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.
