We will have our meeting at the library on the 28th and the speaker is Bob Pool. A short BIO follows. See you there.
I’ve been fly fishing for 55 years and have targeted big bass for the last 40. I was originally talked into doing a presentation for my own club, the San Gabriel Fly Fishers because it seemed I caught more big bass than the whole rest of the club put together. A few have changed to targeting bigger fish now and have been very successful at it so I think my techniques work. A couple of local guides have let me know they use them as well with success. It makes me feel good to know I get to help people catch these big bass more often.
The big bass are still able to be caught even in this heat. They are moving early mornings and late evenings. I caught a 5 lb 4 oz and a 7 lb 11 oz yesterday evening late on Lake Marble Falls.
Master Class Monday: How to Fish Streamers in Shallow Water
Written by: Tom Rosenbauer
Fishing streamers is not always about casting large flies in deep water and heavy cover with a sinking fly line. Sometimes streamer flies are effective in shallow riffles and edges, especially when you use smaller flies and a floating line. Dave Jensen shows you how to rig a pair of small streamers and then demonstrates what type of water you should cover when trying this method.
I fish a lot of caddisfly patterns in late summer and fall, as most of the mayfly and stonefly hatches are over for the season around here. Here’s a great caddisfly imitation from Norwegian tier Gunnar Bingen, which is meant to be fished in rough, broken water. I’ll bet that it also works well as a skittering caddis, too.
In this typically awesome video, Tim Flagler of Tightline Productions walks you through the tying process, demonstrating great materials-handling techniques. One of my bigger frustrations when I first started tying was that I had difficulty keeping the materials in place; they always wanted to rotate or slide. What I enjoy about watching Tim’s videos is that he takes the time to show the viewer exactly how he holds, wraps, and secures each material.
; Rough-Water Caddis (Dyret) Hook: 1X-long dry-fly hook (here a Dai-Riki #300), size 14. Thread: Olive, 6/0. Tails/head: Natural deer body hair, cleaned and stacked. Hackle: Grizzly rooster saddle hackle, trimmed on the bottom. Body: Tan Super Fine dubbing. Note: Change the colors to match the naturals.
Ask the Experts: How Do You Attach the Second Fly in a Tandem Rig?
Written by: Phil Monahan
Tying the dropper to the hook bend of the top fly is the most common method for creating a tandem rig. Photo by Phil Monahan
Last year, we introduced a new weekly “Ask the Experts” Column and asked you to pose some questions for our panel of experts. Our latest question for them to chew on is: “How do you attach the second fly in a tandem rig: to the hook bend of the top fly, to the hook eye of the top fly, or to the tag end of a knot in the leader?”
Their answers are below. If you’ve got a question you’d like to ask our panel, write it in the comments section below.
Alvin Dedeaux, All Water Guides(Austin, Texas):
I use a regular old clinch knot tied to the bend of the first hook. Fast and easy, and when I want to change droppers or change the length of the tippet, it only takes a couple of minutes.
Joe Demalderis, Cross Current Guide Service (Milford, Pennsylvania):
Most often, I tie the second fly to the hook bend of the first. It’s fast, easy, and it works. The first fly is usually a heavier and larger bug, with the second being smaller Soft Hackle or emerger pattern. Other times, like when employing a contact-nymphing method, I’ll tie to the tag end of a leader knot to either fish separate parts of the water column or to have both flies down on the bottom, depending on weight of the flies. It all works, if you keep your flies in the right place.
Capt. Chuck Hawkins, Hawkins Outfitters(Traverse City, Michigan): Due to the number of logs left in our streams from the logging era, we do very little nymphing or hopper-dropper fishing. The only time I use double rigs is when streamer fishing. When I use two flies, I attach the second fly to the bend of the first hook.That gives me the correct presentation.
Rob Woodruff, Woodruff Guide Service(Quitman, Texas):
I prefer to tie to the hook bend of the top fly, using an improved clinch knot. I believe this gives fewer tangles than other methods. I always attach the second fly with a tippet that is one size smaller than what is tied to the upper fly. Since the lower fly is the most likely to snag on the stream bottom or on overhead limb, this insures that I lose just one fly if I have to break it off.
Doc Thompson, High Country Anglers (Ute Park, New Mexico): With dry-droppers, I tend to either tie off the bend of the dry fly or off the eye of the hook. Sometimes off the eye gives a little better or quicker sink rate to a beadhead dropper. It does sometimes create more casting tangles, and if that’s the case, I tie off the bend.
With tandem nymphs, it’s about a half-and-half split between tying off the eye of the hook or off the tag end of a knot. The deeper I fish, the more tendency I have to tie off the tag of a knot, as I think it gives the rig a quicker sink rate. On smaller water with double nymphs, I typically go off the eye of the front hook. Once again, tangles can dictate some of that.
Brown Hobson, Brown Trout Fly Fishing(Asheville, North Carolina):
That’s a hard question to answer quickly because they all have their time and place. Most often, I attach to the bend if the hook has a barb or mashed barb. I always use the bend if I’m fishing a nymph rig with split shot. If the hook is a manufactured barbless hook that wont work. The clinch knot just slides off and the dropper is gone. I’ll use tags if the flies have no barbs or remnants of barbs. I also use tags when fishing deep nymphs with no splitshot. The tag allows for the flies to move around in currents that aren’t moving perfectly horizontal to the bottom of the river, and allows flies in different parts of the water column to move independently of each other. I only use the eye knot when fishing a dry fly with hackle around the thorax. I think the dry fly rides better when the dropper is off the eye.
Mike Canady, Ellensburg Angler (Ellensburg, Washington): I tie it directly to the bend of the first hook, using an improved clinch knot. I use this method as it seems to hinge well and is fairly fast to tie.
Subsurface patterns, such as this crawfish, will take bass when they’re not willing to eat bugs on top. Photo courtesy All Water Guides
Just like trout, largemouth bass spend most of their time feeding below the surface. And as most people would agree that catching trout on dry flies is more exciting, watching a bass explode on a popper chugging across the surface is even more of a rush. The strikes are just so savage.
But as much as a dry-fly junkie as I am, I do nymph for trout when the conditions dictate. After all, I want to catch as many fish as I can. Ditto for bass. When the topwater bite is not happening, I have a few go-to sub surface bass patterns.
1. Clouser Minnows: I have caught more warmwater and saltwater species on the Clouser Minnow than on any other fly. Favorite colors are chartreuse and white, pink and white, and gray and white. For bigger fish or deeper water, try the Clouser/ Deceiver Half and Half.
2. Crawfish patterns: My personal best largemouth bass on the fly–as well as one of our clients’ world record Guadalupe bass–was caught on a crawfish pattern. Especially when the water temps are low and you need to bounce something along the bottom to entice a big lazy bass to to eat, the Gulley Ultra Craw and the Ghetto Craw are my favorite patterns.
3. Leeches: When the water is off-color or the temps are low, it’s hard to beat a big, dark leech slithering along the bottom. Think of it as the fly-rod version of a Texas rigged rubber worm.
4.Shad patterns: Some of the main forage fish in most bass lakes are shad. If you see bass schooling and chasing bait, most likely it is shad. One of my favorite shad patterns is the Double Bunny.
5. Diving Bugs: While not truly a sub-surface pattern, divers are one of my favorite flies when bass aren’t hitting the surface. The beauty of a big deer-hair diver is how much water they move. Bass will come from a long way off to find out what is making such a commotion. The added bonus of a diver is that you still get to see the strike.
