Five Pounder Wanted

[John H]

I got the bug tied. Now I just need to find a five pounder who wants a frog for breakfast. An eight pounder would be really nice but I think it is better to be grateful than greedy.

[Darian]

Good looking fly. That'll get 'em....

[Mr T]

You throw that out at clear lake and your chances will be good.

Great tie!

[John H]

For comparison, this fly probably looked about like the other one a month ago. It has been cast maybe a thousand times, stuck in a bunch of bushes and trees, dragged though a lot of algae and weeds, retied a few times, looked over by an unknown number of bass that did not grab, grabbed by I don’t know how many bass and successfully landed most of them and now photographed and posted on the internet. That is a full life for a fly. It is now in the "salvage the hook" box although like an old angler it thinks it can still catch fish.

[Darian]

How do you feel about using mono/wire weed guards on your bugs?? Do they detract from the appearance of the bug?? I've used the flies tied both ways and definitely had better results without the guard but had to remove algae/weeds and retrieve 'em from various obstructions....

[John H]

I have never put a weed guard on a fly but I should. I fish spots that either don’t have a lot of weeds or I fish along the edges. I feel like I may be missing out on some opportunities but my strategy is to cast to the edges and lure them out. If I fished gear I would fish weedless lures and throw them into the junk and drag the fish out on 65 pound braid but I don’t fish gear. Fly fishing for bass is pretty limiting so I to try to fish the times and places where the flies will work. Kevin Doran used to hit the holes in the weeds in the Delta. That is probably the thing to be doing. I went with him once for bass. He put us on some weed beds with holes and I think he saw we could not hit the holes so he took us to fish some riprap and brush instead. I expect he fished weedless.