Everyone knows a bass or a pickerel has a hard time ignoring a properly presented frog pattern, but panfish? You can make the argument that most adult frogs are too big of a prey item to be eaten by most panfish. However, there are smaller species of frogs whose habitats mix with that of panfish.
Read moreFly Tying Friday - Triangle Bugs For Bass
For a long time, I have touted the Triangle Bugs' effectiveness as a topwater panfish fly. Over the years, I have caught a variety of fish species on this little bug while fishing for panfish. This list included many largemouth bass, including one six-pound fish that sipped that tiny size eight fly from the surface like a trout taking a mayfly. So it was a logical decision to tie these bugs a little larger and target bass with them.
Read moreThe Panfish Devil Bug
I was first introduced to this pattern through a musty old pamphlet entitled How to Catch a Fish with O. C. Tuttle's Devil Bugs. I found the molding 22-page booklet in a box of donated fly tying materials that I was sorting for my local Trout Unlimited chapter. I took the yellowing pages home with me and read them cover to cover. Inside were drawings and descriptions of scores of devil bugs tied to catch everything from bluegills to tarpon.
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