Martyn White | Thursday, 26 October 2023
Temperatures have been more seasonally appropriate this week, if still a bit warm. I was supposed to go North and meet Chuck to chase some smallies, but we had to cancel so I decided to spend a couple of hours casting and then test some fly designs for castability and to see if they swim properly/as intended.
The more I fish for bass, in fresh & saltwater, the more I find myself having to do this kind of testing. A lot of it comes from trying to emulate conventional lures or techniques. It's not that I don't like or have faith in the standard stuff, I do. It's more that I want a wider range of options for less than ideal conditions or just to extend my season a bit. I really do think theres's a lot that fly anglers can learn from lure anglers, although I'm sure that there are many who would let prejudice get in the way of that!
It can be frustrating at times and there are plenty of things I've tried, changed several time then abandoned but when it works out it's very satisfying. For a while now I've been trying to come up with a fishable topwater that is as noisy and noisy in the same or similar way as a large conventional topwater prop bait. These are very popular here in the bay in autumn among gear guys, but its difficult to get results on flies. It's fairly easy to make something big and castable, it's also easy to make something that is noisy enough, but it's not so easy to make something that is all three. I'm close but not there yet. Largemouth bass flies offer a lot of scope for experimentation too. There are a lot of methods that just can't be done with a fly rod (like punching mats), but we can still look at other things and work out how to make flies and presentations that behave similarly. This week I was messing around with a fly that will work like a chatterbait, again nearly there but I rejected 4 slightly different flies for not tracking at speed, not shimmying, zooming about all over and not coming through weed cleanly. I've got notes on another couple, but I don't think the next iterations will be the last either.
It's not for everyone, but I like it.