Cat's Whiskers

For some reason, many people think that in order to successfully fish for bass, large flies are necessary. This is not always true. Although bass are voracious eaters and often will attack other fish that are not much smaller than themselves, they also eat aquatic insects as well. It is true however that flies that have some color or flash in them can be more successful than other flies.

Cat's Whiskers & Skinny Dippers - The first part of the article.The River - Find out about the river we fished and how to get there. The Fish - Smallmouth Bass can be fiesty and scrappy fish to fight. The Flies - The flies I had success with, and how to tie and fish them.

Several years ago, Ian James, one of Canada's premiere fly tyers and anglers, introduced me to the Cat's Whisker. This fly has been a tremendous bass catcher for me. I have had a great deal of success fishing it in both rivers and lakes. It can be fished by allowing it to simply drift with the current, or, by casting it out and then stripping in line rapidly. Often, it is the swift movement that you impart to the fly that will entice a bass to hit it. On one occassion, I had been drifting a cat's whiskers on the river near a set of rapids. Because of the current creating whirlpool effects, the fly was actually drifting around in circles, close to the shore. When the fly was only about 3 feet from the river edge, I lifted my rod in order to make another cast, and at that point, a smallmouth bass hit the fly with a fury! I wasn't not expecting this and ended up pulling the fly out of the fish's mouth while the fish was in mid-air!

Here is the pattern and larger image of the Cat's Whiskers.

Another fly that I had a great deal of success with was the all round producing Muddler Minnow. Again, this fly seemed to work best while doing some fast and hard line stripping. A few fish in the pound and a half range were fooled by this fly and put up a great fight.

You may find the pattern and image of the Muddler Minnow here.

Perhaps because of the blue bead and Krystal Flash used, another great fly was Monte Smith's Midnight Blue. Monte submitted this fly in our first Fly Swap, and noted that he has had success with it throughout the Northwest U.S. on both stillwater trout and smallmouth. I found this fly excelled in the swifter waters below a large set of falls I was fishing. I had several smallmouth succumb to the temptation of the Midnight Blue. Take a look at the Midnight Blue pattern and image and try it for yourself!

Another fly that deserves a special mention is an un-named fly tied by my son, Alex Scott, 12 years. It was one of his first flies that he ever attempted, and was not based on any particular pattern. After a couple of fish, the thread began to unravel, but we still had fun with it! You can find an image of it here.

What are your favorite flies for bass? Post your fly fishing patterns here at the message board.

Return To:

Cat's Whiskers & Skinny Dippers
The Fish Of Burnt River
The Flies That Worked!

RELATED LINKS

County Of Victoria
The official website for the County of Victoria, Ontario, where a large part of the Burnt River flows.

Drag River-Burnt River Canoe Route
From Canadian Canoe Routes, a description including information on portages and distances.

New Magazine Hits The 'Net
My review of the Western Flyfisher.

Second Fly Swap
Looking for some new fly patterns? Take a look at the latest swap's flies! Some nice nymphs, streamers, and more.

Custom Rod Component Selection (Part II)
Snakes VS. SiC guides. Which ones are for you?

Custom Rod Component Selection (Part 1)
Some things you should think about before choosing the grip and reel seat for your custom rod.

Previous Features

From The Bench: The Muncher is a favorite of Ian James for carp, smallies, more.    Tie This!

The Doc's Rx: Thoughts of a Chicken Rancher. Doc tells it like it is.    The Doc's Rx