I’m pretty new to fly fishing, and an old-timer in my neighborhood was getting rid of a bunch of his hand tied flies. He put together a dozen or so flies for me. I realized after I got home that I don’t actually know what to do with these. I told him I’m planning to fish for smallmouth bass in a few weeks, so assume these were selected with that in mind.
How should I set these up (fly line, leader, tippet) and present these while fishing? If relevant, I plan to use a 9ft 5wt rod, which is the only one I own.
Thanks so much!
Posted by bateneco
2 Comments
These are bass flies. 5wt may struggle a bit to chuck these but you can probably make it work. The top three are fished subsurface and Imitate bait fish. The poppers on the bottom are fished on the surface. Just chuck them at the bank and let it sit.
The smaller three flies you could easily cast with 5wt fly line and a 7-9ft leader. Maybe set it up as a “hopper dropper” with a small nymph tied below it
My personal preference to cast these heavier flies on a 5wt is to set up a “mono rig”. The troutbitten website has good info about that.
Poppers are about to change your life.