Fishing for Bass in Back Eddies
The smallmouth bass are starting to feed actively now that the rivers are slowly starting to warm. The large fish seek the deepest water they can find out of the path of strong currents. The back eddies are ideal.
These areas form below the strong riffles on the side of the river away from the fast current. They can range from four to six feet deep and from ten feet to fifty feet in diameter. These areas can be fished very effectively by floating. They can also be fished by wading, if you are very careful as you wade along the bank.
Flies to Use for Back Eddies
The large bass that hold in these back eddies feed on the largest natural minnows they can find. Three of my most effective streamers which match the natural minnows found here are the
These are large streamers and provide the bass a big mouthful which they want at this time of the year.
Fly Line and Leader
For many years I’ve found that I catch most of these bass by using a fast sinking head fly line. The Scientific Angler Sonar Sink 30 Warm line in 200 grains is excellent. It sinks at 4 to 8 inches per second. When coupled with Murray’s Sinking Fluorocarbon 6ft 2X Leader I can swim my streamers right along the stream bottom where the large bass feed. I find that a six inch line hand strip every ten seconds effectively brings strikes. It is very important to pay close attention in order to quickly detect the strike in this deep water. In some cases it may just feel like a bump. Since we have only 1 to 1 1/2 seconds to set the hook before the bass detects it as a phony and ejects, we must set the hook quickly. I like to use a fast, firm three foot line hand strike simultaneously with a strong rod-lifting motion in order to telegraph my strike down to the bass.
If the back eddy is from 30 to 50 feet in diameter I will devote almost an hour to fishing it. When floating the river I anchor the boat even with the upstream edge of the eddy and 30 feet out in the river from it. Here I can effectively fan my casts over the upper part of the eddy in five-foot bites and feel confident that every bass in that area has seen my streamer. From here I pull the anchor and drift downstream to re-anchor every ten feet in order to cover the whole area thoroughly. This is a great amount of fun and it is very effective.