5/12 Barret on the Fly with Pics

4th year in a row for Barrett. Me and a buddy took a boat to the Pine side before sunrise. Paddled into one the first coves and set the anchor. Didn't know what to expect and from reports, i wasnt expecting them to be chasing all the way to the boat or hitting crazy top water like the past years. We noticed that the shad were balled under our boat and some forced near the shore being crashed on by bass. Made sense to start with a bait fish fly, so I started with the an EP Shad fly I tied and hit boil balls. Casted into the boils, strip a few times, lift and cast right back in the boils, repeat. I did not see any chase my fly all the way to the boat, so there was not need to strip the fly all the way in. Hooked one in the boil and hooked up with my PB presenting the fly near structure. I saw it come out of hiding and commit.
We continued to make our way up the Pine arm hitting up small coves and noticed the bait ball below us being attacked by small crappie schools 5 to 7 inches long. Eventually, either we left the shad territory or they decided to move from us, so they disappeared from under our boat. The game for us on the fly was basically presenting our fly in as many potential bass hideouts as possible. No retrieve back to the boat needed, 2 years ago was the lowest we have seen Barrett. At that time there were no Pine Arm or Hauser Arm, so concentration of bass was super high, they would chase back to the boat, and it was easy to connect which also lead to disease and sores (remember?). This year, following last years increase in rain and gaining the 2 arms combined with death of the weak/or culled, in my opinion they are just spread out and each bass has enough food and territory do what bass do by nature. They seek out a good lay, hide, and they ambush. For us that was the name of the game. Presentation was key and seeking them out where they sat and ambushed was how we would catch them, no more them coming to our presentation like the past.
For every small cove we went in, I would systematically cast into every spot that looked fishy either clockwise or counter clockwise, so i wouldnt miss any places. Cast to some shore/structure, strip in the fly about 4ft to 6ft, if it didnt come out of the spot after a couple then it was a lift then cast 2 ft to the next structure, then the next, then the next, repeat. Eventually, I would put it in a good hiding spot, see a flash or see it hit, strip set and it would be fish on. We did that the whole day seek out and catch. Eventually after the day, we returned our boat and decided to mess around on the shore near the boat ramp. My buddy landed his PB which was about 5 pounds.

A few things to note for us:

1) All fish were caught on a floating line in no more that 3 to 4 ft of water. Most were caught in 2 ft or less just in great hiding spots.
2) Floating line is key, you work your fly over all the vegetation.
3) Woolybugger and the EP shad fly I tied were all we used.
4) We caught big bass, healthy, heavy, guys.
5) It was good to see baby bass.

Total was 16 on the fly. Cheers.

 

Yup that us. Good to see you guys!

 

I bring both a 6wt and 8wt for bass. It's more the fly im casting. So the 6 wt i can put a low fat minnow fly and the 8wt a big EP or dahlberg diver, etc. My PB was on the 6wt, super fun.

 

Thanks troll.

 

I did not use any zonkers.

Actually just woolybugger, shad EP fly, and a low fat minnow in Shad