Bagging Big Bass

[markdej]

Guys I have been persuing bass from time to time over the year or so, and just cant win with the bigger bass.
I ended up gettin a 3wt sensation tempest mk2 (cheap & slow but surprisingly accurate) to flail about with just cause little bass like me (my pb is 750g)

However put me out there with an 8wt and huge patterns (surface and streamers) and not a sausage.

They simply seem to hover just below the fly & regardless of what I do (leave it, twitch it, strip it, speed up, slow down) wont commit.... WTF??

Are my tactics simply too shoddy?

I saw an absolute hog on the weekend who's evasion of the fly haunts me...

[srt007]

I know what you mean, I experienced the same at a dam close by my house. The bigger boys don't seem to be interested in any bass patterns. The only way I hooked up in the end is to land a fly almost on him time after time and he gets so p!ssed off he grabs it in the end... sorry, know not much help in my post...

[E.T.]

Mark

When they are in the mood to eat, you can throw anything in the water and they will swamp it.

I have caught small bass on big flies and I have caught large bass on small flies. Thats just the way it is.

When you do see the fish and cast after cast produced nothing, try a different fly, because I have seen at times that when they reject a pattern and you swing it by again they ignore it like a stop sign. Try a different pattern with a bit of an attractor in. I keep an orange clouser at hand and have witnessed with my own eyes that when all else fails, I chuck that fly in and it pulls fish from 3m away from the fly. I have done the same thing more than once with a black and purple woolly bugger. You might have something in your box that seals the deal.

Try and try, because what works for me or another person might not work for you and vice versa.

I have also seen that at times you need the fly to drop just past the fish and retrieve it to the fish's head and let the fly sink and you then give it a twitch. That sometimes acts as a trigger and the bass hits it with force.

If you like it. Try it.

Cheers

Koos

[cptfly]

Yes, bigger bass tend to be very temperamental. My biggest bass is only 1.9kg SM, I know the KZN guys do get bigger bass than us here in the western cape.

Some times the big ones will just smash the fly once it touches the water and some times the will suck that fly down so gently you will not believe it. Other times they refuse to respond. I think bass is more responsive to the weather/spawning/food than what we think.

You will also be surprised to see that these big bass will sometimes take much smaller flies than the smaller bass.

[nkula_nkula]

Guys I have been persuing bass from time to time over the year or so, and just cant win with the bigger bass.
I ended up gettin a 3wt sensation tempest mk2 (cheap & slow but surprisingly accurate) to flail about with just cause little bass like me (my pb is 750g)

However put me out there with an 8wt and huge patterns (surface and streamers) and not a sausage.

They simply seem to hover just below the fly & regardless of what I do (leave it, twitch it, strip it, speed up, slow down) wont commit.... WTF??

Are my tactics simply too shoddy?

I saw an absolute hog on the weekend who's evasion of the fly haunts me...

Bass in heavily fished venues learn really fast and are notoriously difficult (thats why they big in the first place.... duh), another complicating factor is that the fish are starting to spawn now and dubious tactics are often required to get the fish to either take out of aggression or put your fly on the fishes nest and wait for the fish to mouth the fly and deposit it off the nest.

Perseverance pays off and once the fish go post-spawn, they are usually ravenous and take flies more readily.

My 2c

[Booger Rose]

Leave the fly dead still on the water. This past weekend I tried for bass and got a luncker of (estimated) 3 kg's. Used a dragon fly and this flippen bass just stopped underneath this fly and checked it out - as soon as I twitched it or anything the bass lost interest and went back down. I left the fly on the surface and the bass was checking it out and after a minute or a bit more - it felt like an hour - the bass slowly went up to it and delicately sipped it in. Strike and fight on. This dam is fished regularly and the water is very clear.

I've also seen this when using a popper to fish for bass. leave the popper dead still and count to 60, then, don't move it and count again. sometimes this work when all else fails.

[E.T.]

Leave the fly dead still on the water. This past weekend I tried for bass and got a luncker of (estimated) 3 kg's. Used a dragon fly and this flippen bass just stopped underneath this fly and checked it out - as soon as I twitched it or anything the bass lost interest and went back down. I left the fly on the surface and the bass was checking it out and after a minute or a bit more - it felt like an hour - the bass slowly went up to it and delicately sipped it in. Strike and fight on. This dam is fished regularly and the water is very clear.

I've also seen this when using a popper to fish for bass. leave the popper dead still and count to 60, then, don't move it and count again. sometimes this work when all else fails.

Spot on!!! I went out to a private dam in Thabazimbi last year and once I have made my cast onto the water, I would strip 2 or 3 times and just leave it for a while and this is what caught us plenty of fish in an hours time. The fish would jump right out the water with the fly in its mouth, time after time.

The quick strip and pause is deadly!!

[markdej]

Thanks for the tactics!!!!

Will def give 'em a shot!

Incatentally found a size 4ls olive wolly bugger with a big brass cone to be deadly with stockie trout of late...
Was trying in (an obviously overfished) local venue and bagged 8 trout and 2 (little) bass, got a touch pricey having to take all the trout, (freezer now full of fish)
And this was in a BASS dam with small (600g) stockie trout!?!
I never go this big when fishing for trout, and surprize surprize...

Had Charles Stewart sort me out with an array of big bass flies, but yea,
its all in the use hey?
I have found the bigger of my bass have gone for fat juicy dragonflies, and now that you mention it, was a strip, strip, pause. bang! that worked.

But thanks again for the positive input!

[DorB]

Spot on!!! I went out to a private dam in Thabazimbi last year and once I have made my cast onto the water, I would strip 2 or 3 times and just leave it for a while and this is what caught us plenty of fish in an hours time. The fish would jump right out the water with the fly in its mouth, time after time.

The quick strip and pause is deadly!!

Are you fishing with a floating or sinking/intermediate line?

[Korrie]

Some of the best advice I received for fishing poppers for bass, was not to "fish" them.
As descrived earlier in the thread. Let them lie on the water, plop it once leave. Especially if they have rubber legs etc, that just hangs in the water.
The slightest movement of the legs, drives them crazy.