Bass on the Fly

While out fly fishing for bass some time ago i met a guy who asked me a few questions on how to learn to salt water fly fish. He had bought a magazine and the bass fishing expert said that you should practise casting into a gale force wind to improve your casting and your chances of catching bass. With this information he duly didn't even attempt to try bass fly fishing as he thought it was too difficult. Firstly i have been salt water fishing for a long time and you will never find me out in a gale force wind fishing or practising because its too damn dangerious and anyone who calls himself an expert should know better. Salt water fly fishing is the same as any other fly fishing except the flies are bigger and heavier and demand a lot more respect that is why we have stronger rods and lines to cope with them. The lines are the same, you have floating, intermediate and sinking lines which go from eight weight ( bass, mullet, pollack ) upto sixteen weight and above for marlin, tuna, etc., the only thing you have to worry about is making sure you buy cold water lines and not tropical lines. The tropical lines ball up like wire in cold weather and you will find them hard to cast with, i know because i bought them as salt water lines and had to get them from abroad years ago because the fresh water lines weren't up to rocks and salt water. The new salt water lines are great they have a heavy front section of about thirty feet and then they taper down to a running line which makes it easier to cast big flies and punch into winds but not gale force winds. I use the Rio outbound (cold ) salt water fly lines and find them perfect for the job, they can easily lift big flies and cast them a long way.

Thats the lines out of the way, next is the rod it has to be nine feet in lenght and rated 8/9 or 9/10 for bass fishing, i use a 9/10 weight because of the strenght to throw long lines and to bully bass in close around rocks etc.. It has to be saltwater proof  but you still need to clean them after fishing they last longer with a bit of tlc. The line rating must match the rod so a 9/10 weight rod will take the same 9/10 line, i have  floating, intermediate and sinking lines which i use to cover the various depths while bass fishing. The reel must be salt water proof as well and watch out for salt water resistant its not the same they rust after awhile, so stick with salt water proof and you still need to clean them after use but they will last longer and give trouble free fishing. The reel needs to take the fly line and a minimum of 200m of 30lbs breaking strain backing line, get a red or white backing line its easier to see when playing a big fish especially in low light conditions.Now that you have the rod, line and reel sorted out its time for the leaders and flies etc..