Davis Lake Bass... Random bass pics

[David Lee]

Ryan , THANK YOU for the fantastic shots !!! What didja think of that beautiful Smallie ?? D.J.L.

[Hairstacker]

Hi David! I agree, that is a very nice smallmouth! Bet it put up a very nice fight, too....

Ryan, I believe those size 12-8 poppers are too small for largemouth. Those appear to be bluegill flies. I mean it's possible you might catch a bass on one of them but, if I were specifically targeting largemouths on the surface, I would personally use much bigger bugs. My standard popper is a size 2 and some would even consider that as small as you'd want to go for topwater.

[Ryan]

Hey, thanks for the compliments on the pics and the smallmouth. And oh yeah, that fish put up a fight. I didn't realize how pretty the fish was untill I got the pictures developed.

And about size 8 poppers... they are too small?!!

I kind of have a bad habbit, I am so used to fishing small flies for trout, 20-18 about 90% of the time, I just don't have confidence in anything big for steelhead, bass, and even salmon... and of course trout. I have only caught a few trout on flies that are bigger than a 14. And I do have a couple of really big poppers, but after about 5 minutes of fishing them, I say "screw this" and go to something else. But now that I have heard other opinions... I guess I should give these bigger bugs for bass a harder try. Even when I fish wholly buggers for bass, I use size 10.
Maybe this is why I am so retarted with bass fishing ???

For salmon, the biggest I will go in an egg pattern is a #8, I just have zero confidence in anything that has size. I will try those big poppers next time, and I REALY REALY want to catch a fish on them! Thanks for all the replies.

How'd that pic from my profile get there That's really cool, thanks for doing it.

[Hairstacker]

Ryan, I know what you mean about having confidence in certain size flies -- I don't have confidence in a surface popper for largemouth bass smaller than a size 2, ha. I have read accounts of largemouth bass targeting baby ducks, and I remember one bass from my youth that had a turtle in it when we opened its stomach to see what it had been feeding on. And have you seen the size of some of the swimbaits gear guys having been using for them? Finally, I've caught bass as small as 4-5" long on a size 2 bass bug. I think you can feel completely confident that a keeper-sized bass will not be put off by a size 2 topwater bug by virtue of its size alone.