. When bass are feeding on big insects like Cicadas and Hoppers that crash onto the water they also become susceptible to flies like poppers, and yes guppies, cast around their structure. At other times they just have a whack at them because there intruding into their domain. In either case the strikes and hook ups can be spectacular. They may be big in overall size but they do account for many a big bass.
I published this fly back in 2011. It casts easily and displaces or pushes a lot of water when retrieved. That water displacement at the head creates currents along the body which activate the body materials. The black over gold version (ie gold bomber colours) is particularly good over weed beds and in dirtier water.
For a long time I simply sized up my trout stimulator and used them on bass unfortunately they just didn’t offer bass a big enough morsel and even though they were bigger than anything I would use for trout they still landed too softly … not announcing their presence to the bass. A while back I got round to addressing the problems and after a reasonable amount of experimentation came up with this version of a stimulator which ticks all the boxes.
When I converted my trout foam hopper for use as a bass and tropical fly fishing I added a sparkle chenille under-body and grossed it up dramatically so that it would withstand the aggressive nature of fish like Australian bass and tropical species such as mangrove jack.
If you fish fast water and need a very buoyant hopper or a buoyant fly to support a nymph try this one.
Over the years I have experimented with various Yabby patterns and whilst some have looked great unfortunately they have all been “dogs” to fish or more correctly to cast. Generally rather than using them I have reverted to fishing a weighted woolly bugger instead. Well all that has now changed and I now have a Yabby in my fly box, in both a floating and sinking version, that I have confidence in.
One of the best search flies in slow moving or still deeper water using a sinking line ia a booby. As an alternative Boobies can also be fished as a semi-dry fly on the surface.
Jiggy heads are similar to bead heads except they are designed for salt water use and they have an obvious fish head shape and have a recessed area on each side incorporated to accommodate stick on holographic eyes. They are also covered with epoxy once the fly is tied. They were designed by Bob Popovics for use on flies that are fished deep in a jig fashion for pelagic fish.
One of the best search flies in slow moving or still deeper water using a sinking line. If fishing from a fixed position cast it out, let the line sink to the desired depth, and then retrieve the line using a constant stripping motion, a pumping retrieve or a combination of both.
‘I switched to a slime line and put a Black Straggle Fritz Taddy on the point, kept the Damsel on the dropper and, due to the weed, discarded the top dropper completely. At the end of one retrieve I had a cracking take on the hang and bullied a near 5lb rainbow into the net.’
