I think its probably easy to interpret what some people say or write in bass fishing and then apply it as a rule, even if it is only a generalisation or something that applies to particular circumstances. When this is done of course it is often perceived as an ‘issue’ for anglers to go out and ‘break’. This attempt to ‘break’ the ‘rules’ is often done on the basis of nothing like what the original words might have meant. Unless of course it’s a blatantly obvious statement. Can you show me the RULE BOOK please? Particulalry the chapter on fly choice, lure choice, tide choice, location choice, colour of your underwear choice..........I saw one of these blatantly obvious statements recently – ‘- if bass will take a shallow feed then they will also take a surface lure’. Its simply not true. Sometimes they wont.
The big fly big fish is another one of these debates that will continue to rage, and yes of course we have all done the contrary – and if we are clever anglers we will fish after the circumstances.
I like to use Andy Elliotts flies in certain places here in Wexford at certain times. Most of the flies are in the six to eight inch in length category and I fish with either a #8 or #9. In this type of fishing where I intend purposefully to catch (I hope) a big fish – I very seldom make regular casts. I sit and watch and make maybe five casts in one hour, maybe I choose to move a little………..I take my time and wait for situations to develop.
Have I taken bigger fish on smaller flies? Yes, many times in many places, do I feel more confident fishing slightly bigger flies in the circumstances above? Yes. Why? Under the few circumstances/locations above I have caught bigger fish with bigger flies – simple. But it doesn’t apply to the whole of the Wexford coastline all of the time!
The only rules that need to be broken are the ones you have interpreted as such.
