Tabbitha grew up following her dad and grandpa around fishing the streams, rivers and lakes of the Rogue Valley in Southern Oregon. She is the co-founder of Southern Oregon Women on the Fly, a team member for UWOTF, a certified yoga instructor, fly-fishing guide, small business owner and mother of three beautiful girls. Although it’s only been a few years since converting to the fly rod, Tabbitha is out on the river untangling leaders and fishing flies out of trees with new fly fishers on a regular basis.
This week Tabbitha discusses gear and fishing tactics for catching bass on the fly. Watch her full presentation on our YouTube channel.
Gear tips- rods, lines, flies
RODS
- 6 Weight Rods
- Great all round rod for bass fishing
- Ideal for throwing heavier sinking lines and larger, heavier bait fish style flies.
- More effective in the spring during the spawn when the bass are more aggressive and fight harder
- Smaller rods can make playing the fish more fun however larger rods will help land the fish faster for less stress and a safer release
CHOOSING FLY LINES AND FLIES
Use saltwater fly lines when water/air temps are above 70 degrees; they’re designed to perform better in warm weather conditions. Use standard lines when water temps are below 70 degrees.
- Types
- Full sink lines
- Ideal for deep lakes, moving water and very hot days
- Available in a variety of sink rates
- Useful for getting flies into feeding zone faster; keep flies in the feeding zone while retrieving flies
- Use a short leader with leech patterns, balanced leeches and clouser patterns
- Full sink lines
- SInk tip lines
- Ideal for shallow water, in lakes or moving water
- Allows you to use non-weighted flies and target subsurface feeding zone (2-3′ below surface)
- Use with wooly buggers, leech patterns, clousers, streamers, etc
- SInk tip lines
- Intermediate sink lines
- Sink rate is 1-2″ per second
- Useful for fishing subsurface to about 15′ or when casing into weeds and shallow brushy areas
- Use with wooly buggers, leeches, nymph patterns
- Intermediate sink lines
- Floating lines
- Use aggressive weight forward line with short head to cast heavy flies
- Ideal for lakes with moderate to warm water and active, moving fish or fish feeding on the surface
- Useful for fishing weedy/shallow areas
- Use with frogs, hoppers, adult damsel flies, poppers, gurglers and other flies that make noise and create a disturbance on the water
- Can be used with subsurface flies with a longer leader
- Floating lines
- Leaders and tippet
- Bass are not leader shy and are aggressive feeders- use short, heavy leaders for turning over flies and preventing break offs
- For poppers and streamers, use 6-8 ft of 10-15 lb mono
- Use 9′ of 3x tippet in small lakes, 12′ of 2-3x tipp
et in large lakes
- Leaders and tippet
techniques
FISHING FROM A BOAT
- Look for structure- rock cliffs, rocky channels, weeds or bushy structure
- Use heavy flies and/or sinking line to get your fly down quickly, then use short strips to retrieve fly
- Let the wind drift the boat and troll or anchor and wind drift- wind and water create natural movement of the fly
- When anchored, look for deep channels, cast toward bushy or weedy structure
FISHING FROM SHORE
- Look for structure- rocks, logs, weedbeds, willows
- Use intermediate or floating line and slower retrieve
- Fish early and late in the day
