It is way too hot out here,I'm gonna need a couple cold beverages for this one.

Hey I'm Ben I'm a huge fly fisherman,welcome back to another episode of Huge Fly Fishermen.
Today,we're gonna be talking about bass fishing,so strap on your Jimmy Houston wig maybe slide.Have a build dance hat on there.
Let's do this!!!

This is gonna be a 2 part series here.In episode 1 we're gonna talk about bass in general,equipment and flies.In the second episode,we're gonna talk about where to find bass,and how to catch them.You do want to catch them, right?So let's learn about some bass.

Bass are a great sport fish,and they're well known for it.They're a blue collar every man fish,they jump which is fun,and they also eat food off the surface of the water.Which is more funner?They're readily accessible!

Bass live all over the place,and there are probably some near you.Bass are a great fly pole fish.Now,one thing I do want to mention is that after you watch
my video.You should hop on over to Alvin dito's YouTube channel,and watch his whole series about fly fishing for bass.There's probably gonna be some
overlap between our videos,but you should watch both.Because I'm sure we do things differently.Remember there are no rules in fly fishing,also Alvin's a bass fly fishing guide.I'm just some dude that fish is form sometimes.
Alright let's jump in!!!

Large mouth and small mouth fast are called black fast.I'll mostly be talking about large Mouth.Fast in this video,but it all applies to small mouth fast as well.And there are other black fasts too,like spotted bass Guadalupe bass.

Shoal bass and some others.Fishing forums all pretty much the same.
Did you know that bass are centrarkids?Of course not,because you don't even know what a centrarkid is.It's a sunfish,yes bass are actually sunfish
don't tell that to the guys that wear jerseys to.Fish and drive glitter boats around.It might hurt their egos,so how can you tell large mouth fast and small mouth fast apart.

Most people will tell you to look at the jaw and see how far.Past the eye it extends,but there seems to be a lot of confusion with this method so let's look at the coloration.Large mouth fast will usually have a prominent horizontal stripe down the middle of their body small mouth fast will have vertical stripes.
You can call it the striations.If you want to sound cool of course.There's a lot of variation,but I think looking at the stripes is the best way to tell them apart quickly.That's what works for me anyway.

Maybe you've seen people holding bass up by their lips.This is okay for small fish,but don't do it with the bass.That's bigger than a few pounds,because it can hurt them.You can grab them by the lip,but don't lift them up without supporting their body with your other hand.If you only have one hand,
leave the fish in the water and ask a friend for help.

Pro tip,if you want any bass fishing street credit off.You're gonna have to lip a few fish,to get what we call bass thumb.That's when it looks like somebody took some 20 grit sandpaper to your thumb.

A gnarly bass thumb is a sign of a good angler.It's like having a rod vault on top of your truck.Everybody's gonna know you're awesome.so it's okay to lit fast.

Just be careful while you're doing it,and if I see you lipping a trout.You are officially banned from fly fishing,and Hammer whoo.I am sweating,this mountain boy is not built for this heat.

Alright those are a few facts about fast,now let's talk about the equipment you're gonna use.The gear the tackle,let's start with rods.

I fish an 8 weight rod for bass,not so much because the fish are big.But
because some of the flies we throw are big and bulky.We need a little extra ump.To throw some of these bass flies,and a 5 weight is not gonna be the best tool for the job.I like a bass fishing rod is 8 or 9ft long,don't go longer than 9ft or your arm will regret it.Lately I've been using in Orvis Helios 3
normally I prefer in H 9.But mine's in the shop right now getting new bearings.

Okay!How about lines.The general purpose floating line is fine.
That something with a fat front taper is even better.That gives it a little extra
punch to help turn over those big flies.You can use sinking or sink tip lines and fish deep for bass.But when it's that time of year.When the bass are real deep.I'm probably fishing for something else.Bass are a spring and summer fish for me.I like to get them shallow.If I can't catch a bass on top.I don't even want to catch you on a fly rod at all.You want to know a dirty secret.I'm pretty deadly with soft plastics fishing for bass.

All right what about leaders.First watch this video right here.Your bass leader is gonna be 7 to 12 feet long with a 10 to 20 pound tippet.Best aren't leaders shy.So you don't need to go wider.If you're fishing thick cover and you want to use a thicker tippet.So you can pull those fish out of there.Just remember that you want your leader to be the weak point.Not your fly line,your fly line probably has a breaking strength of about 30 pounds or so.Just keep that in mind.

All right what about bass flies.What kind of bugs are you gonna throw
like I said for me it's all about top water.So mostly I'm gonna talk about that.
I made a video about how to tie my favorite bass fly.It's right here,so I like froggy type stuff.But a bass will eat anything.You can use a fly that looks like a snake a duck,a dragonfly a rat.There's no end to it,just make it look alive.You might want to fly that,chugs and moves a lot of water.Or maybe one that's a little sneakier,like a sneaky peek.If you're a heathen,and you fish subsurface flies for bass.You're probably gonna catch more fish than I do.Bait fish imitations are great.Clouds or minnows EP flies.Some of your trout streamers are probably just fine.Crayfish imitations are great too.Actually I'm in Louisiana right now.So I have to call them crawfish.It's the law there are.
Also flies that are basically,like the fly fishing equivalent.of the venerable plastic worm.I haven't fished with these flies much,but I'm sure they work.