First Bass!!

When you are using topwater/floating lures, treat the leader and fly line off the reel with line floatant. Helps picking up the line, much less loading of the rod. Helps control the backcast.
 
popper43 said:
Learn to add light mono to the tippit when it gets short - they are expensive.
Click to expand...

Flourocarbon is better IMHO, especailly since bass waters also tend to have other predators like pike in them. not that flouro is that much more resiliant, but every little bit helps :)

learning to tie a blood knot is gonna be key to making that connection and doing so solidly as well as make it efficent where it doesnt interfere with the cast - although with big topwater flies thats a little less critical.
popper43 said:
And how to palm the reel (watch out for the knuckle buster knob). I got bad finger burn trying to stop a large coy I caught. And wrapped knuckles trying to 'catch' the reel on a large catfish.
Click to expand...
i learned the knuckle buster issue chasing fall chinook's ! learning to palm a reel is essentially critical when dealwith with 20-30lbs of p!ss3d off salmon attached to the end of your line LOL

that first one that got me... i got my knuckles whapped like... 8 or 10 times before i knew what was going on other than *lots of swearing* *owie!* lol
 
Enjoy the fly fishing, it's always fun to catch fish on a flyrod.
Now, other than poppers, you can accumulate an assortment of nymphs, wet flies, dry flies, and streamers, then you can also get into tying your own, it can become addicting!
 
I’m sure y’all are tired of hearing about this, but got some new flies in today and this fly right here is the BOMB!!

IMG_3751.jpeg


It’s a SLOW sinker and one little strip has it wiggling like a real fish! The bass loved it!! I had all intentions of trying several and couldn’t bring myself to change. Only issue is the eyes only lasted about 4-5 fish…the others after that didn’t seem to mind a blind fish though!!
 
Nice fly! But I'd rather see one you tied!

It's very rewarding tying your own flies, I'd say it saves money but that's not true, every time I'm at the fly shop for supplies I end up spending a hundred bucks or more :LOL: But, the reward of catching on your own patterns is something special, not to mention you can tie them for specific venues, seasons and species. I have fly boxes I only use on certain rivers and certain times of the year.
 
Haha, let me get the fly fishing basics down first, then I might get into it later on. I need about 12 more hours in the day, lol

Don, that fly isn’t that bad wet. I don’t know the correct way to learn, but being in SWGA we don’t have trout but plenty of bass and bream. So I started with bigger bass flies, nothing huge with #2 being the largest and 4’s and 6’s being the main size. Like I told you after finally getting decent with the bass flies and I tied a tiny clouser for bream and even amazed myself casting. Now it’s not professional grade, but I impressed myself.

Not sure how far you’d normally cast for trout, but I’m getting 30+ yards pretty decently and even better with a tiny clouser like a #12. Surprisingly I’m pretty decent sitting in a jon boat, guessing because there’s no weeds to get the line tangled up in. I’m considering taking a bucket with me to strip line in when fishing from the bank. I need to get all the landowners to manicure their pond banks!!!

I know trout would be a lot different, especially with moving water and mending the line. I’ll get the opportunity one day and eventually learn proper with that type of fishing. May start making some weekend trips to North Ga and give it a try.
All I know is something that looks so eloquent and graceful is awfully tough to master.
 
Hey, you're catching fish, you're doing something right. Don't let others opinions or videos tell you you're not doing it right. The fish are the deciding factor. Like I told you, you'll figure out what works and what doesn't. Your distances are fine, keep practicing. .....and keep catching them buddy, you're doing great!
While you're spending money, :) this might work for those weedy brushy shorelines. I've seen guys use a wader belt and a cardboard box. Whatever works.
basket.jpg
 
Never used one while on the water, may work to keep the line out of bushes. I try to find a clear shoreline. There is a method using the off hand to collect the line. You control line takeout with the on-hand index finger.
 
CJ is becoming quite the bass catching machine! Way to go CJ! Thanks

That's a pretty nice fish on a flyrod Mark, congrats, which fly?
 
Dungeon Mini Articulated in white.

And yeah, that was a “frog” CJ bought with his own money! He said, “Anyone can catch bass on a Texas rig…I want to see them explode on top water.” He’s still talking about it today. Got a bunch of stuff in this evening so no fishing, we’ll head back tomorrow.

Going to be doing a “gear review” tomorrow. Ordered some things I pray works like I’m hoping. It will I’m sure. If not, I got to wait for next months check to remedy it! Just have a hard time finding waders that fit and had no clue fishing waders were SO expensive. My wife asked if I could ever pick something that didn’t cost an arm and a leg to get into!! I reminded her I bought all this on sale and the two reels were gifted so I’m actually saving her money! She asked if I knew how stupid that sounded? I told her yeah, she’s been saying it for years now. She just nodded and went back to cooking supper. That means I still get to sleep in the bed tonight.
 
Don_P said:
Mark, that looks like it might be a handful to cast. How is it when it's full of water? View attachment 29098
Click to expand...
actually the material used on a typical game changer doesnt end up like a wet sock like other materials (think bunny hide, etc) do. a standard gamechanger is basically all synthetics, so they dont really adsorb too bad.

also, with a fly like that, you dont usually go for a typical overhand cast like you would with a dry fly. i mean.. you *can*.... but its less than ideal.

you really want to learn to roll cast or even some of the micro skagit/spey type casts - yes they can be done single handed too.

i like to throw meat flies like the gamechangers or rattlesnakes, etc - with a super short skagit style "commando" head on a heavy mono main line. attach a short sink or floating tip, just a few feet of leader - 4-6' tops. bass dont care and arent line/leader shy.

the main "head" of the line is only like about 12 or 13' IIRC, so even with a 6' leader, you're only manipulating about 20' of line outside of your rod. the rest you just shoot when you send the roll cast.

with a 9' single hand rod i can shoot about 40' of mainline that way, and if i have my 10' switch rod, i'm shooting closer to 60' mark with relative ease.

plus as an added bonus, you need almost zero backcast space to work with.
strip your line in most of the way, do a quick water anchor so your rod can load, give a solid forward roll... and you're in business.



Look up OPST "micro skagit" or "micro spey" lots of other vids out there

its a technique thats absolutely worth looking into.

and yes you can dry fly with this as well. this was all adapted from dry fly roll casting techniques to throw big wild wet flies for steelhead out west where the early spey stuff came into being with their huge 14' double handed rods and stuff. then someone got thr brilliant idea of scaling it down for the rest of us to use on other species/locations. its got a pretty facinating history behind it if you wanna dive down that rabbit hole.
 
huge 14' double handed rods - saw a bunch of guys doing that on a western river, make a W before dropping the cast. I have trouble with the simple roll cast.
 
Back
Top