Fish-Hawk.Net

I am new to fly fishing an would like to know what would attract bass this time of year.

when the season does open, you will find success on wooly buggers, zonker minnows, and clouser minnows. Depending on the types of water you are fishing, and the size of the bodies, you may try some heavier or lighter stuff. If you find these things to be hard to cast or too effective, bass poppers are amazingly fun, because of their size, large bass will try and destroy them, so they hook themselves pretty well. You may also try some large hellgrammites or stonefly nymphs, and dragonfly nymphs if you think theyre feeding on them. I suggest you tie up at least a dozen adult dragonflies or damselflies, because bass can be selectively feeding on them. If you see bass or trout leaping clear out of the water, be sure you don't second guess they're picking dragonflies!

I don't think trout takes (or target) adult dragonflies too often. I have never seen an adult dragonfly in a trout's stomach. They can jump after emerging caddies and a lot of other things. Can't say anything about bass though.

I have experienced and heard of several accounts of trout and adult dragonflies. They really attacked my RL Dragon patterns, and am sure they were targeting the masses of dragons on the pond. This is not at all frequent but it does happen so be prepared i should think.

Both dragoflies and damsel nymphs migrate to the shallows then crawl out of the water onto vegetation/wood or rocks and hatch into the adult. Actually the dragonfly nymph bumbles, swims and crawls and the damsel rises to the surface and swims like a minnow in short bursts. If you see swirls its likely they are feeding on nymphs at the surface or dragon nymphs in very shallow water (I've seen LM bass do this on a tiny backwoods pond up on the Madawaska Highlands....they were very troutlike).

It would be rare for the adults to be on the surface unless they were blown back into the water which especially in the case of the dragon would be infrequent because it is such a strong flier. They could be vunerable I suppose when they were laying eggs which is what they are doing when you see them dipping into the water. It is possible that a bass would take one just as would anything else that landed within range......better be quick though.

I had good luck on Bass opener yesterday on a small stream with flies. By far the egg sucking leech was the top producer, but wooly buggers and black zonkers did well too. I noticed a lot of baitfish and crayfish in the stream, and matched my sizes to those, less than 2" long. What a blast catching bass on flies!