Do you like to fly fishing for bass? Fishing guide Austen Goldsmith shares his thoughts on searching for the big ones.
First let me say thanks to all ye at ESF for having me here today. I have enjoyed reading the previous contributions. When it comes to saltwater fly fishing for bass there's always the danger of writing the same article we all read every spring; you know the one that always seems to end up with a photo of a clouser minnow, some enigmatic dude casting into the surf, perhaps a 2lb bass to show for his efforts? When it comes to selecting out the tiddlers the fly can be irritatingly effective. Once you have landed a few hundred schoolies then its only a matter of time before you start to want to feel the weight of a proper broody female bass in your hands. If you can fit your fist in a bass’s mouth then you're on the right track! Once they get to that size they are simply awesome creatures to behold - as magnificent as any salmon or tarpon; old soldiers that survived 15 or 20 years in the field. These are the fish that get me out of bed at 3am and straight out the door all year round .
Bass don’t get be old and fat by running around like headless chickens with the rest of the gang. When I find big fish they are rarely amongst a shoal and quite often they reply to far more relaxed retrieves, bigger lures or flies. I have found the better fish in 100 foot of water but more often I find them lurking around in 15 foot of water over rough ground. Gutless neap tides suit fat lazy fish and it's amazing how often those better fish are found tight to the shore, chilling out where there is little current or change of depth over the six hour tide.
Fish are fish
Fish are fish!! Profound but true, I expect a tarpon to behave the same way as a trout and a trout the same way as a bass. Minimum risk, minimum effort, maximum nutrition. I don’t think I have ever landed a big bass from a fast retrieve. The takes are normally gentle and lazy. I have had good bass follow flies and lures worked fast, but perhaps the risk always seems to outweigh the nutrition, then they see my feet or the boat or sense my presence and they turn away. When I have fished for tarpon the takes have have often been "on the glide". What I mean is the fish are travelling under their own momentum when they hit. I think bass are often the same and prefer to glide up behind the next victim and just suck them in, like trout sipping in emergers in a glide. Tarpon are certainly seduced by highly mobile "fluid" flies. A black death bunny or toad fly has so much inherent pulse and movement that they look sexy dead still in the water. Bass love these flies too. Big black muddler head flies with rabbit strip tails are a job to cast but once they are out there you can fish them super slow and seductive. They also push water. I think these sonic messages are very important and may help to seal the deal. You get to keep the fly in the zone a long time when pulsing your bunny as they sink so slowly. No need to strip this fly into looking alive, it breathes life of its own. You can’t beat a strong silhouette of a black fly on a bright sunny day (or at night). I think we can obsess over the colour of a fly. I do the same myself. If I had to fish one fly all year round I think I would do well to dispense with colour and focus of size, mobility and profile.
Learn from my pain!
There was a time when I would lose almost every decent UK bass or striper I hooked. This knowledge came at a pretty high price thinking back. I think It took four years of consistent failures before I realised what was wrong, actually it was a good friend J Simms from Cape Cod who finally made me realise where I was going wrong. Big bass shake their heads, that's what they do and they can do it with some serious force. That heavy slow "thud thud" is unmistakable. I get quite excited just writing about it. If you were to look at the thickness of the skin on a good bass’s mouth I would guess it to be around 6mm thick. If we fish with small hooks all we do is penetrate the flesh on the inside of the mouth. If we fish with a big hook the hook penetrates the inside of the mouth and exits on the outside. We have a solid grip on the fish and the hook is far less likely to rip out once those heavy head shakes begin. When I fight good bass (fly or lure) I go lighter and lighter on the drag the closer the fish gets to landing for the same reason. These days I fish 1/0 to 6/0 hooks for bass, I would guess at 2lb average size. I also rarely fish with a tippet below 19lb. There are so many rough nasty rocks and barnacles to seal my doom. I prefer to be able to horse the fish away from rocks if need be. A 12lb pollack will frighten the life out of most fly fishermen. Those fish dive hard and the only option sometimes is to lock everything solid and stand your ground .
So there you go. I haven’t bombarded you with information but hopefully I have passed on something useful that may get you closer to a "proper" bass on the fly. Get tying or maybe just have a good look through that "Cuba box", scrape the rust off those hooks and get your money's worth out of them. It's a shame to leave all those tarpon flies rotting away in a box !
Good luck and please release those big girls, they are just too good to eat!