Finesse Bass Fishing

[E.T.]

I have been in the mood for some Bass on fly for a very long time, so this past Saturday I decided to head on out to Rust De Winter. When I got up, I nearly dove back into bed with mamma as it wasn't the best weather for a bass outing, well I decided to pull through and landed at RDW at about 6:15am.


I took my time, rigged up and decided that I would go with the usual suspects, topwater flies. Well after about 2 hours fishing likely lies I ended up with nothing. Decided to go subsurface. Well still nothing after about an hour so I then made a call to stuff the bass and focus on some Kurper, Carp or even the odd Yellow.


So I changed to a long leader of probably 20-30 feet and fished two nymphs below a small strike indicator. I only had a floater on me so I had to come up with some sort of a plan to scratch the bottom. Well first cast produced nothing on a figure of 8 retrieve, I decided to change the retrieve from slow to dead slow. Well on my 2nd cast whilst retrieving I decided to go even slower and when the indicator was about 4 meters out it suddenly dipped. I tightened up and at first thought I was onto a carp, well this thing fought like a possessed mule to say the least. I turned it and brought it to the surface and to my amazement it was.......





Caught on a size 16 Flymph. I took a few snaps and let the fish go.


I continued to press on hoping to connect with something else. Well needless to say at one spot just before the indicator reached the weeds/grass I slowed down my retrieve as I felt it was too fast, next minute I feel a bit of weight at the other end and a beast of a bass breaks the surface, shakes it head on the jump and throws the hook. I was stunned, well I went on to cover some more water and yet again there was some weight at the end of the line, this time I tightened up and the fish went down and broke me clean off on 4X.


I decided to call it a day and headed home. But this outing had me puzzled. i know that if a venue is over fished that you need to fish smaller flies and I have had success in the past fishing flies in the #8 and #10, but fishing #16 flies for other fish than bass and to connect with them on a retrieve that is completely out the norm was an eye opener for me as these fish took the flies very subtle and once they felt the pressure of the hook they would go absolutely bezerk.


As someone that has caught countless Bass on fly, this was just one of those "You can't be serious" situations.

[WalkersKiller]

Nice one Koos 

[Kumz]

  Super stuff ... 

[Rory]

....But this outing had me puzzled. i know that if a venue is over fished that you need to fish smaller flies and I have had success in the past fishing flies in the #8 and #10, but fishing #16 flies for other fish than bass and to connect with them on a retrieve that is completely out the norm was an eye opener for me as these fish took the flies very subtle and once they felt the pressure of the hook they would go absolutely bezerk.

Around 1996-97 I had a similar experience. We were still very new to targeting yellows on fly and decided to give the flyfishing a crack on the crocodile river directly below the Harties dam wall. In those days there wasn't the plethora of fancy "yellows specific" flies available and all we had to use were Scud imitations and San Jaun worms. Upstream dead drift nymphing past the edge of the hyacinth beds, with those two flies, produced a take from the bass every time! Super fishing! Unfortunately I never got back to fish that spot again, so I can't say whether its the norm for there. 

[E.T.]

@ Rory - Ah, the glory years of the Croc. Fished it about 4 years ago, beneath the surface it was like a desert. There was a time where you could fish that water without a wader and without standing on the bank with your head between your legs calling George.


Close to Brits about 10 years ago I too hooked a Bass on a Caddis Pupa fished close to the bank, with an erratic strip retrieve. So yes I believe they take naturals when it seems that they are off the bite. I also believe that at RDW they see a lot of lures and learn to look out for certain lures.


I also feel that these fish will take most insects drifting past them. Why? Well if it takes little to no energy to get a free meal, why not.

I think on my next outing, I will gut one of these and put it on ice, just to see the stomach contents, I think I would be pleasantly surprised to see what it holds.

[E.T.]

Had a conversation with Conrad Botes about fishing for bass with a strike indicator.
He reckons he has been doing it for years and that in November's TCFF there will be an article about Bass fishing, etc.
So I hopped onto the net and came across something very interesting.....


http://www.smallmouthflyangler.com/products/smallmouth-bass-strike-indicators.php

[E.T.]

Now this is what I wanna see......


http://southernriverfishing.com/site/?p=223

I am giving this a go at Renosterkop this weekend!!!