I am determined to catch a quality bass on a fly rod (with a fly), so far I have caught a dink about 8-10inches on a wooly bugger, and a 1lber (which I would have been happy with), but I put a killie on the fly so it was sorta cheating IMO.

Well I really don't have any flies designed for bass, so I went out to sports authority, and looked in there dispicably pathetic fly selection, I went there to buy powerbait, but the sobs only had the crap with the sparkles, that place doesn't have crap! Anyway, I picked up a fly popper, in Bumble Bee pattern, cause that was all they had , and there was 1 left. I then headed to Rahway Pond, and fished the crap out of the popper the best I could, hooked into a sunfish, and had a few other sunnies hit me, then just as I was going to leave, I had a nice blow up, set the hook, and it was a chunky fish, he jumped out of the water 2 times, by the look I got at him I'm guessing 2 - 2 1/2lbs. Well on the 2nd jump he spit the fly :'( > . I am going to see if I can pick up some better flies for bass at Dicks, and give catching a quality bass on the fly another shot. I'll get one eventually! Just makes me mad I was so close to completing what I was determined to do..

By the way, any recommendations on bass flies? I am clueless when it comes to choosing flies, all I know is the large fly poppers are intended for bass.

Clouser Minnows work pretty good, especially for fish on beds!

rabbit or maribou leech, 4"

Tough to cast but worth it.

Poppers too

rabbit or maribou leech, 4"

Tough to cast but worth it.

Poppers too

Does the leech have a weighted head? If it comes in both weighed and non-weighted, which of the 2 you recommend?

I would stick to the poppers, get the big ones with the long rubber legs. I have had a lot of luck with those, and thats all I did last year was catch bass on the fly. weighted flys dont seem like they would be very fun, seems like it would throw the cast off quite a bit, I have never used one, so I dont know. streamers work well too, but I havent had as much luck with them as I have with poppers. I have also heard that if you want a LM you should be using a slow retrieve, and SM's like a fast one, maybe try that too?

you will get em man, keep castin....

I missed another 1 today... about a 13incher Im guessing.. on the bumble bee popper.

just out of curiosity, are you keeping the slack out of your line? or is it just a case of poor timing?

cant wait to break out the fly rig and start trying for some bass, you are lucky.

One of my fly buddies uses spiderwire and secures a small circle hook to some of his big poppers to act as a stinger or trailer hook.

yeah, you can do that with some tippet material, and just tie it straight to the hook. a lot of trout rigs are like that, a dry fly on top, and nymph below. works well as both a second hook, and a strike indicator (the dry fly that is).

What lb test tippet are you using as leader?

typically, when fishing back home, I would tie my own tippets, starting with a 25lb test leader, and tie on descending lb test. but for bass, I was constantly changing my poppers, and found that you can by those tapered leaders from most fishing shops, and I was using between 8 and 10lb test. those just seemed more efficient for quick changes. some might disagree though.

I think you would be fine with 8 lb though.

I love catchin bass on a fly, especially my own patterns