Warmwater Days

[Lewiskm3]

Some buddies of mine from school invited me out to a private pond this morning, as they had room and permission, and it was pretty entertaining.

Many of the guys in the group were chucking terminal tackle and were surprised that 3 of my buddies and myself were sporting flies. I got geared, trying to beat the masses to the only dock on the lake, and hauled out 3 bucketmouths on the first five casts. The hard tackle shmoes were eating their words in the first four minutes, and the 4 fly tossers outfished the lot (11) of them. My favorite streamer has become the bobbing baitfish, and as the water clarity was surprisingly great, I spent the morning spot fishing for bass.

Around 11, a breeze kicked up, and with some kickers buzzing in the warm air, I tossed on a hopper, and stalked fish hunkered up against the shore. I used the 2 large flies to keep the bluegills off, although I hooked 2 large ones, and don't know how many I layed into. After it all, I realized I had only fished 2 flies, the BB and the hopper and had a riot, and it hit me that the BB on a sink tip line has become my favorite way to attack the bass, and I almost never fish poppers anymore.

Out of curiosity, you boys have a specific favorite bass pattern, that's tried and true and is your go-to most of the time? Mine is the bobbing baitfish without fail.

Just wondering,
Kevin-

[cheech]

Crazy dad in Olive. Saw it do work today. I also have several bullcrap versions of the scum frog that work well.

[ben trod]

I love catching bass on foam hopper patterns when the terrestrials are buzzing around. Sight fishing to bass in the shallows is sweet. What size and colors are you fishing your bobbing bait fish, and how many feet is your sink tip?

[lewie]

Recipe's, we need recipe's and pictures.

[F/V Gulf Ventur]

Crazy dad in Olive. Saw it do work today.

Ditto... meee tooooo ; )

Pic on its way

[Lewiskm3]

I'll finally try and figure how to post pics on here, and I'm guessing I'm going to have to resize them.

The bobbing baitfish I picked up from on of Rich Osthoff's books, and it's simple bouyant streamer. It's just tied with foam on the hook, before a mylar body is put over it, and a marabou tail. Put some eyes on it if you want, and add epoxy. I've had the best success with holographic mylar, as the color of the underlying foam really adds some lifelike color, and for bass I use a green foam, so the fly looks really irridescent. It's a good bug. The one I fished with for the day was actually tied on a size 10 stimi hook, which made it a little more bouyant. I fished a 15 foot sink tip line, and when the fish were in only 2 ft of water it was a blast, as the fly wouldn't get dragged under water and it was like fishing a topwater.

I should note, it's fun to draw on the mylar before the epoxy is placed, as it's nice to add parr marks and other such details.

[Lewiskm3]

Hey, I thought I just added some pics, but they didn't go through. You guys have any ideas? I still haven't posted any here.

[spotter]

Kevin, I'll need to see some photos to confirm this report! The Misses said you rang. Unfortunately I was stuck at the lab all day Saturday. :( Glad to hear to had a banner day on the bass pond.