Wednesday, July 20, 2016

BENDBACKS (?)

Whew....its a HOT one out there today!

A coworker and I flyfished a local pond during lunch today.

I had a new (to me) style ("bendback") of fly I had tied up and wanted to try out. I've seen these for years, I just had not ever tied one up. And I didn't like the way some were bent, because they looked like they wouldn't do a good job of hooking the fish. So...maybe what I've tied really aren't "bendbacks"? But they work along the same principles

The first ones I tied on #8 "Special Use" hooks I use for my bass poppers:

I wanted something bigger as well, so I went to Sportsmans Warehouse yesterday during lunch and bought some 2/0 bass worm hooks in two styles....and manufactured by Owner and Gamakatsu. I tied up a couple of these larger ones last night.

The theory behind these is they will ride hook-point-up, and the materials also somewhat (marginally) help protect the hook point from fouling on weeds. Tinsel or other material wrapped around the hookshank gives the illusion of a deeper-bodied baitfish.

Yesterday's 3" deluge of rain had the water level up and stained. Anyway, I already had a Blockhead Popper tied on my line, so I used it as I covered 1/2 the pond. I caught one fish. With just 5 minutes left, I switched to one of the #8 Bendbacks (the white one with purple flash), and re-worked just one short piece of shoreline on my way out. I caught 3 bass, and missed bluegills and a decent Hybrid Sunfish. That is pretty great for this particular pond! The bass were all small.... less than 12".

I'm calling the trial a big success! I'm gonna have to tie up some more...

4 comments:

  1. Congrats, Dave. Like you, I have seen them around. Just never bothered with them. Always fun to get some time to explore fly tying patterns.

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    1. I guess we just keep trying stuff that interests us. I've tried some patterns that look great and I think the fish will love 'em...and then I never catch anything on those. These bendbacks...well, I finally found myself in a situation where that style seemed like a good idea to try. I'm glad I tried it. More field research is warranted. ;o)

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  2. When I first started using poppers for bass, they were THE BOMB! I was suddenly catching more and bigger bass than I had been when I was just catching bass as "by-catch" to flyfishing for bluegills and crappies. Then I switched to blockhead poppers....a bit bigger in size, and much bigger splash & pop...which again resulted in even bigger bass. But I fish the same waters often, and those bass seem to have learned to avoid my poppers. I'm in constant search mode for (new-to-me) bass fly patterns that my local fish haven't seen and will go after. Its isn't that my "old" patterns won't catch fish anymore...they actually catch fish very well when I visit new waters.

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    1. Excellent points, Dave. That is why the fun of fly fishing is never ending!

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