Dave Whitlock on Nymphing for Largemouth Bass

Dave Whitlock reveals off a advantageous largemouth from a 1985 story. Photograph by way of Fly Fisherman

Forty years in the past, writing within the June 1985 challenge of Fly Fisherman journal, Dave Whitlock instructed a novel method to catching largemouth bass. On the time, streamers and topwater flies have been regarded as one of the best ways to catch bucketmouths, however Whitlock found that the nymphs he fished for panfish have been additionally hooking bass.

One of many largest bass I ever hooked took a barbless measurement 12 caddis pupa I used to be swimming throughout an enormous mattress of bluegill and redear nests on a small municipal lake close to Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The bass got here like an enormous automobile out of nowhere, scattering panfish like a covey of quail. Then it stopped and sipped within the tiny nymph extra delicately than any hand-size bluegill may. With a chill working up my again and neck, I set the hook. The fragile motion stopped instantly and a critical battle started. First, the large bass rushed off the shallow nest pocket-cover to deep water. After just a few nervous give-and-cake exchanges, the largemouth got here up for a thrashing, head-shaking floor vault.

These ways clearly nonetheless work at the moment, and it’s possible you’ll discover that fish which have develop into cautious of larger flies will nonetheless eat a nymph.

Click here to read the full story at Fly Fisherman