FlyCore Techniques for Sand Bass & Calico Bass
Everyone knows that I really love to fish for saltwater bass. Be it Sand Bass, Calico Bass or Spotted Bay Bass, I love it. They fight so hard and are pretty readily available for us here in SoCal. One unique way to search out these fish is by fishing FlyCore.
The FlyCore technique is not new, but probably pretty new to saltwater anglers. This technique consists of a couple of components such as the Leadcore Line, Leader Line, and of course, the flies.
For Lead Core, my go-to is Sufix 27lb line. This is a 10-color spool that changes colors every 10 yards. When trolling leadcore, a good rule of thumb is that each color you let out will drop your bait down 5 feet of depth. This is pretty standard in both fresh and saltwater. It may not be exact science, but it is a good standard to go by.
For my reel, I like the Okuma Cortez Star Drag in the 10 size. The CZ-10CSa is the full model number. This is a high speed reel with plenty of capacity to get all 10 colors on the reel with backing and leader.
For flies, I like a stout Clouser Minnow when I am fishing in the salt. These particular flies have a weighted head and give you a good darting fall when twitching the line.
The flies certainly do make a difference, but in my box I will generally have the Green/Yellow, Pink/White and a Brown/White type of color combination. For the Sand Bass and Calico Bass, they seem to love that Green/Yellow combination. If you are doing this around sandy bottoms for halibut…crazy good by the way, take a look at the other combinations I mentioned above. The Pink/White and Brown/White combos.
For leader, I generally tie on about a 15-20 foot length of Soft Steel Fluoro-Stretch Fluorocarbon. For fishing the pipe in open water, I’ll go with a 15 or 20 pound leader. If I am headed out for big striper, or even dorado offshore, I’ll bump it up as needed.
Here is a quick video from my day down in Dana Point fishing the pipe, twitching flies with the FlyCore set up. The bass were hungry this day!
This really is an incredibly effective technique in both freshwater and saltwater. You really should check it out! You can see all of my recommendations for FlyCore fishing HERE.
Thank you for stopping by Davey’s World.
See you on the water!
Davey
