Gerbubble Bug

“In my book the all-time greatest bass bug, the one I think is a mile ahead of any other largemouth, is the Gerbubble Bug, invented in the late 1920s by Tom Loving of Baltimore, Maryland. Because it is difficult to make, and because the pattern has seldom appeared in print, this wonderful bug is little used. It’s one I think every bass fisherman should try. The Gerbubble Bug picks up lightly, pops well, sits low in the water, and the fringe-like hackles on the sides and the flirting tail make it a potent bit of medicine for bass.” (By Joe Brooks, this particular quote came from Joe Brooks On Fishing (2004), edited by Don Sedgewick, in the chapter “Landing Bass On The Fly,” adopted from Brooks’s The Complete Book of Fly Fishing, probably adopted from his earlier book – Bass Bug Fishing (1947)).

The sign, by the way, is an original piece by Michigan Guide and artist Matt Zudwig – check out this and other works on his site – www.carvedfish.com

 

Oregon Trout Overtaken By Bass

Once A Trout Fishery, Oregon Lake Has Identity Tied To Bass –
by Chris Santella in the New York Times –

“On a recent dawn, I positioned my pontoon boat opposite an expanse of tule reeds on Davis Lake in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains and began feeding line out of my fly rod. Snow still decorated mountains to the west and north despite the recent summer heat.

What might have been an idyllic alpine trout fishing scene was broken by the loud “glug-glug” of my popping bug among the tules. Davis — for better or worse — is a fly-fishing-only lake for trophy bass.

This was not always the case. For many Oregon anglers, Davis was once cherished as a premier lake fishery, yielding rainbow trout that each year would eclipse 10 pounds. At nearly 3,900 feet, the 3,000-acre lake is relatively shallow and has a steady flow of fresh water from Odell Creek.

These factors combined to make Davis a veritable bug factory, which in turn supported many oversized trout. The large numbers of rainbows that used to call the lake home — wild fish that in recent times propagated without hatchery supplements — could grow to a foot in a year, and fish approaching 20 inches were the norm.” – To read the complete article by Santella follow this link to NY Times -

 

We Are Growing

No longer are we just a Blogger blog – now we are officially www. Bass Bug Journal .com! Until I get the site completed I will continue to use the blogger interface, but you can now access the site directly through BassBugJournal.com -

 

Gerbubble Bug

“In my book the all-time greatest bass bug, the one I think is a mile ahead of any other largemouth, is the Gerbubble Bug, invented in the late 1920s by Tom Loving of Baltimore, Maryland. Because it is difficult to make, and because the pattern has seldom appeared in print, this wonderful bug is little used. It’s one I think every bass fisherman should try. The Gerbubble Bug picks up lightly, pops well, sits low in the water, and the fringe-like hackles on the sides and the flirting tail make it a potent bit of medicine for bass.” (By Joe Brooks, this particular quote came from Joe Brooks On Fishing (2004), edited by Don Sedgewick, in the chapter “Landing Bass On The Fly,” adopted from Brooks’s The Complete Book of Fly Fishing, probably adopted from his earlier book – Bass Bug Fishing (1947)).

The sign, by the way, is an original piece by Michigan Guide and artist Matt Zudwig – check out this and other works on his site – www.carvedfish.com

 

Cork is King -

I’ve been doing a lot of cork poppers here lately and am constantly amazed at the volume of information on the subject contained in Tom Nixon’s work Fly Tying and Fly Fishing for Bass and Panfish (1968, A. S. Barnes) -

“The run of an Atlantic Salmon, the aerial maneuvers of the Tarpon, the flush of a covey of quail, a fine buck sniffing the sharp cold air – all of these are grist for the mill when sportsmen gather. The ferocious, slashing strike of a good Bass taking a popping bug – well, that’s the story reserved for when real outdoorsmen gather around the campfire after a fine day with rod or gun. If you get me to reminiscing about campfires and some of the fine sportsmen I have fished with, we will never get any popping bugs made. I guess the best way to get started is by talking about the tools that will be needed.”

And with that, he begins a seeming graduate degree course in cork body making and finishing -

 

Bass Bug Lines?

So which line to buy – especially in today’s ever increasing market of specialty fly lines (and ever increasing prices of lines) – SA just introduced the new Sharkskin Line and they have the GPX for smaller line weights, the Bass Bug Taper for weights 7-9, Sage has these two new lines to match their Largemouth/Smallmouth rods, Teeny has the Dave Whitlock Bass line, Rio has Clouser and Bass fly lines, Wulff has a Triangle Taper Bass line, Orvis has a Freshwater Bass Gen3 Wonderline, and now I’m getting tired of looking for more products.

So which do you use? I’d like to hear from you and maybe I can get a hold of one of each and cast them for a review/preview – Have a great weekend -

 

Sage Produces "Bass" Rods

I’ve been reading a lot of buzz about this new set of Sage largemouth and smallmouth bass rods and have finally found some info on the Sage website – “After working with a small, tight-lipped group of serious bass anglers, we’ve developed two new rods that can drop a hair frog or an air-light diver with pinpoint accuracy and hardly a ripple on the water. From a fly fishing perspective, we’re talking about effortlessly pushing big, wind-resistant bugs into tight quarters. Available in two models, Smallmouth and Largemouth, both rods measure 7’11″, which slides them just under the strict bass tournament rules for rod length. Additionally, both rods are sold with custom bass taper flylines and a travel case for protection.

When used outside the bass fishing world, we strongly recommend them for probing the mangroves or throwing huge flies for pike and muskies.” You can also view an interview about the rod with Sage designer Jerry Siem on www.hook.tv – You can also see the spec’s at www.sageflyfish.com

 

New Ride

Fish better look out – there’s a new sheriff in town!

 

Clear Reels?

Clearly, I Must Have One – I saw a blurb on LAFlyFish.com about a clear plastic reel – well it piqued my interest and I had to do some further digging. After a little Googling, I found this piece of engineering wonderment – the Loop Evotec CLWC. The CLWC comes in two sizes – basically a 5 wt. and an 8 wt. The company states that it has a “clear composite” frame (except for the foot, it’s aluminum) and a teflon/metal disc drag – made for “tough conditions.” For $130, I just might bite -

 

L. L. Bean Fly Fishing For Bass Handbook – 2d Edition

Well, it finally came about two weeks ago and I have just finished my first dry run through it. What can I say – Dave Whitlock has done a nice job presenting a large portion of info on fly fishing for bass. I was hoping for the be-all, end-all book, so that I don’t have to write it, but alas, it is not in my opinion.

It’s a great book to have, and much better than many of the other volumes on the subject currently available. I just wish he had taken the time to put in a decent bibliography on the subject (not on his personal writings), and done a better service to fly patterns – ever heard of a Clouser Minnow?

I guess I am destined (doomed) to take on this project and do it myself -