Bass and Poppers

Flyfishing for bass has always fascinated me, but I never really tried it until last summer.  Now I’m hooked. 

Bass thrive almost everywhere in the United States.  Here in Pennsylvania, we have generous populations of both largemouth and smallmouth.  No matter where bass are found, though, they all have one thing in common – they all like poppers.

Poppers come in a variety of shapes and sizes.  If I had to describe them, I’d say they are large, cork-shaped flies with a few feathers and rubber legs – although not all of them have rubber legs, the most effective ones I’ve used do.  More often than not, they look ridiculous, almost cartoonish.  Some of them have fancy paint jobs and goofy-looking eyes.  But don’t let that fool you.  They’re effective.

The first step in fishing bass poppers is using a fly rod with enough power to cast them.  Poppers can be heavy and trout-weight fly rods don’t have the backbone to cast them effectively.  A 9-foot fly rod in the 6- to 7-weight range will work if you don’t have to cast far to reach structure.  On windy days I use a 9 ½-foot, 7- to 8- weight rod to help offset the resistance caused by wind while false casting.

Casting a bass popper is not easy.  It requires more physical effort than casting tiny trout flies.  When using a popper, there’s no such thing as a delicate, beautifully-looped cast.  It’s more like slinging it out there and plopping it onto the water.  However, because the poppers themselves are so heavy, you have to be more patient and allow the line to unfold all the way in front and behind you while false casting to avoid snapping them off.

Fishing bass poppers requires very little finesse.  I like to point the rod tip toward the popper and strip line while twitching the rod to the left or right, which creates the “pop.”  There’s no right or wrong way to fish a popper in terms of retrieval speed.  Most times, it’s a matter of determining how aggressive the fish are that particular day.  If the fish are in attack mode, I like a fast retrieve – two or three strips and twitches and then a pause.  If they seem more sluggish, a slow and subtle retrieve seems to work best – one strip and twitch and then pause.  The most important part of the retrieve, regardless of speed, is the pause.  Let the fly sit still for a full second or two before inducing more action.  Most strikes occur when the fly is stationary. 

Bass are hard-lipped fish and it takes a sharp hook and a solid set to hook them.  A soft hook set will result in a loss almost every time.  If you’ve watched any of the professional bass fishermen on television, you’ll notice that when they get a strike they really rear back on the rod, fast and hard.  When using a fly rod, this is especially critical because it has more give than traditional spinning gear.  For this reason, I use heavier leaders in the 3x to 2x range (8 to 10 pound test) and very rarely use a tippet.  Usually bass aren’t all that picky or line shy.  I haven’t noticed much difference in catch ratios from one size leader to another, so I use heavier leaders so that I don’t have to worry about breaking off on the hook set. 

When I’m fishing ponds, I like a spot and stalk style of bass fishing.  Staying far enough from the water’s edge to avoid spooking fish, I find the shallow, vegetated flats where bass like to cruise.  If a fish is up and moving, it’s likely hungry and can be caught.  When I see a bass in the shallows, I estimate its course and try to land the popper a few feet in front of its nose.  Many times, just the disturbance of the popper hitting the water is enough to incite strikes.  That’s what I like about bass.  They hit as much out of aggression and impulse as they do hunger.

In deeper parts of ponds, I fish parallel to the bank, casting out ahead as I move around the pond.  Sometimes I’ll fish perpendicular just for the sake of covering as much water as possible, but most of the biters can be found close to shore where they set up ambush for any bug, frog, or food source that finds its way into the water.

When fishing lakes, I look for structure such as lily pads and trees in the water.  Many bass poppers are available with weedless hooks, but I don’t think they’re necessary.  Most of the time I fish the edges of the weeds and lily pads anyway because if I hook a fish in the weeds, I know it’s going to be next to impossible to power it out of there with just a fly rod.  In my opinion, weedless hooks are valuable when fishing ponds that have a lot of surface debris on them.  The weed guard keeps you from having to clean debris from the hook after every retrieve.

There’s a reason why bass are considered one of the top gamefish today.  They strike hard, fight hard, and can be found almost anywhere in the country.  If you want to catch them on the fly – a surface fly, no less! – try a popper and get in on the action.

*This article first appeared in the September 2014 issue of PA Outdoor Journal.