Small flies for bass

[edleigh7]

G'day,
Can anybody tell me what sort of small flies for bass that i could try?? i flicked them a woolly bugger and a small surface popper fly, but they seemed to be surface feeding and weren't interested in my fly. This was beneath the wall at Borumba Dam on the long weekend in the top pool and it was a bit of glass off on the water. I only used thosed flies because i caught a bass the arvo before spinning with a popper in reasonable wind. If someone could steer me in the right direction with flies and maybe some general spots would be great??!!!

Thanks in advance

Ed

[flyfisho]

Hi Ed,
Unless you are targeting suspended schools of fish down deep on your sounder surface fishing is going to be your best bet for targeting Bass on fly in impoundments unless of course you are targeting visible structure .I reguarly fish Borumba and reckon its s great Bass fishery, but Bass are ususaly a by catch for me as I go there for sight fishing Saratoga , lately I have been picking off bass in the shallow sun-warmed bays in less that 2 ft of water with a similar fly , I assume you are using a floating line with a tapered Fluorcarbon leader ( at least 14 foot) for sub surface fishing this will work well, you just have to remember to Slow it down !! even dead drifting when you know that fish are feeding in the area , the only trick as you may know is not to cast at boils because thats where the fish was , alternativly to subsurface my pick for the suface would have to be a version of the Gartside gurgler called the grabhams gurgler its just a lot less bulkier and it creates a more of a waking action instead of a bloop, which I reckon is better for spooky fish and definatly for non spooky fish just make sure you change to mono for your leader as Fluoro sinks.
If you find yourself targeting structure or suspended schooling fish I would suggest changing your line to a fast sink line , I use a SA striper IV it has a sink rate of around 6-8 inches per second ,I tie on this a two peice leader (rod length ) and a #2 Vampire, my go to fly all year round , if I see fish and they are not eating I might try a different colour or sink rate of fly but basicly the same pattern, I hardly change from this because it works. I went out to the local puddle with my mate Tiges on the weekend to christen my expadited #7 GLX and fished the vampire to suspended schools in around 5m of water he was fishing lipless cranks and I was fishing fly and we were pretty much fish for fish it is a very effective way of bass fishing I don't use conventional gear at all , heres a couple with th fly I mentioned

[edleigh7]

Thanks mate, it was first fishing at Borumba and i don't have a boat so i was pretty limited to where i could go. is there any way to drive to other banks on the lake that are fishable from the bank, the only way i could see from the dam wall was to climb up the norwestern side of the wall and i wasn't too keen to do that!

[flyfisho]

it left my pic of the gurgler caught fish see how this goes

[flyfisho]

Thanks mate, it was first fishing at Borumba and i don't have a boat so i was pretty limited to where i could go. is there any way to drive to other banks on the lake that are fishable from the bank, the only way i could see from the dam wall was to climb up the norwestern side of the wall and i wasn't too keen to do that!

not really Mate well not that I know of, but even if you can get a lift or use a canoe you only need to get to eagles nest (where the timber starts) to fish the bank , but the bays around the main basin hold fish if you run out of steam
they actualy consitantly hold good fish but everyone usualy drive past ,keep it under your hat mate . I hope this helps

[edleigh7]

thanks heaps mate....do you mean near the dam wall and boat ramps?

[flyfisho]

the timber is not real close to the ramp ,which is pretty close to the wall , but the little bays are scattered around the basin . I am one of those blokes who reguarly speeds past them (regretably)

[tiges]

Hey Flyfisho! Didn't I see you chucking a Sugoi Quick Bee on conventional gear the other day? Maybe I was imagining things, and you didn't actually nail 2 bass on surface. Think I had you covered for numbers there too Fuhrer.

[flyfisho]

ok well thats the first time in a very long time It was hard not to after seeing you pinn that half meterey and then to see that Toga tuning you lure just wish I had have brung the floating line
would have left you for dead
( I guess you got your reaction )
and there was the time at awoonga
but thats it !!
tahnks for the lend of you rod that was a cool arvo sesh

[bassbuster]

Hi Ed,
If you like to see the Grabham,s Gurgler in action, and also a demo on how to tie this effective surface fly, check out "The Fishing DVD number 6". These dvd's are available through newsagents and tackle stores. Peter Morse and Andrew Grabham do the gig.

Bassbuster

[edleigh7]

Thanks for the advice bass buster, i'll give it a bo peep!! hopefully going to Borumba end of month and have a go at some Toga!!

[chris dawson]

The best solution for those bass you were chasing is to give up on them altogether, come back down south and chase trout in the snowy mountains!

We miss you down this way mate.

Wouldn't it be great to be drifting out of Boulder Bay on Jindy, with an intermediate line and a black wooly, only to be interupted by the jolt of a 6lb plus browny?
Catch up soon Edda,
Daws

[edleigh7]

Yeah g'day mate....no that is sound advice from a neutral, impartial, one eyed trout fisherman

I would love to be there for the spawn run.....you know that you kenny!!

Not all of us can afford to fly around Australia or Finland to fish where we want , but you will have to come up for the Bass Fly tournament later on in the year...and bring ya boat.

Mate maybe you should start a new thread and give everyone a run down about how Australia went at the world fly championship....I'm sure there would be some interest on this site....maybe include some photos. Email me some photos too. Do you know my home email?

Catchya Daws

Ed

[chris dawson]

As soon as I have the photo's, I'll put a posting on this site for all to see.
As for the bass tournament, that's a maybe but I doubt that I would be bringing my boat up to the tournament. I think you need to have a live-well (which my boat doesn't have. Also, I wouldn't want to have to tow it 2000km!
Catch ya,
Daws