Tag: largemouth bass

Question: When you’re fishing a pool, pocket, or riffle, how many unproductive casts should you make before you decide to move on to the next spot? And if you catch a fish in one place, should you assume that it has spooked the other fish in the area and move on? —Mort S. If deciding whether to abandon a chunk of water or stay and keep working it...

On a basic level, all fly fishing is crazy. I mean, we’re using $800 rods and $400 reels to catch foot-long trout. But just about every fly fisher’s life gets really weird from time to time. Perhaps it is carp in a muddy, smelly city creek that is really a drainage ditch for street runoff and water from sewage treatment plants. People do fly fish the...

The 6-weight labors a bit, but with two false casts the heavy-headed line shoots forward, plopping the big blue popper about seven feet beyond a twig poking through the water’s surface. I wait for the ripples to settle then try to impart the spirit of a cicada with a series of short, soft strips. The popper gently gurgles in a straight line until it...

Size 12 at least leans towards large for a trout fly, but compared with a palm-filling hair bug for largemouth or smallmouth bass, it’s a runt. Just as a whopping pound-and-a-half bluegill’s a runt alongside an average steelhead of, say, eight pounds. Fly size, like fish size, is always relative. On average, highly relative. Nonetheless, on...

Question: What is the best way to work a popper in rivers? Most of my experience fishing for smallmouth bass is in lakes. How is it different? —Byron H Good one, Byron! The answer to your question will put a lot more smallies onto MIDCURRENT readers’ poppers and hair bugs. Regarding how to work a bass popper, there’s a load of confusion out there; I...

THE USUAL REASONS for not flyfishing for largemouth bass go like this: I don't know how. I don't have the gear. The gear is too specialized. Bass is that other species you read about in fly fishing magazines; people don't actually fly fish for them. I don't have a big boat with a motor the size of a dishwasher and tons of sponsors to support me. I feel...

While they're certainly one of the most exciting targets for fly fishers, "largemouth bass aren't northern pike," says Phil Monahan in answer to a reader question about getting started with topwater flies. "[B]ass can be quite picky and will often ignore big, noisy topwater flies. Here are a few steps you can take to improve your odds."

Scott Bowen isn't actually an investigative reporter for MidCurrent. He's a writer, editor, and novelist who lives in Bucks County, PA. He is also the author of the short story collection The Midnight Fish. And while we remain convinced that the right fly will outfish any hardware when it comes to largemouth bass, there is no Quittman Special. At the time...