dog” in a retrieve that imitates a distressed baitfish, and for casting big Tsunami pike flies.) Grain weights, by the way, are often listed on the boxes that fly lines come in. They can usually also be found in the manufacturer’s catalog and online. For the most part, the grain weight is for the first 30 feet of line, but not always. For instance, some integrated shooting heads measure only 24 feet, while others are longer, designed to be cut back to balance a rod and a fly.
Overlining rods in this way also slow them down, which is good for casting big f lies. The critical adjustment an angler needs to make is to take the time to let the rod load (a universal issue with most casting). Most decent graphite rods can take two or three different line weights. If you find yourself confused or hesitant about choices, visit a reputable, trusted fly shop for advice. And do not be reluctant about asking to test-cast lines or rods.
Today we have new tools that greatly facilitate effortless casting with larger flies. It makes it a lot easier to think about gearing up for chasing bass with a fly rod. Follow in Christie’s footsteps this year, and you won’t be sorry.
