Brown Drake Blog- Murray’s Fly Shop- Edinburg, Virginia
One late May evening, Mike Hollar and I drifted into a long, flat pool on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River in my canoe. The surface of the river was alive with feeding bass. Mike had done little fly fishing. He looked back at me as I paddled the canoe in the backseat. He asked, “What is going on?”, I did not say a word but extended the canoe paddle out into the river. I scooped up a brown drake mayfly spinner and pushed the paddle forward for Mike to see. I suggested he put on an Irresistible size 10. We caught dozens of smallmouth bass on our drys.
In large slow pools most of the bass feed by cruising just below the surface until they come to a fly. Then they sip it in.
One productive tactic is to watch the feeding path of a bass as he cruises from fly to fly to feed. Then cast your fly out in front of his feeding path and hope he will take it. The problem with this ploy is that the bass may zig when you think he is going to zag. He may not see your fly!
My favorite tactic is to watch closely for a rising bass within casting distance. When he comes up to take a natural, I cast my fly directly to that spot, sort of “hitting him on the head”. This is exceptionally effective and it is a great amount of fun!