I’m back at the fly bench after a short hiatus. Typically whenever I take time off that means I haven’t lost enough flies. Don’t worry, though. One trip to the gulf and a few trips to the river will change that in a hurry.
Tonight (last night) was a frustrating night. I needed dark wooly buggers, and things just weren’t running smoothly for me. With discussions of bills and such, I found it difficult to concentrate. All I could think about was how I wasn’t thinking about what I needed to think about. See what I mean?
Anyway, I needed bugs.
I’m not sure if you can tell by the picture, but I like my buggers big. Why? Because, even though a bass might eat a leech, he’ll definitely eat a big leech. You know, a leech that resembles a night crawler or crayfish. My buggers don’t turn out looking like night crawlers, but tie a big enough black wooly and it’ll closely resemble a 4″ plastic creature bait.
I like to wrap my hooks with wire to weigh ’em down too. That way I’m stripping the fly up from the bottom, like a Texas rigged plastic creature bait. I’ve seen where some fly fishermen add slip or clamp weights to their leaders resembling a pseudo-Carolina rig, but that’s not for me.
Bass bugs weren’t the only recipes being worked on. I also went to work on some ‘gill flies. Whenever I get upset that I haven’t been able to locate any bucketmouths I always throw little bugs so I can snatch sunfish out from the banks. It makes me feel better about not catching what I went for.
So, yeah. I’ve been losing a lot of bluegill flies lately.
I haven’t been chasing the fall bite this year as much as I wanted to. As a result, I have no idea what pattern the bass are in. I’m assuming the cold fronts and mid 50 degree (and dropping) water temps still have them coming shallow, a bit, but getting ready to settle into their winter holes. The only hope I have is that they’re trying to fill up on any and everything before deciding to go deep for the winter. It should still be early enough, but I’m working on deadline.
Tales from East Yahtam 