Subsurface Floating Minnow

What is your best strategy to catch largemouth bass on a fly rod?

I’ve been fly fishing for bass for a couple of years now. I primarily fish in larger lakes that have a lot of subsurface food, and topwater approaches do not produce at all. The best luck I’ve had was a #8 olive wooly worm, fished wet on a floating line with about 8 feet of leader/tippet. This works fine, but I end up catching about 3 perch for every bass. I don’t have any experience fishing streamer patterns. What type of line and leader combo would you use? What type of retrieve? There’s a lot of underwater weeds, and lots of small perch and some minnows in the area.

Dave:

Try a #2 or #4 Clouser minnow with a dark color pattern or a maribou streamer in a dark pattern. Other patterns are good such as a black Bass Worm or a black leech pattern. Since you said that there are a lot of weeds I would generally prefer patterns like a Clouser with an upturned hook. They should handle the weeds much better.

Fish the streamer using a long, fast strip. Reach as far toward the first guide of your fly rod as you can and strip it quickly until your arm extends straight back. Do not use short fast strips. Also use a strip set, i.e. when you get a hit do not lift the rod like you would for a trout, just make a short hard, fast strip. This is very hard to do if you have been fly fishing for trout for any length of time because a lift rod set is so totally mentally ingrained. It is a better set method for large fish like bass, dorado or tigerfish and toothy fish like the pikes. A lift rod set is OK for bass, but it would be good to learn to use the strip set too so you can use whichever is appropriate for the game fish you are after or you will have a guide fussing at you all day long when you go bone fishing every time you do a lift set on a bone fish.

Buy some 7 ft. knotless tapered leaders designed for bass with a 2X or larger tip section. I have never detected that bass are prone to be leader shy like trout so you could use a tip as large as 15 or 16 lbs. No need for an extra long leader. 7 ft is plenty long enough and easier to handle.

Good luck and good fishing – 73 from the Fisherman

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