OK - Delta Bass

[mikenewman]

Mike

I think Adam's correct on this - in the UK reservoirs I would often fish an 18' leader in order to get down, and stay down, half that depth of water (although admittedly with much lighter flies) The retrieve will cause the fly to rise considerably unless you are fishing very slowly - which presumably you aren't with a Clouser?

Mike

[Darian]

I'm assumming that bass that're in the weeds or around tules will take a suspending fly best at high tide, when the tops of the weeds are fully submerged. Therefore, it follows that floater/divers, slow sinkers or neutral bouancy patterns would be the best choice of flies under those circumstances....

Anyway, that's mt story and I'm stickin' too it.... (unless one of you guys tells me something else )

[Richard]

I just purchased a couple of new lines to try fishing a little deeper. One of these is an intermediate which I intend to use for bass who are suspended deeper than I normally fish. I also got a couple of fast sinking lines, but those are for striper fishing. If I have any luck with any of them I will let you know. However, I still prefer to fish on top and don't have a lot of information on non topwater fishing. As you might guess, I have three reels with floating lines to one with a sinking line.

[Hairstacker]

Adam and Mike, I agree, I'm definitely not fishing that deep once I start stripping it back. I was thinking only in terms of the drop when fishing for fish suspended at the deep-water edge of a weed mat. Once I start stripping it in, you're right, it's pretty much continually coming up toward the surface until it gets to a depth of about a foot or two.

Ditto while fishing for smallmouth bass up at Shaver Lake over this weekend -- even though I was letting it drop along the edges of ledges, boulders, etc., if I put any kind of speed on the strip, the fly would come up to less than 3 or 4 feet from the surface. I think you really do need a sink-tip or full sinking line to keep it at depth while stripping.