{"id":6460,"date":"2020-04-07T02:59:52","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T06:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/?p=6460"},"modified":"2020-12-09T21:22:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T01:22:08","slug":"bass-top","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/bass-top\/","title":{"rendered":"Bass on Top"},"content":{"rendered":"

In general, you\u2019ll catch most of your striped bass throughout the year\u2014and most of your larger fish\u2014using streamers fished subsurface. However, taking bass on topwater flies is arguably the most exciting way to catch them. Nothing compares to the explosion of water that accompanies a surface strike. It\u2019s the saltwater equivalent of dry-fly fishing\u2014but with the volume cranked.<\/span><\/p>\n

Visual excitement aside, there are other good reasons why you should add surface flies\u2014popping bugs, sliders, and hair-heads\u2014to your bag of tricks. First, nothing gets a striper\u2019s attention like a wounded baitfish, and there\u2019s no better way to transmit distress signals than with a popping bug. While a streamer must pass through the fish\u2019s field of vision to trigger a strike, poppers can summon fish from a distance. A striped bass\u2019s lateral line is ever alert to low-frequency waves such as those generated by baitfish in trouble; it gives the fish a sensory \u201cradar\u201d that extends out to around 50 feet. Therefore, the surface commotion generated by a popper or hair-head attracts fish that you may have missed with a more subtle subsurface offering. In short, when fishing for striped bass, don\u2019t hesitate to ring the dinner bell!<\/span><\/p>\n

Topwater Fly Designs<\/span><\/h1>\n

Surface striper flies fall into two broad categories: popping bugs\/sliders and hair-headed streamers. Popping bugs and sliders typically are made of one of three types of material: cork, balsa wood, or most commonly foam (such as the closed-cell foam from which lobster-pot buoys are made). Most striped-bass poppers range from about 1\/2 inch to 5\/8 inch in diameter, and from 1 inch to an 1 1\/2 inches in length, minus the tail. Poppers much larger than this become difficult to cast.<\/span><\/p>\n

The tails of most popping bugs are made of either bucktail, saddle hackles, or a combination of hackles and marabou. Saddle hackles allow for a longer tail, but the commotion produced by a popping bug creates the illusion<\/i> of a prey item much larger than the popper\u2019s actual size.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bodies of sliders tend to be slimmer than those of popping bugs, and the face is often cut to a V. Sliders are meant to move across the surface quietly, creating a wake that the bass still feels. Sliders are particularly good in calm water and, unlike poppers, they can be deadly after dark\u2014especially when bass are picking off small baitfish on the surface. Despite the slider\u2019s subtlety, bass will hit them just as hard as they\u2019ll hit a popping bug. Under the right circumstances, fishing a slider can be like pulling your fly through a minefield.<\/span><\/p>\n

When fishing shallow over structure like rocks, seaweed, or grass, there\u2019s a chance you could hang up on something other than a fish, and you\u2019ll do well to use a fly that has some buoyancy. Streamers with heads made of spun or flared deer body hair work well in such situations. The late Bill Catherwood\u2019s Giant Killer series of flies are the prototypical hair-heads, dressed in a colorful melange of saddle hackle, marabou, and clipped deer body hair that striped bass find irresistible. A full-size Giant Killer runs seven to nine inches long, and the construction technique doesn\u2019t lend itself well to a fly half that size. So if you\u2019re looking to throw the sardine rather than the full kipper, you\u2019ll do well to go with a more basic pattern. One of my favorite hair-heads is Lou Tabory\u2019s Snake Fly. It sports a wing of of ostrich herl flanked with marabou that has a lot of inherent action in the water. It\u2019s a deadly-effective pattern that\u2019s relatively easy to tie and lends itself to a size-2 to 1\/0 hook.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Outfit<\/span><\/h1>\n

For striped bass, consider the size of the flies you\u2019ll be casting before you consider the size of the fish you might encounter. Although I feel an 8-weight outfit is adequate to handle any striper I\u2019m likely to hook, I often fish a 10-weight rod, simply because it makes casting the largest poppers and hair-heads much easier.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read about anglers fishing popping bugs with intermediate lines, but I feel a full floating line gives a bug its best action. If you find casting popping bugs a challenge with a standard weight-forward taper (that is, a head in the vicinity of 40 feet), one of the shorter, more compact tapers being produced by such manufacturers as Airflo or Royal Wulff might help you better turn it over.<\/span><\/p>\n

Striped bass aren\u2019t particularly leader shy, so it\u2019s unnecessary to use a long tapered leader with a popping bug. Six feet of level 15- or 20-pound test monofilament is ideal. Should you wish to build a tapered leader, keep it simple. A three-piece leader no longer than nine feet that tapers to 15- or 20-pound test is sufficient. If there\u2019s a chance you might hook into a bluefish, consider adding eight or so inches of 60-pound mono or wire to the tippet as a bite guard.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where and When<\/span><\/h1>\n

Popping bugs can be effective wherever bass are found\u2014in tidal rivers, off beaches, in bays, near jetties\u2014but they\u2019re not for all occasions, and I limit their use to specific situations. During the day, I generally won\u2019t use a popper in water less than six feet deep. Shallow-water stripers tend to be spooky, so your chances of catching these fish are better with a streamer. Exceptions to this occur in the spring and fall, when you\u2019re likely to encounter schools of bass smashing bait tight to the shore. During this wild surface feeding a popper can be deadly, as its prominent silhouette and the commotion it causes enable fish to key in on it immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n

Poppers are also good for attracting fish from deep water. Over holes and drop-offs, where a streamer might go unnoticed, a noisy bug is sometimes just the thing to make the fish come up and take a look.<\/span><\/p>\n

Popping bugs are also good searching patterns. If you draw a strike with a popper but your next dozen cast casts go unnoticed, switch to a streamer. Conversely, I\u2019ll tie on a popper as a change-of-pace fly when streamers aren\u2019t producing.<\/span><\/p>\n

The most productive times to fish popping bugs, in my experience, are in the early morning and the late afternoon until nightfall. Although stripers will feed readily on the surface after the sun has set, for reasons I don\u2019t understand, poppers just don\u2019t seem to produce after dark. For proper night fishing I\u2019ll tie on a slider.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t hesitate to drop a popping bug into any likely bass-holding area\u2014the mouth of an inlet or tidal pool (particularly on a falling tide), or in the middle of a rip. In rivers, I\u2019ve had my best success by casting directly across the current. In particular, work the edges and eddies.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the setting doesn\u2019t lend itself to a popping bug but you\u2019d still like to play the topwater game, don\u2019t hesitate to tie on a hair-head. One of my most memorable hookups came a number of years ago when I was fishing with my old friend, Captain Dave Tracy, who used to guide around Boston and Plymouth. It was a July 4th weekend. We had had some good fishing in the morning, and it was now coming on noon. We had bright sunshine, not a cloud in the sky, and the temperature was approaching 90 degrees. Dave had us drifting along a rocky shore in Plymouth that used to produce well on a coming tide. We were within yards of a crowded sunbathing beach, with fairly heavy boat traffic behind us. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dave was used to having to produce for clients, so he fished a Clouser Half-and-Half on a sinking line a large percentage of the time. He wanted me to fish one now. I could tell I was annoying him. I was standing on the bow, throwing a full-size Catherwood Herring (one I had dressed\u2014not an original) 90 feet toward shore, then skating it back across the surface in foot-long strips over a field of submerged boulders. (I may have been trying to impress a girl who was with us\u2014I can\u2019t quite remember.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou really have confidence in that big fly\u2026?\u201d Dave asked.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was about to tell him that I had more confidence in the fly than in the location, when a bass appeared from the bottom\u2014if it wasn\u2019t 40 inches, it was close\u2014and slammed the Herring. I was tight to the fish, but instead of running to deeper water it headed toward shore, into the rocks. Seven seconds later, it was all over.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think Dave and I both learned something that day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cast, Retrieve, and Hookset<\/span><\/h1>\n

Some fly anglers believe you must form fairly open loops to cast popping bugs. This applies more to casting weighted flies, which take on their own momentum. (Bringing a weighted fly through a quick change of direction, as you do when you form tight loops, jars the cast.) Popping bugs are more wind-resistant than they are heavy, so forming a tight loop will carry the bug farther, more efficiently, than will an open loop.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I first began pursuing striped bass with a fly rod, my only previous experience with popping bugs had been fishing them for largemouth bass. In fresh water, a popper can suggest anything from a large insect to a small bird or rodent. In the ocean, however, a popper imitates baitfish, period. The pop-and-wait retrieve so effective in fresh water is useless in the salt. To get a striped bass to smash a popping bug, you\u2019ve got to keep the popper moving.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Start slowly at first, using short strips to move the bug three or four inches at a time, kicking up water every now and then. If that doesn\u2019t draw any strikes, intersperse the retrieve with a few longer strips to suggest the erratic behavior of baitfish in trouble. Convey panic by stripping quickly, skittering the bug across the surface. At times a choppy two-handed retrieve is effective. No matter which retrieve you use, the important thing is to keep the bug moving.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether hitting out of curiosity, or attempting to stun prey with a slap of the tail, a striper doesn\u2019t always take a surface fly into its mouth immediately. Raising the rod on such hits will not only result in a miss; it will pull the fly out of harm\u2019s way. Instead of trying to set with the rod tip, keep the rod tip close to the water and pointed at your bug during the retrieve. Pay attention\u2014the interest a striper shows in a popper is often subtle. If you see a swirl behind your bug, or if the bug\u2019s wake seems unusually large\u2014get ready. Chances are a fish is inspecting your fly.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you rouse a fish but draw no strike, cast back and work the same area again; a striper that\u2019s shown interest seldom passes up a second chance. If the fish strikes, keep your rod down and continue to strip line. That way, if the fish doesn\u2019t take, the bug will still be in position for the fish to take another swipe. I\u2019ve seen bass slap at a bug as many as four times before they finally took it. Only when you feel the weight of the fish should you strike. One sharp strip is often enough to set the hook.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Floating Sand Eel slider has produced well for me when bass have been slashing at naturals on the surface. I\u2019ve also done well with it when there was no surface activity, usually in calm waters in the evening or at night. With sliders, and particularly after dark, I\u2019ve found a continuous retrieve is most productive. Retrieve the fly hand-over-hand and brace yourself for an explosion\u2014it takes nerve to fish a slider well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Retrieve hair-heads with single strips of six to 12 inches, or use a continuous retrieve. In heavy current or rips I like to let them swing as you would swing a streamer on a trout river, adding an occasional strip for interest. Although hair-headed flies do absorb water and may eventually sink, they\u2019ll ride close enough to the surface that they\u2019ll remain snag-free, and you\u2019ll still see every take. (To watch a short instructional video on topwater fishing for striped bass, visit my website, the address to which is listed in the byline.)<\/span><\/p>\n

If catching striped bass on the surface turns out to be your cup of tea, you might consider taking the flies, gear, and techniques to other fisheries. Jack Crevalle love a popping bug, and Puerto Rican tarpon will absolutely crush a Catherwood Giant Killer. Lou Tabory\u2019s Snake Fly is my favorite fly for false albacore, particularly around Harkers Island. Watching a 20-pound tuna launch itself out of the water to clobber your fly may just be enough to get you to put your sinking lines away for good.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bio: George Roberts produced the first video fly casting program devoted exclusively to salt water: Saltwater Fly Casting: 10 Steps to Distance and Power.<\/i> He\u2019s also the author of Master the Cast: Fly Casting in Seven Lessons<\/i> (McGraw-Hill, 2002). For more information on fly casting and fly angling you can visit George\u2019s website: masterthecast.com<\/span><\/p>\n

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In general, you\u2019ll catch most of your striped bass throughout the year\u2014and most of your larger fish\u2014using streamers fished subsurface. However, taking bass on topwater flies is arguably the most…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,3049,252,29],"tags":[83,79,88,206,84,85,3295,3296,3297,30],"yst_prominent_words":[3285,3288,316,3283,3287,3290,3284,318,3289,3281,314,1481,3286,3292,3282,3280,3279,313,896,325],"class_list":{"0":"post-6460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fly-fishing-tips","8":"category-saltwater-fly-fishing","9":"category-saltwater-species","10":"category-tail-fly-fishing-magazine","11":"tag-fly-fishing-for-striped-bass","12":"tag-fly-fishing-in-saltwater","13":"tag-fly-tying-for-saltwater-species","14":"tag-george-roberts","15":"tag-striped-bass","16":"tag-striped-bass-on-the-fly","17":"tag-stripers","18":"tag-stripers-on-top","19":"tag-stripers-on-topwater-flies","20":"tag-tail-fly-fishing-magazine"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/stripers-on-topwater-bugs-tail-fly-fishiing-magazine.jpg?fit=1224%2C693&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6460"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}