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 WatercolorMan |
Bass Buggin |
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Posts: 1260 01/21/2009 05:19 |
I just had a friend who bought property in So Cal. with a private Bass pond. Small and Largemouth in there. Show me some of your killer bass bugs that I might
use, I love top water fishing and the pond is about 8' deep on average with no structure. If you have a favorite rod you use let us know about it as well.
Alan |
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 thegubster |
Divers | #1 | ||
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Posts: 1523 01/21/2009 08:50 |
...love 'em. They're on the small size. You don't need big flies...
Jeremy. |
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WatercolorMan |
#2 | |||
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Posts: 1262 01/21/2009 12:06 |
Jeremy
I like what your doing with your divers, what size hooks are you using & is that a bead head & do you add wt. to the hook ? Alan |
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ibookje |
#3 | |||
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Posts: 1419 01/21/2009 14:56 |
A few of my bass bugs (I love Dahlberg divers!):
Jay
Last Edited By: ibookje 01/22/2009 15:53.
Edited 1 time.
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16 pmd |
#4 | |||
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Posts: 634 01/21/2009 19:48 |
Jeremy - Nice flies and you obviously have experience with Divers and faith in them with that concentrated collection. My own assortment is all over the map
because I don't bass bug enough to have a go-to bug, though the Gerbubble Bug (deerhair version) is a favorite. Jay - Wow, great deerhair work on the
Divers. Inspires me to tie some up before spring.
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B52 bugger |
Favorite rod and bugs | #5 | ||
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Posts: 93 01/21/2009 20:31 |
My favorite rod is Orvis Battenkill 8 1/2 ft 8 wgt (bamboo). My snake fly
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thegubster |
#6 | |||
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Posts: 1524 01/22/2009 08:40 |
Allan, these are done on a Gamakatsu B10S size 2. I typically use the same size in a TMC 8089 because they have a large gap and are a fine wire hook. Lots of
penetration...and a flyrod puts little pressure on a hook so I don't worry about straightening them at all. Heck, I use an 8089 2/0 for muskie and pike
w/no trouble.
As you guys can see, I tie "fishing" flies..  Jays are pieces
of art. That's fun tying...
You guys have seen this pic. before as it's the only one I have saved and haven't been able to tie more (or needed to) this season. You have some fine replies and examples here. B52, you have some interesting examples indeed and thanks for posting them. Something for me to think about re pike and muskies. This is also one of my favorite topics because I do a lot of warmwater fly fishing. Jeremy. edit..no beads and no weight.
Last Edited By: thegubster 01/22/2009 08:48.
Edited 2 times.
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ibookje |
#7 | |||
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Posts: 1423 01/22/2009 15:57 |
Thanks guys!
I did a small order of dry flies and divers during my college years. Fun at first, a terrible chore very soon! 
Big divers are neat for fishing for pike in clear shallow ponds. |
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WatercolorMan |
#8 | |||
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Posts: 1265 01/23/2009 03:01 |
GREAT just what I was looking for guys . . . This is going to be fun. I sure mine won't look as great as yours.
B52 I have an Orvis Battenkill also mine is the 8 ft 4 3/8oz I'll give it a try. I love the snake look & lots of eyeballs. Very inventive flies. Jay Those are real cool what a sweet touch with the color combo's, it ART. . . |
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winston59 |
Bass Bugs I tied | #9 | ||
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Posts: 75 01/25/2009 00:18 |
I think these guys are easier to tie than photograph!!!
Not as clear as I hoped... I enjoy tying up deer hair and feathers here a sample. 
Split tail with rabbit strip.... 
Dave Whitlock frog type ... 
Divers 
Poppers 
Kicker frog with heavy mono thru rabbit strip legs that will kick when popped. 
Kicker legs top view showing rabbit strips with heavy mono 
shad fly 
Last Edited By: winston59 01/25/2009 00:34.
Edited 3 times.
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winston59 |
Crawfish | #10 | ||
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Posts: 76 01/25/2009 00:40 |
How about a few Crawdads for bottom action.
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WatercolorMan |
#11 | |||
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Posts: 1268 01/26/2009 00:36 |
Winston
Those are great looking ! ! ! I like the way you blended your dear hair colors, your Crawdads are awesome, so inventive . . . Alan |
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winston59 |
Bugs | #12 | ||
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Posts: 77 01/26/2009 22:13 |
Alan
Thanks!!! When you start making bass bugs, it like adding toys to your toy chest/fly box. I had some scrap leather and thought instead of a Whitlock style crawdad, lets do something with more depth to it. When I first started fly fishing it was up on the Central Coast of California, now I am in San Diego with more bass lakes with double digit fish. Robert |
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agedsage |
Bass Rods and Flies | #13 | ||
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Posts: 24 02/25/2009 13:18 |
My Mother told me that I was born late, I have been late all of my life, and I plan on dying late! With that said, and now that I am here, in answer to the
original question, I use a Fischer 9 ft 9wt when it is windy and when I want to toss big bugs. However, most of the time I use a 9 ft 6 wt Diamondback, with
either SA or Cortland WFF lines( Bass Bug Taper). For leader/tippet I frequently use 6-7 ft. of Spyderwire, the stuff the level wind guys use; and yes, it will
turn big bugs over quite nicely. I also use knotted leaders that I make up, as well as knotless monofilament I also use a 9 ft 5/6 wt Brand X bamboo
production rod that I came by for cheap and rebuilt. I typically fish farm ponds, and the "lakes" that the developer put in when the planned
community that I live in was being built.
You guys have posted some pics of some really nice fish and nice flies. Great deerhair work! As soon as I can figure out how to post photos here, I will post some of the "bass/panfish candy" that I crank out. Unfortunately, my fish photos are not in digital format, making it difficult to post photos of fish. I don't take my digital camera fishing! I got hooked on using "Fun Foam" for bass/panfish "bugs" about 8 years ago and have not tied with deerhair since. It is amazing what one can do with this foam, and it is not as messy as deerhair. The Gubster makes an excellent point that I want to add to. I have been fishing floating bugs on size 8 & 6 hooks now for the past 8 years, since starting to use foam, and have caught as many big bass on these sizes as I have on larger hooks. In fact, hookup ratio seems to be better with the smaller hooks as at leat 90% of the bass are hooked either in the tongue, as in the one photo posted above, or in the roof of the mouth. I attribute the better hookup ration to both the smaller hook wire diameter, which, as "the gubster says", penetrates easier, and the fact that I am not trying to set the hook in a bony, hard-to-penetrate part of the mouth. One of my fishing buddies, who started teaching fly fishing for P.E. credit at Baylor University in 1952, refers to size 8 as the "cross-over" size as it is just slightly too big for all of the little sunfish and bass that inhabit the water that we fish to get into their mouths; yet it is small enough to catch just about any thing we have here in the freshwaters of Texas that is native. Tight lines! Frank |
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Letort |
Down on ol' Cape Cod | #14 | ||
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Posts: 50 02/25/2009 14:51 |
I enjoy topwater fishing for LM Bass as much as trout! Dahlberg divers are my first choice.
Alec (AKA Flytackle) with a nice bass.
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quashnet |
#15 | |||
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Posts: 2468 02/25/2009 22:55 Moderatus Muscae |
Our friends in the Midwest have admitted that there are no trout in Wisconsin, and so I think, Michael, that we must also tell the truth. Folks, there are no
bass in Cape Cod ponds. People get confused because they've heard about striped bass in the saltwater, which is an entirely different fish. The so-called
freshwater bass on Cape Cod is really some sort of curious member of the lumpfish family.
Anyway, I have some big old flies dating from the Year One, tied with a green deerhair Muddler-style head and deerhair wing over a keel hook that slides through the lily pads, and when you bob that fly along just under the surface like a slowly-swimming frog, well these lumpfish do seem to respond to it.
Quashnet's Paul H. Young Rod Database has photos and descriptions of430 PHY Co. rods, plus catalogs, accessories,
etc. Thank you to all who continue to send me PHY rod photos and info.
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B52 bugger |
quashnet | #16 | ||
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Posts: 100 02/26/2009 07:53 |
Very nice photo - bass and rod. Please don't spread the word about fresh water bass. Tell them we haven't had bass since 1850.
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Akroyd |
#17 | |||
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Posts: 37 02/26/2009 09:27 |
We have no bass in Wisconsin either. For those of you who like big smallies, check out http://www.tightlinesflyshop.com/?p=126 I have been on a few of their guided trips, and every day with them you have a legitimate shot at a 6 lb river smallie. I think they said last summer's biggest fish was 22" taped. Nice pictures, any of you fish the Murditch Minnow? |
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mmorris236 |
#18 | |||
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Posts: 268 02/27/2009 10:01 |
just revisited this thread and some very nice flies have been added. I caught a fact I missed earlier and wanted to comment on. You said that the ppond has no
structure. This is easily fixed, and actually MUST be fixed if you want sustainable fishing. The easiest way is to just sink brush piles and old stumps. Weight
em down with some old chain and sink em. Contrary to popular opinion (as with most ":everybody knows statements, completely contradicted by your daily
observations) wood does not rot when it is submerged. This is why submerged timber in flooded ponds lasts. How many of us fished the old hickory stump Daddy
showed us when we were kids, only to now be taking our own kids and grand kids to that same old stump? Anything that breaks the bottom up is structure, sink an
old rowbaot, throw in all those old cinder blocks, Hell if you do it late at night there are few things that will hold fish better than an old buick.
Many Bass pond owners, too lazy to sink brush, use star shaped PVC  clusters. They look like big old spiked balls but provide cover and break up the
bottom, personally I prefer the old buick. If your freind takes a weekend or two to junk up his pond he will have years of phenomenal fishing.
Bass require two things to thrive, food and cover, cover is easy but food is more important. Make sure that there is plenty of cover for bait, stone piles and weed beds. And one of the most overlooked points, bait needs food too. Minnows and other small fish feed on algae, if the water is beutiful and crystal clear, your pond will be a desert. A proper bass water will have about 3 feet of visibility in the summer, if the water is clear, think about fertilizer. |
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Marty |
#19 | |||
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Posts: 25 02/27/2009 16:53 |
Some beautiful hair bugs!!!! ..I wish mine came out as well as some of those.... One of my mainstays is a bugger with split spade hackle for a tail for a
easy to tie crawfish imitation (tie some tans, browns, greys, olives). I also tie buggers in purple and pink and chartruese the bassmaster crowd seems to use
those colors a lot and they sure do work for me....I usually carry 6, 8 ,12 some with flashabou some w/o I like black up loop eye salmon hooks. Mostly a
trout guy but summer tennis shoes in the small river near me makes me feel 12 again and in some of the deeper holes there are some very nice fish.. Some local
small quarry lakes are fun as well...I stay off the big water the noise of the 100mph bassboats get to me fast....Spring is almost here!!!!!!
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WatercolorMan |
#20 | |||
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Posts: 1325 03/02/2009 13:38 |
Morris is right on about the fertilizer, its food for the algae. I am now in the fish farming business and we use Catfish to fertilize the algae and keep the
bottom stirred up. We add fertilizer as well. The main business is not the fish but it is a part of it.
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