Small Flies, Big Bass

[ozark trout fisher]

The lake and pond fishing lately has been very good lately, and that's led me to do quite a bit of experimenting to see what kind of weird things I can try and still catch fish...and one thing that I've been finding is that surprisingly big bass will go after tiny flies, as small as #14-16. The pattern I've been using quite a bit is a big streamer (generally a woolly) with a #16 orange scud as a dropper. Sure, the bass take the woolly a decent percentage of the time, but I'm struck by the number of quality fish that are taking the scud. Hare's Ears, Pheasant Tails, and Copper Johns in similar sizes also work. I've had most success with them as a dropper, because often fish chase the streamer, then end up taking the nymph/scud-but they've also been working fished by themselves.

The biggest issue with this technique is trying to weed out all the bluegill and green sunnies that also take those small flies, but sight-casting goes a certain distance towards fixing that problem. Anyone else tried this with any success? I'm planning to hit a tributary of the Meramec tomorrow and would like to see if it works any of the same magic on the smallies there.

[RSBreth]

When I'm killing time fishing for Panfish here on the Finley I use small poppers and smaller nymphs. I usually catch a decent Bass or two on these trips - it happens but I catch more when I'm spefically targeting them.