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Fishing News Latest Fishing News A different breed
Fishing News Latest Fishing News A different breed | A different breed |
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| Written by Diana Kunde | |
| Saturday, 05 July 2008 | |
 Underwater illusion: Fly-fishermen are using flies designed to imitate conventional bass tackle like spinnerbaits, crankbaits, jigs and worms. Sean Polk of Orvis in Dallas displays the Gulley Worm that he fishes like a Carolina rig when going after big bass. Photo by David J. Sams. It’s a fuzzy six inches long, made with purple and pink chenille, and bears more than a passing resemblance to a plastic worm. And, yes, the Gulley Worm is a fly — currently featured as a “top fly” for bass on the Web site for fly-fishing retailer Orvis. You learn from the spinning and casting rod competition, say Texas fly-fishers who target bass in the summertime. Sean Polk, fly-fishing manager for Orvis in Dallas, said he typically reads the conventional fishing chatter when scoping out a new lake for bass. “I find out the colors, the type of lure that’s been having success. If they’re hitting worms, I try the Gulley. If they’re hitting crankbaits, I’ll tie Deceivers or Clausers in the same colors and sizes,” Polk said. Jef Fair, fly-fishing manager for Orvis in Arlington, carries the Gulley and another worm imitation, as well as Enrico Puglisi’s Peacock Pike fly, designed to imitate a Bass Assassin. “I have customers who swear by them (Gulley Worms),” Fair said. “More of them are crossover bass anglers new to fly fishing.” Customers who may be more purist trout anglers “view it as kind of a novelty item.” In fact, bass fly-fishers are a different breed, experts say — more willing to try whatever works to attract the fish, rather than limiting themselves to fur and feathers. Fair also carries a fly that’s tied to imitate a spinner bait, as well as spinner baits with hardware on them. “They tend to be heavy and hard to cast, but I’ve had great success with them,” Fair said about the spinner baits. “Pistol Pete is an example.” Fair said he likes to stroll the aisles of the local sporting goods stores, check out the newest conventional lures, then “go home to my desk, sit down and try to replicate them out of fly-tying materials.” “Most recently, I’ve been working on a lot of worm flies. I’m also tying bass jigs.” Arlington angler Ron Knight is an expert on spinner baits for fly-fishing and has authored a book on the subject (“Fly Rod Spinner Baits,” Frank Amato Publications, 2006). Knight says that fly-fishers in the South were using spinner baits to land bass in the 1920s. There were huge advances in conventional rods after World War II and bass fishing shifted away from the fly rod. Bass fishing legend Tom Nixon helped revive fly-fishing for bass with a book published in the ’60s and reissued in the ’70s. “He fished with jelly worms and anything,” Knight says. “He wasn’t a purist at all.” Knight says he goes with surface flies, such as poppers, when the bass are hitting on top. But when they go deeper, he’ll go for his spinner baits. “It’ll catch them when something else won’t,” he said. Plano fly-tier and designer Richard Komar always carries his special worm fly in the arsenal of five bass flies that he always has with him. “It’s a pretty simple fly, very effective,” he said. Unlike the Gulley Worm, Komar’s Hard Hackle Worm is made of feathers. He ties it five inches long, and sometimes longer, “purple, maybe red — a worm brown would be my third color.” Polk said the fly-fisher has an advantage as an imitator of conventional lures in heavy use. “A bass will only hit a certain lure once. He’s seen the conventional lure; the fly is something new.” |
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 04 July 2008 ) |
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