Big Minnows on the Bite
I don’t claim to be good at catching Texas largemouth bass – in any WAY shape or form. In fact, most of you have seen that my bass catching amounts to “bycatch” when chasing more gamey fish on the fly.
But sometimes, just sometimes, the timing on bass gets right and the clock strikes twelve, and it is on. This is one of those times (so far) with little rain and little fluctuations in the weather – AT THE MOMENT. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, this bite did not translate from ultralight spinning gear to fly – at all, period paragraph.
The fly I THINK I needed was not on board. That is the pale blue tinged white Clouser Minnow – and small. And in a future post, I will jump in the way back time machine, and we will look at another specific BASS FLY that I used with HUGE success in years past … a fly I was reminded of after watching the Season 9 Episode 1 of Texas Insider Fishing Report. That report told me EXACTLY why that fly worked so well, I mean it was a killer, but until that episode of TIFR I had forgotten all about it. THAT EPISODE told me exactly why it works so well and why I should be using it RIGHT NOW.
Soon I will be creating a “Texas Source Guide” to help you catch more without me. It will have a lot of links and references to my sources (such as YouTube Channels like TIFR) for providing my snapshots of what is working to catch fish, how it is working, where it is working and HOW TO TRANSLATE it into fly fishing patterns.
ON THE ULTRALIGHT SPINNING ROD-REEL SIDE
While the fly still rules, we have to be realistic about a couple of situations we find in Texas fly fishing. One is the wind. And the other is the sheer size of the water we prospect. And that word, PROSPECT, is the main reason I find myself casting a spinning rod from the deck some times. I hope it doesn’t surprise you, or seem like some big dark secret I have kept from you! Heck, if you watched the previous video, catching sand bass near Lake Grapevine, Texas, you saw my highly skilled prowess with a short little spinning rod – IN ACTION! There are days, there are days … Here is the link to that – Texas Sand Bass DFW Video.
My current reel is the saltwater reel by a company I used to buy from for (the defunct) Los Pescadores. It is sold by the folks at Florida Fishing Products, and is probably about to go up a good 20-50-percent in price. That is what it is. I love this reel, and the 2500 holds its own against any reel in size/price class. I am currently looking to upgrade my rod from the Falcon series, to a brand new superlight Sawgrass spinning rod – coming this week actually.
Thanks again for reading this Monday Morning! The sidewalk is slimy with fish, so the wind may just blow us down the street … to another destination this fine week!
