All Spots All Day

[John H]

We fished the spotted bass in his stronghold today and the bobber bite was good. Not great size but some in the 15" - 17" range and one a little bigger than that. A 14" spot is a hard puller under the boat in open water. Lots of fun and the bass chewed up a few flies.

http://i.imgur.com/YkkBwol.jpg (https://imgur.com/YkkBwol)
The shape of the bobber is surprisingly important. The long thin bobbers with the ring eye are very sensitive and if anything touches the fly you know it. The bass suck in the fly and don’t swim off with it so the bobber won’t move much but you will know they have it and need to set before they detect it is a fake and spit it out. Jaydacator makes them in two sizes. The smaller size is about right. The fly should be about 1.0 to 1.5 grams. A 1/32 ounce jig with a little lead added is about right.


http://i.imgur.com/VFCDkhV.jpg (https://imgur.com/VFCDkhV)

http://i.imgur.com/q6Byv6Y.jpg (https://imgur.com/q6Byv6Y)

http://i.imgur.com/k6U3lj1.jpg (https://imgur.com/k6U3lj1)

http://i.imgur.com/zoIJW05.jpg (https://imgur.com/zoIJW05)

[Vaughn Willett]

Good going, John! Nice pics, as usual. I guess bass jigs don't last forever--but it's cool to wear them out!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Galen Geller use to reveres wrap from the back to the front with wire to keep body material in place, especially peacock herl.

[John H]

Bill - I reverse wrap wire if I wrap a hackle feather like on a wooly bugger. On the wooly bugger it allows you to wrap the feather so it tapers from front to back and makes it last longer. Peacock herl is the worst for falling apart. For chenille bodies I don’t add wire. That fly caught a lot of fish before it fell apart and caught some fish with the chenille hanging off the back. I sometimes think the bobber is more important than the fly if you can believe that.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Must have been a fun day John.

How much line do you put between the bobber and the fly?

[John H]

8 or 9 feet. I suppose varying the depth might get some more bites but I just stick with that. I have gone deeper when I was not getting bites but it did not seem to help much.

[guido]

Great pics as usual! Looks like a fun day!