I'm off to Extremadura to fish for barbel in May. I have been before and during the quieter times had a lot of fun with black bass on little jigs. This time I would like to fly fish for them, it should be great.

Can anyone recommend any patterns or give me any advice generally?

Conrad

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Dave Whitlock in the US specializes in FF for smallmouth & largemouth.
He has a lot of big clipped deerhair flies as well as some "worm" flies - soft plastics are good lures for them, so I suppose a fly version would make sense.
When I visited my brother in Canada and fished for them in the lakes, I had good success with clousers.

Cheers

Hi Conrad.
A few years back I fished a few of the Spanish lakes for bass and had great fun, even had a barbel and a carp on a #1/0 olive streamer....can't do that in the UK!
My advice is simple...fish big flies.
I found the bigger bass just wouldn't bother with small flies, the small ones would though and then get attacked by the biggies as you pulled them in!
Four inch ollive wooly buggers tied on 1 or 1/0 fine wire hooks but big and bushy were my most effective flies. I used 4/5 of the hugest hen hackles I could find to palmer the body and a good thick wad of marrabou for the tail.
Other colours worked too but the olive one never seemed to get refused.
The bigger the hook gape the better, one bass I landed had a crayfish, much bigger than my hand, still visible down it's throat....they have big ol' mouths.
Something similar with bead chain eyes/metal beads for getting down and a few poppers(foam/hair/cork) and you'll be sorted.
Fish any structure...drop offs, rocks, boats, weeds but best of all sunken trees...find a sunken forest and you're laughing.
I took a float tube with me so could get away from the local's fishing spots which made a huge difference to the sport. Virgin bass in swims edged by vertical cliffs are way easier than those that have seen every rubber lure ever made.
All the best.
Dee

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Just to say I fish a lot for black bass in Spain and for 95% of the time I use poppers. Also 95% of the takes are within 1 metre of the shore.

Only time I use 'flies' is when there has been a lot of rain (like now!) or snow melt as the bass are then very deep but even then some will come up.

I cast the popper as near the bank as possible, (often onto the bank) and
then do one hard strip (you can hear the pop) and wait for around 15 seconds and then strip in slowly.

Takes vary from a 'slam' to a gentle sipping that you can hardly see. Popper seems to sink. Once I even had a bass take before the popper had landed!

Other point is to keep rod pointing at the popper with the line straight. I then strip strike as I lift the rod. Any loose line you are unlikely to get a firm hook hold.

Enjoy!

This sounds like real fun.Where are the venues??
I like the popper idea and you could convert your woolly buggers to a popper ****** putting a popper head in front of the fly held in place with a cocktail stick if needs be or one those rubber line stops.Pop..pop...wallop you know it makes sense.

Best JP

I did have a bash spinning last time I was there and also found that the takes were very close to the shore or cover, the takes were violent as the fish would travel 3 or 4 metres out of some form of cover to ambush the lure. JP or Tippertuk could you send me a link to or even post some pictures of some suitable lures. I am a novice and don't understand how put a popper head in front of a woolly ******.

Conrad

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A recent convert to the art.

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Conrad

To give some idea google up dalberg diver which is a superb suface lure for bass.Pretty sure the Jambo used as a surface lure for sea trout would also do the job.

Google up Fly Only On Line and you will see popper heads there.You thread them onto your leader and then tie on your Woollybugger.You can jam the head in place on the leader with a cocktail stick just a short distance in front of the fly to suit you taste or more importantly the bass taste.

Best JP

Thanks JP, I get it now, so very simple! Fly only online are near me so I might just have a drive over there.

Conrad

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A recent convert to the art.

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As a generalisation,the larger bass in Cyprus do not go for fly poppers, they like big flies . I use rabbit strip lures (black is good) with bead chain eyes and wire weed guards about 5 inches long fished slowly with pauses, bass will often take when a lure is static and takes can be quite soft . But like all fish it pays to try all different methods in each likely place.
BobC

Deer Hair poppers, Dahlberg Divers, extra large Vivas and most deadly of the lot:

Boobies - big ones!

Boobies work particularly well in the winter months when the bass tend to go deep.