Fishing Forum

I like bass fishing but have only caught 2 and none on a fly rod. I mainly fish smallmouth reservoirs like Deer Creek and Jordanelle from shore. And I do tie my own flies.
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I killed them at Deer Creek on a California Leech in a #10. On the Jordan River, I have been getting LM on a chenille boatman and a Midnight Fire. Of course, as it gets warmer they where hitting my Perch Pattern like crazy last year.
I love fishing for bass so, stay in touch.
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Buggers, leeches, and my favorite terrestrials
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Poppers are fun to tie and effective in the right instances. (I wish I knew what they were) I remember the first surface explosion of a smallmouth taking a popper I tied -- freaking awesome. I enjoy tying crawdad flies as well, and have had decent success with those. Lot's of good patterns on youtube. I've also done very well at Flaming Gorge, Sand Hollow, and Lake Powell with Clouser Minnows. I've had a lot of success on just about any color combination, but for some reason, this one has been the best at those three lakes: (this is a stock photo -- I like to add a few red strands of flashabou or some other synthetic near the head)


However, if I had to take one fly, it would be a big ol' brown wooly bugger. I usually use 2 to 3x the feathers/dub/hackle than I would normally use. Throw 'em a cheeseburger, that's my moto.
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I used to fly fish Deer Creek a lot when I was younger. A size 8 brown mohair leech was hard to beat. I also did well with buggers and small bunny leeches. Poppers can be good too at times, and a lot of fun to fish.
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If you like popper fishing, you should try twitching a Wiggle Minnow on the surface. I finally tried these for smallies last year, and some of those bass went completely airborne on the take.

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Frog Poppers, green crawdad, black woolly and white woolly bugger.

Let's hope that this bass season will be better then last year.

My biggest bass on a fly rod out of Jordanelle was on a green crawdad that I bought from fishtech.
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Having fished both gear and flies for bass and knowing the limitations of each, one thing I've learned is you need to stop thinking trout when it comes to fishing for bass. Yes, leeches and buggers will work, but there's a reason that the gear guys are throwing big stuff. Big flies typically will bring up the bigger fish. Anyway, here are a few blog posts from our site that show some bass stuff: http://www.flyfishfood.com/search/label/Bass

I also like tube flies for bass. I've seen it at Jordanelle and Deer Creek both, but there is often structure you need to throw your flies into and they must be weedless in those cases. Tube flies are nice because you can throw on a wacky worm weedless hook.

This is a pattern that's been killing it for the past few years. Much more movement than a lot of flies because it's mostly material and no hook.



We've nailed some pretty big fish on it:



And smallies at Jordanelle or Deer Creek also like crease flies as well as poppers.



And a decent smallie from Jordanelle that took a weedless Crawdad pattern bounced along the rocks



Hope that gives you some more ideas. Check out my Youtube channel as well, I have a few decent popper and other bass stuff too...
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Nice. I tied up some crease flies last year, but never got around to using them. I think I'll have to give them a try this year. I've heard of tube flies, but I've never looked into them too much. They look pretty awesome, I'll have to take a shot at making some.
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Im kind of embarrassed to post these but ive been working on this style of fly for the last few nights. I have a long way to go... Im going to improve the colors and especially the shape. Right now im still experimenting. I also plan on using epoxy on the heads .. I just haven't bought any yet. Sorry about the low quality picture but took this on my phone.
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Those look great man! Nothin to be embarrassed about!
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Thanks.. The ones in the picture are literally the 2nd and 3rd ones ive ever tied so I hope with time and a better color selection they will start turning out alot better. I used poly marabou from SW they have a very limited assortment of colors. I may end up ordering something EP fibers there just a little expensive.
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Just use white and buy some markers[]
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I really liek to use small like 4-6 meat whistles tied with squirrel zonker. I tie them and are most effective with them in the following three colors in order, olive green, crawdad orange and chartuese
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Those are some nice flies.

I have some I tied up years ago I still have to try out. Bluegill and perch patterns.
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Perch, bluegill and baby bass are the patterns I want to tie in this style. I also want to do a shad pattern for my father inlaw. He uses them for striped bass out in california. He's been buying them for about $6 a piece. So I want to send him a bunch.
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Oooh oooh! OOh Oooooh! (Horshack)

Wooly bugger! Perch go for it also.
I DO like poppers for bass too. Gills like 'em also. Topwater can be fun stuff.

Greg - what's the body made of on those poppers of yours?

Props and vibration - stop and go, they'd blast it on the pause. Good stuff!

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Weedless perch fly.. I used a 2/0 wide gap hook with the point upwards.
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Dude, I like that. A lot.

I'll take 6, thanks.
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Thanks.. I need to test it out soon...hopefully it works. Not only am I new to tying these. I've also never fished this type of fly. If its functional then ill gladly tie more and share some with you.
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