What length are your bass flies?

[McFish]

Bass season is here soon, and I have enforced time to prepare. I generally fish smaller patterns early season,up to 5 to 7 inch long late in the year. Question is, how long (not hook size, how many inches long) are your best bass flies? Patterns? Do you find big fly- big fish holds?

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

What kind of bass?

[McFish]

What kind of bass?

I was mostly thinking largemouth; but tell me what length and what subspecies. Stripers, LM, SM, spots

[JasonB]

I’m curious as well. I had some good success recently on our local pond with a 3” clouser type fly for LMB, but I’m not sure if a bigger or smaller pattern would have fared any different. I have fished very little for bass, but it looks like I’m going to be doing a lot more of it for a while, so I’m hoping to learn more.

[McFish]

Jason; I've been researching for about 6 months. One interesting site is called FishNDave.com. He keeps good records; most of his large fish (he defines large as over 18 inches) are on flies 3.5 inches to 6 inches. BUT he catches fish in Oct/Nov and Mar on size 8-10 jigs/flies. I have caught larger fish, but less action,when fishing flies over 4 inches. No surprise. I've seen a study that says the most frequency of strikes come on lures (not strictly flies) for 3.5 to 4 inches. I'm hoping for more feedback from strictly fly fisher on fly length.

[JasonB]

Jason; I've been researching for about 6 months. One interesting site is called FishNDave.com. He keeps good records; most of his large fish (he defines large as over 18 inches) are on flies 3.5 inches to 6 inches. BUT he catches fish in Oct/Nov and Mar on size 8-10 jigs/flies. I have caught larger fish, but less action,when fishing flies over 4 inches. No surprise. I've seen a study that says the most frequency of strikes come on lures (not strictly flies) for 3.5 to 4 inches. I'm hoping for more feedback from strictly fly fisher on fly length.

All of that makes basic sense. I was sort of wondering if there would be variance by location, depending on size of baitfish and other food sources. But maybe that’s thinking too much like a trout angler? It seems like bass will pretty much eat whatever they want, when they want it; so maybe it’s all a moot point for larger fish?
I’m heading out to test a few patterns this afternoon, so maybe I’ll have some feedback.
JB

[Ryan]

Good question McFish, my favorite go to topwater fly is 4", my go to clouser is around 4", and my float n flies are about 2.5".

Personally, I'm not a huge proponent in the big fly = big fish. There is something to it for sure. However I am more of a believer in catching high numbers of bass on average sized flies, to eventually find bigger fish. This gets me dialed on where fish are holding, what they're eating, what kind of retrieve they want, etc. Then once I'm totally dialed with all this information, a larger one should come at one point in the day.

But everything varies from fishery to fishery no doubt. The Delta is a great example of awesome "big fly" water. I'm sure the same can be said for Clear Lake, however I have found 100% of my luck there to be on smaller flies, being float n flies, and clousers 2" & 4". Hope this helps.