Bass Flies

[dsaavedra 0]

ok thanks!

[JJD 0]

I'm not much help with a Dahlberg, but they are pretty straight forward. <beaten to the punch by Stony and hHairstacker >There are numerous variations...I think of them this way:

1. Tail of your choice

2. "Pre-Collar" to provide a transition to the deerhair head - I use marabou

3. Deerhair - Properly stacked for even length. I then "stack" the first bunch, holding it tightly on the hook shank, after checking the collar length. I also use two whips to lock things in place which are pushed back to enhance the density of the hair.

4. Deerhair spun in tight clumps to the hook eye. Two whips between each clump also pushed tightly together.

5. Trim in a triangular/wedge shape that is generally flat on the bottom. Trim back to the first clump so you have a "collar" - this gives the fly its pronounced wiggle. The more curve on the bottom, the more action you seem to get. The collar varies widely between tiers.

 

In a prior post I mentioned a Mirrolure Fly. It's not that common up north, but the World Record 30# snook was caught on one down here near Chokoloskee, FL in Everglades National Park. I finally got a picture of the one I have been using for bass. So far this year it has out produced almost everything for me. This evening I noticed by accident that it has a hidden attribute - sound. It turns out that the bead-chain eyes that I used really have a pronounced rattle to them These things are almost neutrally bouyany with a darting motion when stripped.

 

Quick recipe

1. Tail of your choice

2. Bead-chain eyes tied on shank in-line with hook point

2. Spun deerhair body in a cigar shape

3. the cigar-shape give the fly its erratic motion

 

This is an abused fly which has had much of its marabou tail chewed on.

[JJD 0]

I see that there isn't a size limit shown for pictures so I'll try to post this slightly bigger picture and the edit it for info

 

Wow worked!

 

These are my GO-TO flies

 

1 - 3. Generic big-bodied (shad/shiner) fly imitations

4. Rattlesnake fly (without rattle) marabou tail & deerhair head trimmed in a spade shape flat on to curved on bottom - nice pattern when fish are in transition & wicked action on an intermediate or sinking line.

5. Mirrolure - discussed above

6. No name fly - craft fur tail with marker, bead-chain eyes, dubbed craft fur from tail over eyes to hook eye. My biggest Bluegill ever hit this fly when fishing for bass.

7. No name fly - craft fur tail with wedge-shaped foam head (colored to suit). A spin-off of a Tim Woland baitfish. Nicely neutrally bouyant

8. No name fly - BIGGEST SURPRISE of the past 6 months! Same as #6, but tied with tan fox fur. Incredible action when fish are in trasnition or when there is a significant amount of small baitfish. It is a nice reproduction of a killifish/mosquitofish or similar.

9. Fire Tiger Generic big-bodied synthetic fly

10 - 12. Bendbacks - for use in weed-infested areas. #10 can be pulled right through dense hydrilla without hanging up. The effectiveness will obviously depend on the type of weeds you are dealing with. All are tied on the new Mustad 30 degree jig hooks.

10. Bendback - white synthetic wing over red glass beads - significantly thinned with thinning scissors

11. Bucktail Bendback - marabou gills and wool head -- pushes water nicely. A small amount of flexament worked through the bucktail with a bodkin siffens it up enough to act as a weedguard for a few hours or until it get too beat up

12. Bucktail Bendback - grizzly hackle accent and ice-dubbing substitued for wool.

 

#4, 5, 8, 10, 11 & 12 have accounted for almost 35 bass in less than 8 hours of flyfishing over several days. I'm trying to fulfill my New Year's resolution of fishing more and "playing" with tackle less. It helps that I live on a 140 acre lake and try to fish every afternoon.

 

Not posted to brag just to relay information so others can have as much fun as I'm having!

[dsaavedra 0]

wow! super helpful. i tied a dahlberg diver. here it is

 

 

i really like number 8, and whaddayaknow? i actually have the materials to make some!!! yahooo! :yahoo:

[Harold Ray 0]

Check this link, Tying the Dahlberg Diver . This description has all the steps plus a picture to go with every step which makes it much easier, at least for me, to understand.

 

Ray

[flyboyutah 0]

JJD -- Nice set of "Bassies", I have a question (which Im sure that has asked before but) is there a page

or writing in the forum on how to get the hair colors in the patterns that you guys get? I know how to do

the usual stacking , but its the "grey on top and red on bottom thing ". Thanks for any info Steve

[dafack01 0]

NEVER go Bass fishing without some Woolly Buggers. Big ones. I like to tie 'em on a #4 or #2 TMC300 (6xl) hook with Large Chenille. I like Dumbbell eyes on my buggers. The Bugger is Fly Fishing's equivalent of the Tube Jig.

 

This summer I might try to tie some on some worm hooks I saw at Bass Pro that had wire weedguards on 'em.

[Sean Juan 0]

There's some nice deer hair work here...

 

Surface patterns are probably the best way to catch bass in stained water, but there are times when they wont come up to hit a fly.

 

For those times my favorite trick is to use a very loud annoying surface bug - the solid foam head poppers are great. Then rig a small nymph or bugger as a dropper. The popper gets the attention the dropper catches the fish.

 

[JJD 0]

flyboyutah - To get differential color schemes with deer hair, instead of letting the hair spin as it flairs, you hold it in place. I use smaller clumps than for spinning and would alternate top, than bottom. Where there is even color the hair is spun in the traditional manner. Packing is critical when "stacking" deer hair color accents, since it is difficult to get perfectly even application between clumps. Dense packing causes this not to be an issue.

 

Hope this helps.

 

If there are any Floridians or southerners on the boards, we are getting near that time of year. Bass in FL spawn in January-February. In the last few days I've been getting much bigger fish - including a 28-inch largemouth 2 days ago on a gurgler.

 

John