Many of the bass lakes that I fly fish have
extensive weed beds. These can range from light weed that is relatively deep to
thick mats of weed that have a few large holes in. Weed for me is desirable in
any bass lake.
I love fishing weeded lakes. The simple
reason is that bass love weed beds and caching them can be far easier than
fishing weed free lakes. There are challenges involved in fishing weed beds
though. Especially in the warmer months when the weed beds are thicker and also
contain filamentous algae that can easily catch onto your fly and ruin its fish
catching ability. In such cases, patience is called for as you need to clean
the algae off after just about every retrieve. The end results can be well
worth it though.
As far as tackle goes, I use a 5 weight 9 foot
rod that is very powerful. It is the rod that I use most of the time for bass.
This is because I live in the Western cape where a 3kg bass is rare and 500 gram
to 1.5 kg bass are plentiful. If you live further north then use a heavier rod.
A 7 or 8 weight should do the trick. I
use a 6 weight floating fly line, usually an Airflo Ridge line because it casts
really well, is very tough and has little stretch which has the advantage of
helping you to detect takes and horse an angry bass out of heavy weed. I also
love the low stretch Airflo Ridge line because it enables me to feel if my fly
is fouled with weed or is not swimming correctly. It is really that sensitive. My
leader set up is really simple. I use .50mm Maxima as my butt section on the
leader and make that about 1 meter long. I then tie my tippet, usually .25 or
.30mm maxima Ultra green onto this section. The overall length of my leader is
usually 2 to 2.4meters long. The tippet needs to be abrasion resistant and
strong in order to hook and play bass in thick weed. Using lighter line is just
not an option for this type of fishing.
I have spent many hours honing my tactics for
fishing in and around weed beds. I fished a local private lake many times last
winter. The weed beds where extensive and the water very clear. In these
conditions, fly choice is critical. If it is a weed and algae magnet, it is no
good. I tend to use subsurface flies most of the time for fishing over
submerged weed beds. On several occasions I did very well fishing with jig
style fritz flies in black or olive. Being the dead of winter I used smaller
flies than usual. The flies where tied on #10 or 8 long shank jig hooks (to
fish hook point up for less snagging on the weed.) using a BB split shot or
tungsten beads for weight. On other occasions, I did better fishing with bend
back clouser or clouser zonker patterns. (picture a clouser minnow tied using
rabbit zonker strip as the body and tail). The dumbbell eyes added weight to
get down and helped to keep the fly running hook point up.
The technique was relatively simple, cast
the fly out over the submerged weed beds and then retrieve it very slowly and
erratically back. I was amazed at how savage many of the takes where
considering how cold the water was. Often though you could feel the fly being
obstructed by weed. This was a soft spongy feeling. When a bass ate the fly and
held on, the fly almost felt as if it was getting stuck on a branch, a much
more solid feeling. By striking hard I was often rewarded by a very angry fish
on the other end. On one occasion, I landed 8 bass between 1.2 to 2.4kg in four
hours fishing. That is superb fishing by any standards. I timed my trips to
coincide with a few days of sunshine in between cold fronts. Smaller lakes warm
up quickly after a few days of sunshine and as long as your fly comes close to
a bass, you are in with a really good shot. Also try to time your trips to the
hottest time of the day if fishing in the colder months.
For me there is no better structure in any
bass lake than weed beds. They are just so predictable. As a fly fisher, we
often need all of the help that we can get.
On a recent trip to the Le Bonheur
Crocodile farm near Paarl (Western Cape)
I was treated to first class bass fishing in heavy weed. The day started
with a few small but fun bass. As I moved around the lake I reached one of my
favouite spots. I wadded out in amongst the reed beds cautiously and peered out
over the extensive weed beds. Much of the weed was just subsurface with large,
deep holes interspersed. I could see several bass close to the surface in each
hole. I tied on one of my most successful bass flies, the frizz fry (which I
designed about 4 years ago). It is tied entirely out of frizz fibre and is
exceptionally soft. The profile looks just like a small fish and it swims like
one too. I tie them with no weight so that they sink very slowly. This is the
key to this fly. It almost suspends and this makes it swim just subsurface.
This enables it to swim over submerged weed without hooking up.
The other
advantage of a fly that swims just subsurface is that you can see it and hence the bass that eats it. Bass often find
a suspending fly that lingers in their field of view irresistible. I tied on a
red and white frizz fry in size 6 and cast out to the closest bass. it stormed
the fly and engulfed it. i set the hook and played it out as quickly as possible.
It was about a kilogram or so. After releasing it I cast it out to the next
hole and was rewarded by another angry bass. This one was slightly larger. These
holes where relatively close. I then cast out to the largest hole about 15
meters away. The fly landed 20 meters away which gave me plenty of space to
play with. After three twitches i spotted the tell tale wake of a bass close to
the surface storming towards my fly (I love this sight) and it hit the fly side
on. This bass was followed by several others in quick succession with the
largest being about 1.8kg. Exciting fishing.
Moving around the lake I was treated to a
red letter day with more bass engulfing the fly. Most of the bass where caught
in large holes in amongst the weed beds. I then came closer to some very thick
weed with only a few small holes and a lot of heavy filamentous algae. I
noticed thousands of agitated tilapia fry over the weed which was just
subsurface. As the fry swam over a hole in the weed, a large bass launched
itself out of the water grabbing a few fry as it did so before returning to its
deep dark hole. I waited a while and then cast the frizz fry just over the hole
and pulled it in. As if written into a Hollywood block buster, the enraged
largemouth bass flung itself out of the hole and engulfed my fly in a flurry of
water. I somehow managed to compose myself and eventually landed the bass. This
is another example of how observation of the water can help you to catch more
and better fish.
Bass, and especially big bass, love these
deep holes in thick weed and I always place a fly into them or over them. The
water underneath thick weed enables the bass to stay away from predators, gives
them ample shade and plenty of food.
About a two decades ago I fished a very weedy lake called
Princess Vlei. It was a quaint little water, longer than it was wide with
exceptionally clear water and it fare share of gangsters (not the fishy kind).
The bass where cautious for want of a better word. I had great success by
dipping heavily weighted flies deep into the holes. In the evenings I fished
small poppers motionless over the larger holes. You needed great patience to do
this and a wind still day but that fly just sitting there was often too much
for a bass to resist. Why just let it sit? Well if the hole is the size of your
bath tub, you can't really fish it for that far anyway. The tactic has caught
me many great bass over the years in other waters except that I more commonly
fish a fly that I call the frizz frog instead. Its body is made of foam and the
legs are knotted frizz fibre hence the name). The foam body floats the body
while the highly mobile legs sit under the water aggravating the bass. It
catches bass and bluegill equally well.
If you are greeted with scattered, deeper
weed beds then you can employ a tactic that I call "shot gunning". To
do this you use a clouser style fly which you cast out as far as possible and
then you bring it in as fast as possible. I often employ a two handed strip to
do this. Tuck the rod under your armpit (this frees both hands up) and then retrieve the fly back using both
hands in a circular motion. This animates the fly nicely and you can cover a
lot of water at the same time. It works well in spring and summer any time of
the day. Why it works is very simple. Bass are predators of small fish. If you
fish a fly that looks like a small fish quickly past a bass, it will often
storm after it if it is in an aggressive mood. If the weed is not very thick,
you can also employ two flies. When the weed is very thick then stick to one.
Another trick when trying for large bass in
thick weed is to use Fluorocarbon tippet. Fluorocarbon is very tough and cuts
though weed better than normal monofilament line.
I hope that this article has wet your
appetite and enlarged your repertoire of bass fly fishing tactics. I love fly
fishing for bass. They are tailor made for fly fishing and often plentiful in
waters throughout the country and you do not need access to an expensive bass
boat or specialist fly tackle to catch them. I often catch from the shore, wade
or use a kick boat to access areas that are further out.
For and E book or DVD on fly fishing for carp, check out my website-
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