What’s the preferred top water fly picks for warm water Reds?
Deer hair poppers and sliders like the ones we use for bass work welll, as well as gurgglers such as the “hells bay hopper”…
nothin like seeing a red smack a topwater fly!!! im getting cold chills just thinkin about it… or maybe thats because its still febuary and freezing outside!
Mad Mike
The Charleston Angler
www.thecharlestonangler.com
I’ll take your 40’s, 50’s & 60’s over our teen’s 20’s & 30’s any day of the week this time of year!!! I’ve been played around with a Furry Foam Popping Shrimp type pattern that resembles a Gurggler as well as a heavy hackle Sea Ducer/Crystal Shrimp type pattern that’s been pretty effective when they want to start slurpping stuff off the top. It seems to me that when you can get a fly to land fairly quietly and retreve it so it’s relatively weedless and won’t screw up your presentation, as long as it looks close to a shrimp or bait fish the Reds & Specs will play provided they are not locked and loaded on critters scurring accross the bottom. Thanks for the heads up! Have you found any regional size or color perference?
I guess noone else throws top water flies for red…to bad it’s a real hoot!
A muddler works great as well as any number of poppers. Getting the fly to land without much of a splash and resisting the urge to rip it away before you feel the strike are the secrets. I have seen reds lift my fly out of the water on the end of their nose while trying to eat it. Won’t be long before they’ll be tailing again!
Ok so you don’t want to throw top water to reds in the grass…so what are you going to throw?