The Bass Report 6/28/2022

Smallmouth

The Rivers in my area are experiencing low flow and warm temps, this makes the smallies suspicious and tougher to catch. The best times especially for top-water action is early and late in the day. Stick to smaller flies and longer leaders.

My top-water leader is 11’ and is made up of a 9’ 0x leader with 2’ of 1x tippet attached. I have been finding that this leader set up, is the right amount of distance to get the eats. The fish are not necessarily leader shy (hence the 1x), but they will get lockjaw if you are crashing fly line right in front of them. This boils down to a combination of long-leaders and long-drifts to get the job done.

With the low and clear water conditions we have been seeing fish hunt the fly, which sets up a super exciting scenario. The eats have been greasily subtle and since we can see the fish come-in and eat the fly, it is easy to set the hook too early. Think more along the lines of brown trout eats and not bass slams. These conditions have also made me ditch the big heavily dressed patterns of the spring. Currently, I am using flies that range form 2-6, and are lightly dressed. I might fish a small deer-hair diver on a size 2 hook, and a wigglies on a size 6, while my slender streamers are on size 4 hooks.

Shade lines, boulders, over hanging veg are all good spots to prospect for the bigger fish. We have been finding our best animals in structure under shade, with long presentations. Sloppy casts and fast movements have been spooking fish. so be sure to bring your A-game.

Flies to have

• Wigglies

• Sparkle minnows

• Small crawfish patterns

• sparse clousers

  Largemouth

  The Largemouth bite has been good early and late, with a decent mid-day action. Pre-dawn bass have been taking divers and sneaky peat style flies fished on both floating and intermediate lines. Once the light is on the water, dragon flies have been taking good fish in the pads and weeds. The evening bite has been strong with the last light of the day being the magic hour.

  The ponds are also experiencing low water conditions. Which means shallow water fish will spook easier, requiring more subtle approaches. For my topwater leaders, I have been tying 9’ 0x leaders and adding a 2’ tippet of 1x. For my sub-surface leaders, I have been using 4’ of straight 1x. I would concentrate on the shallow water that has easy transitions to deep, be looking for drop-offs and weed-to-depth transition zones. These deeper zones are really good areas for the the intermediate-line and reverse-jig techniques.

• Happy fishing #splatpopgulp

FLies to have

• Smaller Divers

• Dragon and Damsel fly patterns

• Mice flies

• Phat head deceivers