The Way Of A Bass Fisherman With a Fly Rod And The Way Of A Bass With A Fly Bass and Flies One reason I believe bass fly fishermen are not as generally successful as their trout fishing brethren is because the bass fisher, as a class, has not put as much study into his waters and his methods. This is not to be wondered at when you consider that fly fishing for bass is, compared with trouting, in its first tooth stage. In other words, if some anglers loudly proclaim that the east wind bloweth when they are bassing with flies it is due, not to the bass but to the angler. True one seldom gets the big, old, granddaddy bass of 'em all on a fly, neither do the bigger trout come to the net by the same route, but the average of the stream or lake can be caught on flies and are on certain waters. Is it entirely because of certain local peculiarities of fish, water or conditions that fly fishing for bass is practiced so successfully on such widely separated waters as, to mention a few: the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers in the Middle West; the Susquehanna, Potomac and Delaware in the East; the Current and St. Francis in the Ozarks; the Belgrade Lakes in Maine? I think not. Bass fly fishing has long been practiced and studied in these places, hence the success.

Do-It-Yourself Building your own Fly Rod Every so often somebody handy at creating things wonders “hey can I build a rod myself?” normal response has been, "Get a bunch of books." Here are a few additional observations, some gained from the rich experience that only comes from making mistakes, which can be far more instructive than doing things right the first time. Doing something right and you only learn one way to do the job; do it wrong and you learn two ways AND why the right way is the right way.

How To Choose the Right Fly Line Weight But with a longer leader, the more difficult it is to cast and there is a reduction in accuracy. Thus, a 9-foot leader is more accurate and easier to turn over than a 15-footer. Considering this, plus the fact that the splashdown of the line is what is frightening the trout, there is a simple solution. Use a fly line one size lighter than the rod manufacturer recommends. Jim Green, who has designed fly rods for years and is a superb angler, mentioned to me more than three decades ago that he almost always used a line one size lighter when fishing dry flies where the trout were spooky or the water was calm. I tried it and have routinely followed his advice. So, for example, if you are using a six weight rod, you can drop down to a five weight line with no problem. In fact, in very delicate fishing conditions, I often drop down two sizes in line weights. There is a reason.

FISHING TOURNAMENT TRAIL (Kansas City Star)
The Fishing Tournament Trail will be published each Tuesday of the fishing season. To report results, call (816) 234-4319 on Monday morning and leave name, location and date of the tournament and name, spellings and hometowns of the top two finishers and the big-bass winners..


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No Ice Fishing, Skating This Winter
By Tatiana Zarnowski , Sentinel Reporter, September 20, 2006 People who like to ice fish on Laurel Lake will have to go elsewhere this year.
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