Bass Fishing Information

Paul Winter asked:


Fly-fishing is a form fishing that uses a different method of catching the species that live and breathe under water. The method is referred to as angling. This method is used to target mostly trout and salmon. Recently the target list has extended to fish like bass, pike and carp. Historically fly fishing an ancient method of catching fish that originated in Scotland and Northern Europe.

There are many and various types of flies being used in fly-fishing. In modern fishing methods there are various types of fish being used to catch the designated target. The following is a list of types of fish; dry flies and emergers (for example midges or stoneflies), nymphs (for example mayflies or eggs and worms), streamers wet flies (for example buggers and leeches), saltwater flies (for examples sailfish and marlin), bass and panfish flies (for example crawfish and eels), salmon and steelhead flies (for example Atlantic salmon flies).

Certain gear is needed when fly-fishing. The first item on the list is fly rods, in which size and usage is important. It is important to match the fly rod with the fly line according to weight. Matching the weight of the two items is important to have positive casting results. The size of the fly rods can be anywhere from #0, #1, #2 and are used for the lightest trout and panfish rods up to powerful and heavy #16 rods for the largest saltwater game fish.

Another item needed for fly-fishing is a bamboo split cane. This allows for a better performance in the freshwater trout fishing situations. Synthetic fly rods are usually used and offer a greater versatility, stiffness, power and performance than a bamboo split cane. The advantages are that they are less expensive and require less maintenance. Finally, fly reels are manually operated. Although in recent years, more advanced models have been developed to deal bigger fish and more demanding situations. These models increase the drag and retrieval performance.

Fly-fishing is an ancient method of catching fish. It is more demanding because you are limited to the types of fish you can catch. You need the appropriate gear to catch the trout or the salmon. Today’s modern techniques used in fly-fishing have been developed to meet more challenging situations, such as bigger weight of the fish. These modern advancements prepare the fly fisherman to successfully meet his quota by using the methodology appropriately.

There are many popular locations for fly-fishing mostly in the Northern United States and Canada. Alaska is another popular place for the activity. Some places in the United States are Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Montana and California are just a few places.

Bob Bastian asked:


Although there are hundreds of types of flies used for fly fishing, most of them fall into five specific categories, or types. These types are dry flies, wet flies, nymphs, streamers and buck tails, and terrestrials. The main purpose of the fly is to imitate an insect that the fish wants to eat.

A dry fly imitates a natural insect that is floating on the top of the water. Fish are very sensitive to any motion of their water and how currents move the insects they want for food. In fly fishing, if a dry fly is moving even slightly against the current, the fish will have nothing to do with it. The fly may look like something the fish recognizes but it is not acting the same an insect would. The fish recognizes it as something foreign in the water and leaves it alone.

In fly fishing, a wet fly is imitating a drowned, or drowning, natural insect and is fished below the water surface. No one is sure if the wet fly is seen as a drowning adult insect or a nymph from the perspective of the fish. Most fly fishermen today seem to believe that it is seen as a nymph. Because of this less and less wet flies are being sold. Wet fly fishing is the oldest form of fly fishing. It dates back to descriptions of the early Macedonian people.

A nymph is the stage between an egg and the adult in the life cycle of an insect. In fly fishing, flies that resemble nymphs are growing popularity. The nymph fly is just below the surface of the water. When a fish bulges the water without breaking the surface, he is nymphing. This means that the fish is eating the natural nymphs just as they are emerging from their shell. This is what a nymph fly imitates.

Streamers and buck tail flies do not imitate any part of the insect’s life cycle. These types of fly fishing flies are much larger and represent small bait fish such as sculpin minnows. The main difference between theses two types of flies is that streamers are tied with feathers, and bucktails are tied completely with hair. Fly fishing that uses these two types of flies generally requires more rod and line manipulation. The movements are supposed to duplicate the motions of the little fish.

Although most flies represent water insects, a terrestrial fly is made to imitate a land insect that has fallen into the water. The two most common terrestrials that are imitated for fly fishing are the ant and the grasshopper.

Besides these basic five categories of flies, there are many other kinds of flies that are used for fly fishing. Some of them are a combination of one or more of the basic categories and some do not fit into any group. The most important thing to remember is that it doesn’t matter how the fly looks to you, the fisherman. It matters how the fly looks to the fish.