There are so many bass and panfish in our waters that it almost boggles the mind. Find any standing or moving water close to home and the chances are that there will be something in it-bluegill, crappie, largemouth, smallmouth bass, yellow or white bass, yellow or white perch, or other fish such as redeye, catfish, or carp. And there will probably be northern pike or pickerel in there as well, feasting on the bounty. All these warmwater fish are great fun on a fly rod. But they each take different techniques to catch.

For instance, to catch a fish that has a small mouth you need a small fly. Red, yellow, or black #12 or #14 poppers fished on a 5- or 6-weight rod with a floating line entice bluegill, crappie, and yellow and white bass. Tie an 8-inch dropper with a small streamer or nymph behind the bend of the hook for added action. A float- tube or a small boat or canoe is the way to explore these small panfish and bass ponds and rivers. The fish lurk or prowl around any structure, including weedbeds, downed trees, overhanging brush, rocky points, duck blinds, docks, and submerged rock piles.

When a hatch comes off, the small fish rise to the surface and take the escaping naturals. That's when you can take them on small dry flies that match the hatching insect. But most of the time you'll find the fish by "fishing the water," moving quietly along the shoreline and casting to shore cover, letting the popper sit, then twitching it, letting it sit again, then popping or chugging it to draw a strike. Once you've found the schools of panfish, the action can be nonstop if you have the right size and color fly and work it just the way the fish want it.

If you don't find the panfish feeding on the surface, try a small panfish jig fished by lightly raising and lowering your rod tip to jig the fly in the deeper water along the weedbeds and in the deeper river holes. Lazy spring evenings on a panfish pond with the right popper, nymph, or streamer can be the most exciting fishing you'll ever have.

The larger the fish the larger its bite size, thus the larger the fly it will take as food imitations. Young river smallmouth are great fun on a 5-weight rod and small (#14-#18) dry flies, nymphs, and streamers. Larger smallmouth and largemouth bass eat larger foods-baitfish, frogs, and crayfish. Thus you'll need a larger rod to fish the larger flies (#4 to #3/0 hair frogs and crayfish) that imitate the foods. An 8-weight is the standard bass rod matched with a bass-bug taper line. The stronger rod also allows you to put the brakes on a bass and keep it from diving into the brush or weeds when it takes the fly.

Slip-bobber and Minijig

A slip-bobber and minijig combination allows you to fish a minijig at the proper depth and in a natural horizontal position. The bobber stays against the jig when it is cast. The weight on the jig pulls the fly down to the fish. To make the slip-bobber, cut and sand a piece of balsa wood to shape, insert and glue a section of hollow plastic tube into the balsa wood, and paint the bobber. To fish the slip-bobber and minijig combo, attach your tippet to your leader, slip the bobber onto the tippet, and then tie on the weighted minijig. Use a large knot (a blood knot works) to control the depth of the fly and keep the bobber from slipping too far up the leader.

River smallmouth move in the evenings from deeper water into the shallows in search of food. The largest smallmouth need deeper water for their hiding places. They like to hide under good cover and rush out to grab food items that swim by. Look for the smaller river smallmouth feeding on the surface during hatches and fish to their rises the way you would to trout feeding on emerging insects.

Fish large streamers and poppers (shown left) to shoreline cover, either by wading or from a boat. Fish the fly actively, but in a pause-and-strip action. A sinking-tip line allows you to give more diving and popping action to the fly, which should have a shape that makes it dive, wiggle, or slurp on the surface. For large bass, often no movement is better than a lot of movement. When you are fishing weedy ponds, cast a floating fly into pockets and let it sit. Imagine a great largemouth finning underneath the fly--looking, waiting, held there in suspense by the fly that looks like live suspended food. After what seems an eternity, twitch the fly by holding your rod tip low to the water and stripping line under the forefinger of your rod hand. A tight-line retrieve is essential in all bass fishing.

When the explosion of the bass comes, lean back and raise your rod tip and strip in line with your line hand. If you've sharpened your hook to a razor sharpness, you should sink the hook deep into the hard jaw of the huge fish. Then you must fight the bass immediately by holding the line in your line hand and letting the rod take the rush of the fish. In fishing "holes" you must turn the fish's head before it reaches cover or it will immediately break you off, so you use short leaders (4 to 6 feet) and heavy tippets (8-pound-test or heavier). You don't have time to play the fish off the reel.

When you get the bass under control, guide it out of the hole and into deeper open water. Then play it off the reel.