5 weights rule....Ok?

I spend a lot of my time fishing for warm water fish these days, in Cape Town that means bass (largemouth and smallmouth), bluegill, tilapia and carp. For these species I mostly fish with a 9 foot Temple Fork Outfitters Jim Teeny 5weight rod rigged with a 6 weight line. With this outfit I can cast small flies for blue gill and tilapia and still get a decent fight out of them or fish bigger flies for bass.

I have listened to many a fly angler lament over the fact that they can't fly fish for bass because they don't have an 8 weight rod... Horse manure.... I sometimes fish for bass with a 2 weight rod and have landed bass over 1.5kg with it. Lots and lots of fun. The two weight does have serious limitations though. Wind and lighter fly lines are not friends, fishing near structure like tree branches is not recommended and anything bigger than a size 10 wooly bugger is a bugger to cast....

The 5 weight works well in the wind with a shortish leader (2 meters works well for me) and can handle large carp as well. I cast flies tied on # 6 to # 1 hooks with the 5 weight for bass and the flies are up to 10cm long. I do not subscribe to "go big or go home" theory. I would rather catch 5 to 15 bass from 500 grams to 1.5kg  in a day than nothing, waiting for that elusive 3kg bass that may or may not live in the lake to eat my over dressed 20cm monster creation...

Buyer take note, not all 5 weight fly rods are created equal. My TFO is a lot stiffer than many 5 weights out there but a 5 or 6 weight is just the ticket for bass and carp on fly in my opinion....
I find that over-lining the rod by 1 line weight works very well because it makes short to medium casts much easier to make. Lets face it, casting a full fly line is great in theory, but most of the places that I fish don't let you have a long enough back cast with ought wrapping your fly up in a bush, tree, lamp post or fence to execute a full 27 + meter cast. Also, and this may come as a bit of a surprise, but a lot of the fish that I catch actually hunt meters away from the side, just saying....

Oh, and 5 weight rods are perfect for still water trout two.... bonus...

A 7 cm Frizz fry, one of my own bass patterns that is dynamite for bass.

Have a look at http://seanmillsflyfishing.weebly.com/ for DVDs and E books by Sean Mills

The joys of carp on fly

I must confess that I have been catching a lot more bass than carp on fly in the last two years. The reasons are that I have more access to fish-able bass water at the moment, but whenever I can go for carp on fly it really warms my heart and gets the blood pumping. I fished a few private farm lakes with a freind about a month ago and the fishing was fantastic.

It is amazing how the technique, although rusty never goes away. The water in the two lakes that we fished was not on the clear side with one actually being pea green, but by casting my size 8 carp fritz fly over bubbles caused by feeding fish in water less that 1.5meters deep and by using a yarn indicator  I managed to catch over a dozen carp. Mission accomplished....

The biggest was about 3kg in weight and on my 5 weight TFO rod went off like a steam train... The takes in the first lake where very positive with the indicator just sailing under. I call this technique bubble bashing. Usually the indicator will twitch once or twice to indicate  take. The dirty water was great because it meant less carp spooking as long as I walked softly and cast onto the water gently. For more info on this technique and others that I have developed over the last two decades, check out my E book and DVD at http://seanmillsflyfishing.weebly.com/