Intermediate Line Techniques For Larry the Largemouth
Sitting in your boat, alone on the bass pond. The sun is hanging below the tree line, about to disappear for the day. You toss your frog popper next to some sunken timber near a drop off. The initial splat gets the attention of the fish in the area. As the initial ring dissipates, you give the fly a couple of short pops, followed by a pause. With an exhale of breath your mind begins to wander. In that moment, a largemouth sucks in your fly and turns as you strip-set the hook.
When we think of summer largemouth, we typically dream of explosive eats on gigantic topwater bugs. While this is what we dream about all winter, in the past couple years I find these types of days most common in early summer. But as the summer progresses and the pressure builds, Larry the Largemouth can get shy. If you have witnessed Larry refusing your bigger offerings, giving just half-hearted, soft takes, or slashing the fly without eating it, then you are probably fishing a body of water that is seeing some pressure. If you are observing these behaviors at low-light and after dark, then you are probably fishing for really wise fish who have seen their fair share of anglers. My colleagues and I have been equating this selective bass behavior to the added pressure put on the system due to the pandemic,
Our first response to the pressure and finicky bass was to maximize our time on the water during no-light and low-light. This meant we were starting our days earlier in the morning to be fishing before sunup, and for stayed later during our evenings and fished well after dark. However, on these bodies of water we were still getting regular refusals and cautious eats, putting some smaller fish in the boat but still not finding the larger ones as often as we’d like. We knew it was time to put some more thought into this. Back to the drawing board.
Back at camp we decided to put some standard fly fishing dogma to the test, So, we dropped the fly size and tippet size. Switching our poppers from size 1/0 to size 2, and stepped the tippet size down from 1x to 2x or 3x. On the pond, we were having similar, tepid reactions to our offerings. In addition, the light tippets were making a mess of our leaders since they were not stiff enough to keep our flies from twisting during the cast. In low light this was a nightmare, and the combination of curses that being made could make an old sailor blush.
Back at the ranch over beers and steaks we discussed what was going on, We knew we needed to bring our hand tied 0x and 1x leaders back into the game. We felt like sticking to smaller flies was the right avenue. As the evening progressed, we started discussing the recent hendrickson hatch on our local trout river and how those fish stop eating duns and other high riding imitations as the hatch wears on. The trout tend to switch over to emergers and spinners fished in the film. These offerings tend to be “safer” for the fish and as anglers we have to follow what the fish want. This got us thinking on how to fish the upper portion of the column for largemouth. The first prototype of the Mr. Whiskers fly was born. When we combined this new fly and others like it with an intermediate line, we started hooking up with the bigger fish we had seen in previous years.
The basic bass setup is pretty simple: A 6 to 8 weight rod rigged with an intermediate line and 4-5’ length of 1 x fluorocarbon tippet as a leader. To this, we attach thin profile flies with double weed guards. I am a big fan of the 7 and 8 weight rods when I am fishing for largemouth since I am usually in heavy cover and need to land them before they wrap my line and leader around a log or around several pounds of lily pads. The heavier rod helps me bully them through the weeds and keep them off the bottom.
For the leader I take a 5 foot section of 1x flourocarbon tippet and tie a perfection loop in it for my fly line connections and then tie the fly directly to the free end with a non-slip mono loop knot. This short leader helps the fly track the flyline better than a long leader does. This also gives maximum control over the depth it is fished. A thin profile fly with the weed guards is nice to help it slide through the heavy cover. If I am fishing in waters that also include a lot of pickerel I will add a lightweight bite guard--six inches of 10 pound bite wire is usually all you need to keep from losing your flies to the slime darts. The non-slip loop is great to keep the fly breathing while on the pause.
I select flies based on how deep I want to fish them. Keep in mind I am only fishing to depths of 2.5'-3’ of water with this technique. The deeper you would like to fish these flies the longer the pause is between landing and stripping. If you are looking to fish at depths greater than 3 feet, switching to a sinking line is the way to go. Playing around with line and fly combinations is part of what makes this technique fun.
To keep the flies in the upper part of this range (3”-6”), I fish foam head sliders. My favorite is a bug I call “Mr. Whiskers” and is tied using the Surface Seducer double barrel popper heads, tied in so the narrow end is at the head of the fly (see recipe below). To fish to a depth of about a foot and a half, I tie up deer hair deceivers with a loosely packed hair head (examples include Cohen’s Fat head and the Whitlock Waker). This is crucial—tying it loosely allows the water to saturate the hair and this in turn helps the fly get down to depth. I tend to trim the head on this fly more narrow than wide. I put a counter weight of a wire wrap slightly down the bend of the hook to keep the fly tracking upright on the strip.
If I want to get down a little deeper, from one to three feet, I add a set of dumbell eyes to my flies with a wool or deer hair head, again with loosely packed material. These heads I trim in a wedge or diving shape to help drive the flies down on the strip.
The retrieve is something I play around with on a day-to-day basis. In general, I fish these flies with a double 6”-12” strip followed by a pause, then a double strip. I have found that the bass in the ponds I fish the most eat on the pause, so don't forget to build that into your retrieve. But feel free to play around with it and see what works best for your waters.
That is my basic set-up for this technique, but I have also found that we need to be intentional with our fly placement. I think of largemouths as fat cats. They possess plenty of killing power, but don't really want to expend the energy getting into position. Which means they will lay in wait until the perfect moment to strike. Which makes fly placement critical if you want to catch big Larrys.
When I am on the bass pond armed with my intermediate line and flies, I am looking for good ambush spots. For this I tend to use the rule of three. Meaning, I am looking for three different structures that come together. For example: a downed log surrounded by lily pads next to a drop off. This is an ideal scenario, but as many of you know ‘ideals’ don't happen all of the time and we have to make do with what we see. Some of the things that I have found to be most productive for me are perennial plant root beds, like pickerel weed. These woody, long lasting root beds create great ambush points and good cover for baitfish. Along this same vein, another good target area could have masses of downed wood, either from falling in the water on their own or brought to a location by beavers. These beaver piles can create similar scenarios as the perennial roots, but are often deeper and offer better cover for mid-day fish. Grass-beds and grass-bed edges are great places to hunt bass. Fishing the upper column with thin profile flies is a great way to slide through the grass bed and offer an easy meal to that bass laying in wait. Weed edges near inlets can be perfect habitat for largemouth. Even a small trickle of water coming into the pond can hold decent fish.
I hope this is helpful with your pursuit of largemouth. Feel free to reach out with any questions.
Jay@handmadeangler.com
Jay Aylward
Mr. Whiskers Recipe
Mr. Whiskers, a great bug for intermediate line techniques for bass in weedy ponds during late summer.
Hook: Ahrex NS122 Light Stinger size 2 Or B10S Size 4
Thread: 140 denier
Weed Guard: Double weed guard made from 30 pound mono
Tail: Thin Schlappen 3-3.5x the length of the shank
Wing: Bucktail or Icelandic Sheep Hair of Craft fur, with a few strands of Flashabou
Underside of Wing: Kreelex Flash
Collar: Schlappen or Hen Saddle palmmered
Head: Double Barrel Surface Seducer Head size small
Legs: 4-6 Silicone Legs threaded threw the popper head in front of the eye sockets.
do this before the head is put on the hook
Eyes: 3mm eyes glues into the eye sockets after the head has been secured to the hook