When I first started fishing for bass on the fly I tied up a handful of patterns that looked most like my favorite bass lures (or, rather, my wife did). The end result was a series of kind of bulky chartreuse woolly buggers that look perfectly fishy to me.
When I was finally able to test them out on a local bass lake, the result was unreal (to me, at least). Not only was I finding and catching some very nice fish, but they loved the flies so much, I managed to hook into a fish, lose it (and my fly), cast back to it, catch it again and get my fly back. It was exactly the kind of experience I needed to get my confidence up when it came to targeting bass on the fly.
These days, my go-to pattern has changed slightly from a
bulky old woolly bugger to a more robust streamer pattern, but there are a few things that have remained constant for me in that time, the depth Iβm fishing at and the colors I choose. These two things make up the bulk of my decision-making time when fishing for bass and, more often than not, lead to some very nice fish.
Depth
This is the big one. Like most fish, bass move up and down in the water column during the season. They do this because, while they like warm water, they have a sweet spot.
They donβt love water that is super hot and, as such, will sneak down into deeper water when it gets too hot (but that doesnβt mean they stop eating). Where youβre looking for bass depends on the time of year youβre fishing for them.
Early in the season, like early spring, bass tend to hold a bit deeper. Youβll have to work a little harder for them at this time of year because they havenβt quite shaken off the winter fuzz yet and are moving a little slower. This is where a full sink line and a nice meaty streamer come in handy. You get your fly down deep enough and youβll be dragging the kind of meal you canβt say no to right across their noses.
In the late spring, they move into the pre-spawn phase and come shallower. This time of year youβll find them hanging out in 10-20 feet of water and usually hitting anything they see. The fishing can be fast and furious at this time of year.
The post-spawn period is often the most fun. Everyoneβs hanging out in the shallower water and everyone is hungry. This time of year bass are spending their time in water ranging from super shallow to 10 or so feet deep. Your favorite streamer and a floating line are almost all you need here (unless theyβre on the deeper end of things, then a sink tip is the way to go).

Of course, once it
gets too hot, bass will take to hiding from the heat. Theyβll go deep (they get as deep as 40 feet where I am), but donβt let that dissuade you from trying. Theyβre still feeding aggressively at this point, theyβre just a bit tougher to find.
If youβre not certain where the fish might be the best advice I can offer is work the transition zones. Things like drop-offs, ledges, and shoals, anywhere at all where it moves from shallow to deep is the best spot to start. Itβll help you get a sense of what depth the fish are holding at and let you know where best to focus your efforts.
One last piece of advice on depth, donβt be afraid to cast shallow. Like so shallow you think youβre more likely to catch a tree than a fish. Some of the biggest bass Iβve ever hooked into have been in water so shallow itβs almost not funny.
Color
Once youβve figured out how deep the fish are holding comes the fun task of picking the right color fly.
When it comes to color selection, there are a few factors that come in to play. The biggest is confidence. Always start with a color you believe in. For me, that color is chartreuse. For you, it could be white, orange, striped, maroon or hot pink. Whatever that color is, fish it first. I say this because that isnβt necessarily going to be the right color for the particular body of water youβre fishing, but any pattern or color that you have confidence in is going to be something that you just fish better. Thereβs just something about the way you fish those colors you love (and patterns) that gives the fly a bit more swagger when you fish it. Fish love that swagger.
My color choices look something like this, although I rarely get past the first one in the list:
- Chartreuse
- White
- Orange
- Purple/Maroon
- Brown

Once youβve given your favorite color a try, up next is to try a pattern that imitates whatβs found in the water youβre fishing. If there are perch, tie on a pattern that has stripes and perch-like features. If there are sunfish present, throw on something with sunfish colors. I know a guy who does really well fishing for bass with a pattern that imitates rainbow trout in a lake that is filled with rainbow trout.
Water clarity and sky conditions should also be taken into consideration. The general rule is bright,
flashy colors in clear water and clear, sunny days β and
darker colors in darker
water and cloudy days. This is because, in clear water (and sunny days), youβre going to be a lot more visible if youβre bright and shiny. Likewise, in murky water (and cloudy days), darker colors help you by creating a strong profile in the water, kind of like a big, imposing (and tasty) shadow. Having said that, if youβre still
struggling to catch fish in murkier water, try something fluorescent to punch through the gloom.
The last thing to consider is how deep youβll be fishing. Color and depth go hand-in-hand. The deeper you go, the fewer colors are visible. Red is particularly affected by this. It starts to fade around 10 feet and by the time you hit 20, itβs basically just an odd bluey-grey. As you can imagine, this doesnβt matter too much if youβre fishing shallow, but on those days when the bass go deep and hunker down, having something that can punch through the gloom can make all the difference in the world.

Sometimes, though, it can pay off to just throw caution to the wind and tie on the funkiest colored thing youβve got in your fly box. That little bit of color that just doesnβt belong in any body of water can be just the thing to trigger a hit.
To pull it all together, the best way to make these things work together is to come up with a strategy, or at least a plan for when you first hit a lake. Pick a depth where you think the fish are going to be, or know theyβre going to be, and pick a color that works for you.
Fish that way for a while and, if that doesnβt work, start to switch it up, slowly going either deeper or shallower and trying different color patterns. Sometimes youβll know right away whether there are any bass around, other times youβll have to just keep trying until you find the fish. Theyβre in there.