Northwest Fishing Reports

does this work? i have caught a few dinks over the years using a leach/wolley bugger pattern but no fish worth writing home about. I was thinking about tying a longer wolley bugger but i am not sure that will do the trick. Any suggestions?

The words "trolling" and "fly" are two words I normally don't associate with bass fishing. I have occasionally caught a small bass while trolling for other species, but it's by far the exception to the rule. I dont think Ive ever heard of anyone trying it on purpose either.

I doubt it will be very effective, but it is fishing, so anything is possible

Sure it works. If you are trolling where there are bass, and they want it, they'll grab it, fly, nymph, worm, anything.

Yes, you can catch bass on a fly while doing normal fly fishing by fly casting. Been there, done that, for years.

Coincidentally, we accidentally caught an 8" small mouth on Wildcat Lake (Kitsap County) on Saturday trolling an orange Mack's Smiley Blade fly (basically a wooly bugger).

it is possible. don't let anyone say it's not. fish will take what they are enticed to take. or, in my case, two weeks ago, give me the middle finger.

We all agree that it can work and we have all occasionally caught bass while trolling - even with flies.

But is trolling, with or without flies, your go-to method to catch bass? Is it more likely to work than the traditional methods or less likely? Sure it can work, but in my experience its far less likely to net you a bass than other, more traditional, methods.

Its your fishing time to spend in any way you please, so dont let me talk you out of trying it. Just dont be too surprised if it isnt spectacularly effective at catching bass.

Fortunately, most any lake that has bass in it around here will also have trout of some kind and they happen to love trolled flies, so you are likely to catch something

Any big top water or popper is very effective for bass. Any streamer on the sink and strip, put one in their hunting zone and bang! I would think you'd be more likely to hit one with a cast and strip than trolling by. It's almost embarrassing but when I fist picked up the bug stick I would troll the little lakes from the tube with a wooly B. I caught more bass than trout, just by going past the lily pads. If you put it by them in a convenient place to eat and they will bite. Flys seem to be even more enticing than the wiggliest rubber offerings. The gear flingers just get to toss a lot more at them, the nature of the beast. A couple guys from the Midwest and South in our fly club fish for bass all the time, normally out fish the gear boys in the 100K speed boats. Fish where they is and give them something yummy to bite. remember, crush your barb.