Placing the fly where it is most vulnerable or irritating to a bass is very important if you want to catch it.   If the fly lands in exactly the right spot the first cast, it will often get an instant strike. A presentation that takes several casts to get the fly into play is less effective.    

A fly rod is the perfect weapon for bass sight fishing.  It can be a rapid fire instrument rendering pin-point accuracy. Selecting a rod and line combination that performs smoothly in all your normal casting ranges is important.  Few casts of over 40' are required. Super fast rods are not an asset. They give a herky-jerky presentation that destroys accuracy.  

Bass flies are larger than most trout flies.  Casting bulky poppers and hair bugs takes practice.  It also take the right rod and line combination to enable you to preform at your best.  Often loading your rod with a heavier fly line can be useful.  A heavier line will slow your rod down and provide the energy needed to launch larger, bulkier flies.

Bass come in a wide variety of sizes.  Most  Oregon bass are 1 to 3 pounds.  These small to medium size bass seem to prefer poppers and hair bugs in the size #6 and #8 range.  A #5 to #6 fly rod is ideal for fish of this size.  

A #7 or  #8 rod is appropriate where 4 & 8 pound bass might be encountered.  Bigger bass often respond quicker to bigger flies.  A heavier rod is more comfortable to cast really large flies with and might be needed to pull larger fish out of heavy cover.    

It is always handy to have two rods rigged.  One rod should be equipped with a floating line and the other should be equipped with a sinking line.  That way bass can be fished at a variety of depths without restringing your rod. 
(to be continued in 07/03 FFS Insider)

Up-to-Date  INFORMATION on Local Lakes at a glance.
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Why we love the Deschutes River

The scorching glare of mid-day radiates from the slow moving water.  Lifeless bodies are strewn upon the grizzly surface.  This is surely the carnage of some terrible cataclysm, or the scene of a holocaust.  Flotsam and wreckage keep pace with bubbles and scum.  Corpses are heaped upon corpses.  In places where the wind and currents meet the shore, the dead are blown into rafts so thick that the tightly packed bodies are indistinguishable from one another.

            Only a few lucky ones survive, and they quickly flee to the shade of the trees.  One by one they depart.  To stay in the sun is sure death from dehydration.  Some, trapped in the meniscus and not quite dead, wriggle in agony.  Others smother slowly, wrapped helplessly in the membrane of rebirth.  A few of their kin ride the surface, unable to fly with broken or deformed wings.  They reside in quiet desperation as the relentless sun sucks the fluids from their parched, aching bodies.  Thus carcasses cover the surface of the huge slow pool.  Left only is food for the scavengers.

            The scavengers come lazily.  No need to hurry; there is enough for all.  Long, sleek and spotted they lounge just below the surface, sipping in the dying, one by one.  The feast is Pale Morning Dun, served helpless but alive.

            Three fat, lazy “Red Side Trout” lie in the shade of an alder two feet from the shore.  The glassy surface is an endless conveyer of food brought by the slow steady current.  Beside the Pale Morning Duns, there are two species of caddis in unbelievable numbers and a smattering of small yellow stone flies to complement the menu.  After an orgy in the darkness, the caddis had oviposited early in the morning.  Now all are quite dead from exhaustion as they ride the surface.  The caddis and stones are ignored by the trout, which prefer the more succulent flesh of the living Duns.  Dozens of tiny morsels pass each trout each minute.

            This hatch lasts for over an hour while I sit in the shade under an alder six feet from the feeding fish, watching them through my seven-power high-resolution binoculars.  Not one cripple gets past the trout.  Not one healthy mayfly is eaten.

            Like wolves feeding on Caribou, where the very young, very old or infirmed are selected, trout are opportunistic predators.  They capitalize on the maximum intake of protein for the least amount of energy expended and the least amount of risk taken.
(to be continued in 07/03 FFS Insider) 

If you would like to read a more detailed Deschutes River Fishing Report, click here.

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