The weather is warming dramatically which means top water bass bug season in the South is officially open! The topwater bite should be turned on full blast beginning this month. This is my absolute favorite way to fish with a fly rod for bass other warm water species (no offense to my streamer loving buddies out there). I know fly fishing was made for trout…but fishing bass bugs on a fly rod is an absolute blast. Actually the Native Americans did something similar where they skated essentially deer hair bugs across pools in the creeks and rivers to catch bass.
One word of advice. Sunfish like bluegill, redbreast, and longear are usually more aggressive and will peck at your bug very often. Because of this, they are good indicators of whether the topwater bite is working on a particular day. This can also help you determine what color to use. In my experience, if your not getting any sunfish pecking and biting at your bug, you can forget about getting a bass to eat. If the sunfish think it looks good, the bass will think so as well.
Does color matter? (I think so)
I often get asked about color of topwater bugs and when to use a certain color. There are many theories and opinions regarding color…and let me say I’m not trying to debunk any of those. It re
ally depends on the fishery, but I can give my two cents for the Tallapoosa. All of the following info is assuming normal water conditions. If the water is muddy or blown out, there probably won’t be much of a topwater bite. If you’re hard headed like me and want to cast a popper anyway, use any color as long as it’s black.
Winter/Spring
If you get a warm day in the winter/spring I like yellow. I know what your thinking…top water bugs in winter? Every now and then we get a mid 70’s day in winter around here. On those days I’ve been able to get a fish to eat a yellow popper or slider. Not sure if the color was the trick…but yellow has worked.
Side note: If in the Spring you notice bass chasing minnows, or minnows jumping out of the water trying to escape, try swinging a white popper across current using violent strips. It mimics a fleeing minnow really well and I’ve had success with it.
Most of the time I’m fishing streamers when the water is cooler. Basic wooly buggers and clouser minnow type flies.
Summer
I’ll usually fish yellow until we get consistent warm weather. At some point I’ll switch start alternating between chartreuse and yellow depending on what seems to be working better that day.
In the East Alabama area, and probably other areas as well, we have an annual cicada hatch every summer of cicadas that have white bellies. When you start hearing these bugs sing, start using a white popper. It could be totally wrong but during those times white always works well.
If white doesn’t work, go back to chartreuse or yellow until you get a bass or sunfish pecking at it. If those don’t work I usually tie on orange.
Fall
Beginning around September, try darker colors like green, black, and blue. I have no clue why these work but they do in the Fall. Maybe you have a theory?
When you start getting some cool snaps, the bass start feeding heavily to get fat for the Winter. This is one of my favorite times to be on the water as the fish don’t seem as picky. I usually stick with the darker colors still. One of the biggest Alabama Bass caught by a client was at the beginning of October on an electric blue Boogle Bug. He may have eaten anything we threw that day…but I know for a fact he ate a blue one :).
Got any thoughts on color? I’d love to hear them. I always enjoying hearing peoples theories and experiences!
East Alabama Fly Fishing - Reports and Blog 