“Bass-Bug Humbug”
by William G. Tapply
Adapted for Palmetto Fly N Fish members

August 6, 2018
Fly Fishing

WHEN it comes to bass bugs, I reckon there is a lot of hokum going around. That is to say, a lot of crap is out there. 

Fly-fishing catalogs, fly shops, podcasts, Facebook fly-fishing groups, they are all filled with an endless variety of surface bass bugs.

- Poppers, sliders, divers, moths, mice, and more are everywhere. 
- Materials abound... deer hair, balsa, cork, and foam of every kind.
- There are bugs in every shape, size, design, and color imaginable.

Often, they may represent living creatures, or, they may be like nothing that EVER lived.
They might  have legs, wings, arms, tails, antennae, beards, maybe a few mustaches, and probably eyes. You'll see lips , propellers, spinners, rattles and certainly weedguards.

However, I am not at all afraid to say that, by and large, they catch the fisherman long before they catch bass.

Along comes some poor newcomer, or gullible fly-fishing veteran, and he's gonna want to have every single one of them, in every variation possible.
His logic is that you NEED all that because you never know what bass will want.
Why? Because every book, group, written piece, testimonial, anecdote, tradition and lore... they all assure him that he must have just the right bass bug... or he's doomed to failure. 

And that, dear friends, is plain old hokum.

The truth is, we don't really need most of it - and maybe none of it. 
This is because Mr. Bass resolves the problem for us, in this manner:

If bass have moved into an area, and are there to feed, they will come up to the surface and take most any old bass bug as may come along.

If they won't, it's most likely that you are in the wrong place, i.e., where they AINT, ... or they are there for something else.

Why The Bass Bug?
The First Bass Bug was nothing more than a bottle cork with some turkey feathers stuck in its butt. There was once a popular bass bug that was just spun deer hair on a hook... left untrimmed and as ragged as you might imagine such a thing to be.
Another was made up of nothing more than all the long hackles you could wrap on a hook.
And these crude things caught bass as readily as any of today's Sooper Whopper Popper Slappin' Bass Grabbers.

See, bass are mobile, run-and-gun feeders.
The popular idea that they sit by a log all season waiting for you to show up is mostly bogus.
They may take up a feeding station when it is opportune to do so, but it's usually brief.
Normally, they "live" somewhere removed from the shallow feeding areas suited to fly fishing, and move to them when they are hungry.
As such, when most fly casters encounter them, they are there to feed.

This means they are actively seeking prey that gives the impression of life, food value, vulnerability... an easy meal in other words.
THAT is what a bass bug must represent, and that's all it has to do. All the embellishment we add is window dressing.

Given that, the logical question then becomes,...

“So, what matters in a bass bug?”

I'm glad you asked, because I'm gonna tell you.
Keep in mind, as you read along, this is MY outpouring on the subject.
You may differ with some, or all of it - and I hope you tell me if you do.
But this is how I perceive this business after a lot of casting bugs for bass.

1. Dynamics
A large part of bass-bug fun is casting your bugs to all those "fishy" target zones that we hope bass have moved to. I'm talking about weed pockets, half-submerged wood, overhanging bushes, the areas around boulders, docks, boats ramps, etc..

BUT, a bulky air-resistant bug, with wings, tails, appendages and so on quickly works you overtime, defeats your best efforts at casting accuracy, and drains much of the the fun from the game.
Soon, you're being told on Facebook forums that the solution is to buy a $500 “bass fly rod.”

It's not. 

Instead, you need light, streamlined bugs that you can cast comfortably with a medium-weight (5 – 7 weight) rod.
If all you have are the wrong kind of bug, you can improve the aerodynamics with scissors.

2. Noise 
Here is what convinces bass to strike: 

- The sound of prey at the ceiling of its world
- Maybe shape
- Almost never color (more on that later) 

Foremost is sound, so you should be able to create a variety of lifelike noises with a bug.
First comes the sound of the bug splatting when it hits the surface.
Crashing down too loudly, and it scares the fish away.
Too quiet, and they may not recognize it as prey.
So a fat 'splat' is a good thing thing.

Once down and settled, tug it so it goes 'kaploop.'
Give it a twitch so it chugs, and gurgles. If its a deer hair bug it can be made to 'swish.'
Or, when called for, almost no sound is made.
The sudden absence of sound can be just as deafening as a noisome clatter.

3. Movement
Something should always be moving on a bass bug, even when it is sitting still.
A moderate tail of marabou or pliable hairs like squirrel or bucktail is ideal for this.
And of course, don't forget rubber legs. These all add appealing movement to the bug. 

4. Floatation
You want a good bass bug to float half in the water, and not on top of it.
And you also want it to float reliably, and for a long time, whenever possible.
Leaves float on the surface, but bass prey doesn't - it's in the water.

Thus, bugs that ride too high don't have lifelike motion and sound.
And you don't want your bug sinking when your plan is for it to ride in the surface film.  
This part is tricky; most bugs from balsa and foam float too high.
Cork works best in this regard.

5. Hookability
The gape of the hook should be wide relative to the size of the bug, or you’ll miss a lot of strikes.
Ideally, you should be able to trace an unimpeded line directly from the hook point to the hook eye.
Keep your hook points needle sharp.
Mash down the barbs.

6. Size
Under normal conditions, the size of the bug is not the final factor...

I’ve caught five-pounders on bluegill-sized bugs, and twelve-inchers on bugs the size of sparrows.
But, to give a number to all you tackle junkies out there, something on a 1 to 2/O hook for largemouths, and a little smaller (size 1, say) for smallmouths, is about right.

Nick Lyons writes evocatively about how big, bulky bugs attract big bulky bass at twilight, and they surely do.
Meanwhile, Art Scheck argues that those same bass would probably gobble panfish bugs that you can cast comfortably on a 4-weight trout rod.
I think they’re both right, and I take the middle ground from about 6 through 2/0... and not many in that latter size.
On flat, shallow water, oversize bugs might scare bass.
On choppy water, though, the commotion of a big bug helps to attract them.

8. Shape
Bass guru, Will Ryan, chooses stubby bugs for shoreline fishing, and sleek, tapered bugs for offshore reefs and shoals.

His theory is that bass expect to find wounded and disoriented baitfish offshore, and terrestrial creatures near the banks.*
For this reason, he picks bugs whose shape suggests the predominant bass prey in an area, without duplicating anything in particular.

This is a good theory, and it works for Will, if for no other reason than it gives him confidence in whatever bug he ties on.

When it comes to shape, though, the important criterion is still how well the bug casts.
* One exception to this that comes to mind is when bass are pushing, and feeding on, schools of baitfish against a shallow shore.

9. Appendages
Keep them sparse and soft, both for good castability and quivery motion on the water.
Most commercial bugs are severely over-dressed.
How about eyes and ears? Sorry, they serve no function except to attract the fisherman. Bass can’t see the top of a bug from beneath it.
*I'll have a minor disagreement with this, so long as the eyes are mounted low on the side of the head.

10. Color
OK, here we go, the ol' color game.
Everyone has their pet colors, and the belief that only this color, or that one, will work.
But lets look at this as the bass does.
Frogs, for example, are greenish-brownish.
Baitfish are silvery-whitish.
Moths are greyish.
Mice are brownish-grayish. All of these colors make good bass bugs.

Meanwhile, so do purple and chartreuse and pink and blue.... colors that resemble nothing in Nature.

Why is that?
This alone should tell you that color is more personal, than critical.
But the reason is really kind of simple, and it is this...

From from a bass’s viewpoint, surface bugs are seen while coming up from below. Bass don't live in the surface film – they come up to it.
So what they see when they approach is a blurry silhouette.
Their eyesight isn't great in this realm, as it is designed to focus somewhere well ahead of them, and while BELOW the surface... and even then, its not oriented to microscopic examination.

So, a spot of red on the bug’s “throat” might suggest flared gills and trigger a bass’s predatory impulse... or probably won't.

A pale underside mostly resembles the bottom of most bass prey, generally.
That's probably the one meaningful constant in this whole color game we play.
Otherwise, since it doesn’t matter to the fish, the best bass-bug color is whatever YOU like, and what can be seen on the water.
I like yellow and white.

11. Durability
Bass are generally toothless creatures, in the sense we mean when speaking of, “teeth.”
A good bug, therefore, should be able to survive multiple chomps from the fish. This could be as few as three, or more than a dozen.
I'm happy with three – more is icing on the cake.
I tie my own, after all, and I can make a lot of them.

Other guys insist the bug must withstand the bite-down of a hundred fish, and then go to the grave with them.

Either way, its not just the material the bug is made of, but also how well-made it is.
The cork, foam or balsa bodies of poorly-made bugs can come loose and slide up and down the hook shank or even break off.
Badly-spun deerhair bodies will fray, twist, become waterlogged, and fall out.
If you make your bugs yourself, you can attend to the details that make the difference.
If you buy them, you can’t be sure.

12. Weedless
Bass, especially largemouths, often lurk in and among lily pads, reeds and plenty of other aquatic vegetation.
A bug that slithers around, through, and over weeds and half-submerged tree branches and snags allows you to cast to the places where the big ones might be. This means a weedguard is a serious consideration.
Weed guards are generally made from monofilament or wire.
Bugs tied on keel hooks theoretically ride hook-point up, with the fly's material usually covering the point.
That sounds good in theory, I know. But I’ve never seen a completely weed-proof bass bug, no matter what you may hear. The annoying rule of thumb seems to be:

The better they prevent snagging on weeds, the worse they hook bass.

The expression goes,...“Weed guards are often fish guards.”

I usually avoid weed guards entirely, and take my chances unless casting among dense weeds is my only choice. Then, I use bugs that have monofilament loops tied along the bend of the hook and just behind the eye.
The monofilament is just strong enough to push the fly away from the snag; the loop isn't there to push the weeds away from the fly.
This design style is mostly weed free, and hooks bass pretty well.
It’s the best compromise I’ve found so far.

13. Materials
Spun deer hair, closed-cell foam, or hard stuff (cork, balsa, plastic) - each has its advantages.
I prefer deer hair. It makes delicious ploops and burbles.
I imagine it feels like something alive in the mouth of a bass, it floats low in the water, and, when well made, it endures a day’s worth of chewing and chomping.
I happen to enjoy spinning and trimming deer hair, which is not an inconsiderable factor.
Closed-cell foam is hands-down the easiest material to work with, and tough as nails. I can make a dozen fine foam bass bugs in the time it takes me to make one good deer-hair bug.
If you like cabinet making—carving, sanding, gluing and painting—rather than fly tying, by all means make your bugs from cork or balsa.

Each material has its small advantages and disadvantages, but all are minor compared to what the angler does with his bug—casting it close to shadowy shoreline targets on a soft summer’s evening, imparting enticing sounds and movements to it, and strip-striking hard when the water implodes and a big bass sucks it in.

* * *

Check out these great e-books by William G. Tapply (available on all formats including iPad, Kindle, Mobi, etc.):

• Sportsman’s Legacy: A Rich Memoir of a Man’s Life with His Great Sportsman Father, His Beloved Family, and His Adored Brittany,

• Bitch Creek: A Novel, and

• Death at Charity’s Point (The Brady Coyne Mysteries Book 1).