starting sea bass fly outfit

[gooner]

i intend to start fly fish for bass in the med. Should i get an 8 or 9 wt? And should i use a 40 foot true to weight line or a 30 foot intergraded shooitng taper line? Flies i will use are between 3-5 inches. I fish the surf but outflows estuarys and creeks too.

 

[original cormorant]

I picked up your frustration about the lack of response on here from the NA forum. It appears that you have caught bass but now want to try flyfishing.
First I suggest you don't need 5 inch flies for bass. The size line you need is determined by the "castability" of the flies and how much wind you expect.

In the UK I use #6 and #9, it depends on the conditions. If choosing one size for bass only it would be #9 to handle rough weather, but #8 would give more options - I know there are mullet in Greece. For bass only I would get a #9 intermediate tip line. For the more flexible #8 it would be a floating line.

The line profile to choose will depend on your casting capabilities. From what I deduced from the NA forum you are new to flyfishing and there are few other flyfishers in greece, so getting casting lessons may be a problem. If this is the case then choose the short headed overweight line and good luck

 

[gooner]

Hello! Yes i fish for bass with spinning gear for about 7 years now and i now its habits very well. The prime year for bass in the med in in the winter in contrast with the uk which is the opposite. In winter the weater temprature is about 15celcius and it is best fro bass to produce. Due to winter here is less bait in the sea and bass are hungry but they have so littl energy so they will chase a fly only if there is big enough to give them the calories they need. In winter i catch bass mostly with 12-15 cm lures. Smaller lures are for summer o spring fishing when the samll bait comes inshore and bass are full of enerhy and chase based on istict. thats why i want to cast 5inch flies.
As for the lines you can catch bass wading but you can catch them for a port or rocks in 15 feet of water and in the winter they are near the bottom so i think the intermediate will not be enough. My heart tends towards the 8wt cause it will be lighter and easier to learn to fly cast and it will be better when fishing small moving water like small estuaries outflaws and creeks. but my mind says the 9 will be better as a allarounder because i am sure i will be against wind when fishing the surf + the sinking lines and the 8wt may be not enough. Thanks for the answer anyway!

 

[Sash]

I have fished the Western basin of the Med (France, Italy, Spain, Tunisia) quite a lot, and found the conditions relatively manageable: windy, but never as much of a swell and big surf as on the Atlantic shores.

So I would be inclined to go lighter: an 8-weight should be fine, even in winter: in summer I have found a #6 fine.

And I have found it easier to cast bigger flies, and into/across the wind, with a shorter head, but one line weight up (i.e. a #9): the object should not be to aerialise a lot of line false casting, but to minimise false casts and shoot line.

I started SWFFing over 25 years ago, and my first rod was a 9-weight, and the line was an intermediate, which I used almost all the time. This combination was designed for stripers on the US East Coast, and fine for the UK, but felt a bit heavy for the Med.

Nowadays, if I was starting out, I would start with an 8-weight, and buy TWO lines: a floater, and a fast sinking head, and could probably manage without the intermediate. With an 8-weight you could probably cast a 300-grain head: Teeny, or Orvis Depth Charge, or certainly a 250-grain. And with a head of that weight and sink rate you could probably avoid using really heavily-weighted Clousers, which can be horrid to cast; I sometime find that an unweighted Deceiver fishes really well on a fast sinking head, even in the surf.

PS: in the UK, I now mainly use a 10-weight. But I fish a lot in heavy swell, and also for pollack, which can take some stopping!

 

[gooner]

Ok that was the feedback i needed. So an 8wt (orvis clearwater) with an 8wt short head float( mastery titan or rio striper both 280 grains in the first 30) and orvis depth charge or sonar titan( both 280 grains) seems fine for starting right? The fast sink will be helpfull for dock fishing when the fly must reach the bottom that most times are over 10 feet. Tidal current is small in the med and the moving water i want to fish (outflaws creeks estuaries) are very shallow 3 feet at most so with a floater i ll be ok. I supose the shorter head is easier for the novice to cast because loads the road better and it is easier to feel it.

 

[Sash]

I REALLY would go with a 9-weight floater: the rod will handle the over-lining just fine, and you should be able to cast and shoot line with many fewer (if any) false casts.

 

[gooner]

well 280 grains is 2 line weight higher alrady > this is not enough? maybe then an outbound short floater that is 330...