When most people hear float n’ fly they think smallmouth and it makes sense. The float n’ fly was developed by Charlie and Eddie Nuckols in Eastern Tennessee. This technique was aimed at targeting suspended smallmouth and spotted bass when the water temps started creeping into the low 40′s. It works because bait fish struggle to stay alive at these temperatures. What a lot of folks don’t know is this technique also works well for big largemouth.

The traditional setup consists of a 1/16 oz fly (jig), weighted bobber, fish dope (scent) and a three way swivel. It’s fairly simple. Tie your line to the three way swivel and connect the weighted bobber to the swivel . Next, determine the depth you want the fly and apply the fish dope (optional – no need to get into the scent vs. no scent argument). Starting off with what you think will be the deepest depth will make your life easier and you will waste less line while out on the water. If you don’t know I would wait.It’s very important to use a weighted bobber with this setup as this is what gives the fly it’s action. In the picture above you can see the lead insert on the bottom of the bobber. Billy Boy Bobbers and Bob’s Bobbers are two popular choices.

The flies are designed to suspend horizontally below the bobber. They can be made of duck feathers, deer hair, mylar tubing, or synthetic hair. Cumberland Pro Lures, Punisher Lures and Spro are a few manufactures I like to use. I’ve had a lot of luck with flies made out of duck feathers. If you enjoy creating your own lures these type of jigs are fairly simple to tie.

Using soft plastics on a small jig head is a unconventional approach that works. If you go this route you do not need a weighted bobber; the soft plastic is heavy enough to provide it’s own action. Pictured above is a Confidence Baits Reaper (far right) and two custom soft plastics poured by Jeff Little.

I recommend using a 8 ft- 12ft medium light rod with a fast action. Most of the major manufactures make a rod designed specifically for this presentation. Light line is also important. I use 10lb Power Pro with 8lb fluorocarbon as the leader material. The braid floats which helps with working the bobber and the fluorocarbon leader helps the fly sink . You need to let the rod do most of the work and be patient when trying to land a fish. You are dealing with very small light wire hooks that can bend easily. Can you find the fly in the picture above?

I suggest targeting main lake ledges as Largemouth tend to suspend in these areas during the winter months. Once you’ve located these type of areas determine the depth and prepare your leader. The trick with a successful cast is waiting until you hear the fly hit the water on your back cast and then load up and make your forward cast. Casting out of a kayak is especially difficult. I recommend facing either side of the kayak in the direction you want to fish and cast side to side. This will help prevent your fly from catching the stern of your kayak.

Once you’ve made your cast slowly twitch the bobber back to the boat. Remember, you are trying to imitate a dying bait fish. If there is a little chop on the water let it move the bobber for you. If the bobber goes down it usually means a fish is on. If it lays on it’s side the fly is either hitting the bottom or a fish has come up from below the fly. Setting the hook is as simple as just pulling the rod up straight over your head. Be gentle; you do not want to rip the fly out of the mouth of the fish.

I hope this article has been helpful. Get out there and give it a try. You may end up catching a lunker like the 7lb largemouth pictured above.

Please practice CPR! See ya on the river!

PAPA’S BAITS 2012 Big Fish Contest!

Mark Hall of PAPA’S BAITS announces Big Fish Contest for Southern River Fishing Forum members!

That’s right you have to be a member of the forum to participate.

Here is the details:

• You must be a member of the Southern River Fishing forum when you catch the fish to be eligible to participate.
• Largest Bass entered wins a Lure Packet worth $50
• All black bass species eligible.
• All fish must be photographed and weighed with the weight showing in the picture.
• All must be taken on artificial lures, no live bait.
• Must be caught on a River or Creek, no ponds or lakes of any kind.
• Bonus prize of $25 if winner catches the fish on a Papa’s Bait with the bait showing in the picture and lure was purchased from Papa’s Baits after Jan. 1, 2012

It was a bit nipply this morning!

LUNCH!

That’s all for today!

Check out yakdevil’s new video:

By Jump N Fish:

Ok, fishing was completely unproductive the first half the day floating past a few hiding places on this tiny little creek.  Casting at the structure as I was coming up on it wasn’t yielding anything, so I decided to get out of the boat and disect the cover.

Working my way back upstream I noticed I could walk up within feet of a hole and with just a little bit of line on the end of my rod, just drop it into pockets and bounce it around.  Lo and behold, I started catching fish, and because the method was so productive, I had to capture it on video once.  This video illustrates perfectly how tiny of a piece of water I’m on and how I worked the same log over and over and then WHAM!!  I almost found this a bit discouraging realizing how little error you might have sometime to pulling a fish out of structure.  Watch and you’ll see exactly what I mean.

Today JIM and I had the pleasure of taking Educateddog (Ben) on his first SRF float.  Let me say that he is a great addition to the board!  If he hadn’t told me that he was new to both bass fishing and kayak fishing, I would’ve thought he’d been at it for years.  HiCountry toyed with the idea of making the trip, but alas, the miles between us proved too many  :D.  Good thing too becuase he would’ve gotten home LATE!  The water was as low as I’ve done on this stretch, and I really didn’t realize it til we got to the takeout and normally knee deep water was now ankle deep.  Made our trip 2 hours longer than I planned, but I’ll attribute that to the fact that we likely boated around 70 fish  8). But who’s counting?

We slept in a bit and hit the water right around 9:00.  This flow was gin clear which I thought may make the fish a bit finicky, especially the big girls.  I was right! I figured that the morning bite was just slow as it has been most of the summer (for me anyway), and I really wanted us to be good and loose by the time things heated up.  Due to the water clarity, we were seeing tons of fish, some of them spotted bass in the 3 lb range, but they were pretty inactive and wouldn’t bite a reaction bait.  Time to switch tactics.  I tied on a shakey head and picked up this little guy on a dirt dawg, a new Netbait soft plastic.  I’m a big fan of it so far.

I knew my approach was correct because this guy smelled like an all you can eat crawfish buffet.  Upon further investigation, he was still chewing his food!

The bite stayed pretty slow until around 1:00.  We would pick up a fish or two here or there, but no real pattern to speak of.  Here is Educateddog stretching his legs.

Obligatory Shoal Shot

Standard scenery on this flow

This is about the average size fish of the day for me.  I must have caught 15-20 this size.  This creek is full of them.  Not big, but they have an attitude!

No shirt, no problem.  Still on the crawfish pattern.

Another cookie cutter spotted bass.  These fish are so healthy.  Today they fought like fall fish with lower water temps.  Lots of stamina in these guys

JIM caught some nice fish today.  He caught 2 spots that were likely 2 1/2+ lbs.

Jim with another nice one:

Shoal in the shadows

I caught this guy in the middle of the afternoon topwater frenzy.  I think I caught a dozen topwater fish on a Kelly-J in the last hour/hour and a half we were out there.  Bite was fantastic from 2:00-6:00.  TONS of fun and gave us great numbers of fish

Perfect afternoon.  40% chance of precip my…

Here is Educateddog (Ben) with his best fish of the day.  And caught on a 12-year old fat kid lure, THE BUZZBAIT!!!! The topwater bait of champions.  Don’t worry Ben, inside joke

We ended up catching fish on anything we wanted to, so the gin clear water wasn’t an issue in the end.  Rapalas, swimbaits, craws, buzzbait, worm; it all got bites when things heated up.  The big bites eluded us as I figured they would, but I planned this float to have a decent shot at catching a lot of fish.  Too many low numbers in July!  I highly encourage you guys to invite either Jim or Ben to join you next time you need a float partner.  It was definitely a blast, and one of the most satisfying trips I’ve been on in a good while.