bass on the fly

[ivan562]

can anyone recommend some good fly lines for both top water and below water bass fishing (lake).
For both a 6wt. 9'(tfo ticr) and an 8wt. 9'(echo edge 8wt saltwater )rod.
Which rod do you believe is best for bass 6 or 8? and what size fly...
thanks for your info.

[lucfish]

This is what I use. For rods I use 6,8 and 10 weight rods. The 10 weight for big poppers, The eight weight for full sink lines and the six weight for sinktip type lines. For the 10 weight I use a bass taper floating line, whatever is on sale, you don't need to cast 100 feet. For the eight weight full sink line with around 6" per second fall. For the sink tip I am a little particular, I use the rio striper line 300 grain. Another reason I have this set up with these Particular rods is that they are interchangeable with the striper fishing that I do. Everbody is different but this works for me.
You could use your eight weight for the floating line, that would be my recomendation.

[ivan562]

thanks for your info. now i can see how fly fishing has become so expensive 3 rods, 3 lines, etc. for one type of fish. but its a * of a lot of fun.

[NorcalBob]

Flinging flies can be expensive, but there are always other options than multiple rods/lines/reels. I use shooting heads for most of my striper & bass fishing. Just swap out whatever head sink rate you need to achieve your desired results. Need a floating line, no problem, throw on a floating head. Need a deep sinking striper line, no problem, just swap to a new head. Simple, effective, and cheap in that you only need one rod & reel. I would suggest starting with an 8 WT set up.

[briansII]

can anyone recommend some good fly lines for both top water and below water bass fishing (lake).
For both a 6wt. 9'(tfo ticr) and an 8wt. 9'(echo edge 8wt saltwater )rod.
Which rod do you believe is best for bass 6 or 8? and what size fly...
thanks for your info.

I use a lot of setups for bass, but my 2 most used lines are Sage's Largemouth Bass Line, and a Rio, type 6, 15', sinktip. The LMB line will throw just about any topwater bug smaller than a donkey. The taper is heavy, and very aggressive, but you can throw it on a fast action 8wt, all the way up to a 10wt. Most of my subsurface work is done with a 7 - 8wt rods, with lines to match. Intermediates, full sinkers and heads all have their place. Just depends on the water you plan to use them on.

Which rod do you believe is best for bass 6 or 8?

8

briansII

[nick562]

We are talking about largemouth bass here they can be lethargic & other times dumber than s*%T!But, please take into account conditions,location all plays a role,example some places receive more fishing pressure than other locations so it may add the difficulty of achieving success on the fly.But, like mentioned all fly lines have a place when implemented correctly with the conditions you are fishing.I like a stealthy intermediate 6wt if im fly fishing from shore and fluffy weightless bait fish pattern in a variety of colors just depends on water clarity or what they like.If they are hitting top water I go to a nice fat bass taper floating with some gurglers,or poppers.Once again it's L.m Bass always changing the patterns & fly lines for that matter it never stays the same... (for example)
In the winter nwhen its slows down,I might use a cursed 6wt type six full sink and bounce a crawdad pattern slowly on the bottom till I get a knock.

Good fun on the fly and a feisty fighter too!

[flybob]

#12 Zug Bug!

Seriously, I do not target LMB, I go after big bluegill, but I have caught more accidental bass on the zug!

here is the last one I caught on the zug

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=5414

try it out, just toss it into the reed line under an indicator and look out!

[ivan562]

Thanks guys you are all so helpful. i will begin my hunt for an 8wt. fly line.

[Artin]

Good advice here! But don't forget to look at T- lines.... I do a lot of striper lmb smb here in so Cal. My go to set up is a 7wt with T-11 custom integrated... Works much better I think than the conventional sink rated lines for lakes. In shallower water it wouldn't make to big a diff. if you use a T- line or regular but if you plan to fish 15 ft. or deeper I'd recommend to look at the T-line option.
You can also put together a T-line yourself. Rio actually sells the tungsten sinking lines. You can get that and mono running line... works really well and it will cost you much less than an integrated fly line set up. Need a bit of practice to cast with the mono running line, but once you get it down you can easily do 120' of casting!
I would also recommend to just get another spool and load it with floating line for top water action. Any good floating line is ok for this application

Happy fly line hunting

Artin

[meb]

I use what Brian uses. The Sage Largemouth Bass Taper works well on 8wts and above to toss large surface flies like poppers and frogs. I use the Sage Smallmouth on 6-7 wts, and it turns the same flies over pretty well. For subsurface flies any sinking line seems to work for me.