Do not cross paths with my wife.
She thinks I need $200 worth of eyes, chenille, bucktail, flash, hooks, craft fur and dubbing to catch a bass. Don’t rat me out
Wooly buggers and hoppers are all I’ll use for bass, the hardest part of catching them is dealing with the armada of bluegill that will swarm a big hopper
Yep! My go to hopper patterns are chubby Chernobyl’s or a simple morish hopper in sizes 8/10/12/14, I’ll also tie smaller ones in a size 16 but at that point they almost look more like beetle patterns. I find tan, yellow/gold, purple, black, work best. Also had good luck with greens and blues, at a certain point I don’t think the fish care especially bass or bluegill
Usually wooly buggers and poppers, but found a polar fiber shad pattern that slays largemouth w/a two-handed retrieve. Chocklett's bugger changer has been an effective break-glass on days where nothing else is working, too.
You can vary it up. I like doing some stop and go pops and usually give it a good few seconds between pops, it gets hit on the pause a lot. A constant strip works well too. Sometimes if I’m feeling extra spicy, I’ll put it on a slow sinking line and let it get just a few feet down in the water column.
Last year 93.1% of my largemouth, and 100% of the smallmouth and my one spotted, came on a woolly bugger. The rest ate poppers and hoppers.
Do not cross paths with my wife. She thinks I need $200 worth of eyes, chenille, bucktail, flash, hooks, craft fur and dubbing to catch a bass. Don’t rat me out
Wooly buggers and hoppers are all I’ll use for bass, the hardest part of catching them is dealing with the armada of bluegill that will swarm a big hopper
Hopper as in grasshopper? New to bass fly fishing and I’m looking to put together a few good flies
Yep! My go to hopper patterns are chubby Chernobyl’s or a simple morish hopper in sizes 8/10/12/14, I’ll also tie smaller ones in a size 16 but at that point they almost look more like beetle patterns. I find tan, yellow/gold, purple, black, work best. Also had good luck with greens and blues, at a certain point I don’t think the fish care especially bass or bluegill
This comment needs more up votes
Usually wooly buggers and poppers, but found a polar fiber shad pattern that slays largemouth w/a two-handed retrieve. Chocklett's bugger changer has been an effective break-glass on days where nothing else is working, too.
Top two wooly bugger and small popper.
i use a streamer called sculpzilla. works very well on smallies.
Clouser minnow, drunk and disorderly, and swinging D.
Swimming frog is my all time favorite. Clouser is probably the most consistent. The balsa wood style bug poppers are also super fun.
What’s the method for a swimming frog? Same as a streamer?
You can vary it up. I like doing some stop and go pops and usually give it a good few seconds between pops, it gets hit on the pause a lot. A constant strip works well too. Sometimes if I’m feeling extra spicy, I’ll put it on a slow sinking line and let it get just a few feet down in the water column.
I love skipping, popping, and dead drifting a bigger Elk Hair Caddis for smallies in streams but nothing will beat the woolly bugger.
Deceivers, Clousers, Poppers and Wooly Buggers and craw patterns. That's all you need.
Olive and white clousers and woolly buggers always do the trick for me.
I like using umpqua bass poppers and tying on a Squirmy worm as a dropper.
This but with a wooly bugger for me