I really do enjoy fishing deer hair bass bugs in the summer for smallmouth bass. Sometimes the bass hit it with a loud water-throwing splash. While other times they gently sip it under and it simply disappears.
At dusk on a calm August evening it is not unusual to catch several dozen nice smallmouth bass. A Tapply Bug or a Murray’s Deer Hair Bass Bug fishing in the tails of the pool is very productive. All you have to do is ease into the shallow pool-tail from the riffle below. Then cast your bug upstream onto the calm water in the lower section of the pool. This area holds large populations of minnows. During the low-light evening hours the bass move in to feed upon them. Often you will see the wake of a bass chasing a minnow in the shallow water and you can cast your bug out in front of him to catch him.
Otherwise you can simply fan your casts upstream and up and across stream to cover all of the water you can reach as you wade slowly upstream. A slow strip-pause-strip line hand retrieve which swims the bug just slightly faster than the current will bring many strikes.
I like to tie my own bugs. I want them to be streamlined so they cast smoothly, to be very durable and to have a deep bite so they will hook every strike solidly.
When I’ve completed teaching the students in my fly tying class how to correctly tie the Tapply Deer Hair Bass Bug I conclude by stating–“there is no reason that bug will not land 100 smallmouths”.
Fishing deer hair surface bass bugs in the tails of the pools is a very exciting game. Keep an eye out for the large bass chasing minnows and go one on one with each one.