Well said, Jimmy. I'm not a Bass Fisherman myself (not necessarily
from choice but more lack of opportunity.) I have caught a few bass,
perch and Walleye on my fly rod, and enjoyed every catch. Pound for
pound there is no trout that fights harder than a bass.
My brother in Colorado is a bass fisherman. He's got the boat, the
gear, and enters tournaments. I've gone fishing with him a couple
of times, brought my fly rod along but ended up using spin gear. As
much as I like my fly rod, I found many situations where it just
wasn't practical to use.
But the fact is, I don't enjoy catching fish as much when using
anything other than the fly rod, so if I'm in a situation where the
fly rod isn't the best choice, I either don't fish or fish and don't
catch fish. Many a time my fishing finder has shown schools of fish
holding deep in 30 or 50 feet of water and I've thought "why don't I
bring a little spin rod along and do some jigging?". But I never do,
because I just preferr to catch them on my fly rod.
As far as the tournaments go, it just seems like good clean fun....
for bass fishing. With trout it wouldn't seem appropriate. Trout are
beautiful fish, most often caught in beautiful places, and best
caught and released using a beautiful method , like fly fishing.
Bass, Bluegill, perch and other warm water species were placed on
earth to be caught and eaten. They taste MUCH better than trout,
overpopulate quickly in our reservoirs with out constant harvesting.
Let the lunkers go, but save a limit of the the smaller fish for the
frying pan.
Tom
I am still an active "Chunker and Winder", and have fished lots of
bass tourneys here in Texas, but have never seen anyone use a fly
rod for bass fishing, (besides myself and Alan Di Somma, from the
deck of my bass boat). In bass fishing, a fly rod is only good
when you have open water, a shoreline that is easilly accessible,
or open pockets to cast to. Many of the bass tourneys are held on
lakes lined with reeds, cattails, lilly pads, hydrilla, and all
matter of vegetation that you just can't get a fly into and out of.
With the advent of the "flippin stick", a very stout bass rod of
some 7 feet in length, with a really stiff tip the C&W guys can
stand on the deck of their bass boat, pulling right up to the edge
of the vegetation, etc, and reach over the weeds with their flippin
stick and swing their lure, (FLIP) their jig & pig, or plastic
worm, into various pockets, and literally "yank" a big bass out of
its lair. This is extremely hard to do with a fly rod because the
tip of a average bass'n fly rod is not strong enough to snatch a
big bass vertically out of a weed bed. I've tried it and
continually get my fly, (dry fly, weighted fly, clouser,
whatever), caught on a weed, or worse, break my rod when trying to
horse a big bass out of the weeds. The big salt rods, the 10 - 12
wt and above, will work, but its much easier just to use a flippin
stick if you don't mind stooping so low as to use C&W equipment. ;-)
For fishing for bass on "edges" on a lake or stream, a fly rod will
definitely work, i.e. areas at the edge of weedbeds, lay downs,
logs, etc., especially when the bass are hitting on top. In most
bass in tournaments the fish are taken under the surface on a
spinnerbait, crankbait, worm or other underwater lure. During the
spring and fall, bass will hit a top water like a buzzbait, injured
minnow, Zara Spook, or other topwater bait. Few are caught on top
during the hot summer months. The baits (lures) I just mentioned
are useful only when cranked back, which puts the action on the
lure as it travels through the water back to the boat.. It's next
to impossible to use spinnerbait, crankbait, or a buzzbait with a
fly rod, and darn tough to use a big plastic worm. Lastly, I've
caught a lot of bass on a fly rod, but in my experience, I've
caught a helluva lot more on average, with my casting rod and
chunking and winding. One type of bass fishing where a fly rod may
a plus in my thinking is for white bass (Sandies), when they are
schooling and chasing shad minnows on top. Then the advantage is
being able to cast more often and take more fish, but because I get
a strike on nearly every cast when the sandies are schooling on
top, I just stick with my casting rod, for a pound and a half
Sandie will dang near tear up a 5 - 6 wt fly rod.
Lastly, fly rods are legal in the small bass tourneys around here
in Central Texas, but nobody uses them.
My 2 cents worth.
JIMMY D
