Flies for Tidal Rivers

[JignCraw56]

What flies are you using for flyfishing for largemouth on tidal rivers? I was thinking something like the Messinger frog would work well around grass clumps and lily pads?

[ctb]

I imagine a Joe Bruce Crab Clouser or Bull Minner would work really well.

[bigjim5589]

Most any pattern that you see in the various catalogs will work fine. That Messinger Frog will certainly work! I used a lot of different things over the years, but always seem to go back to old stand by patterns. Flies that work equally well for Bass as they do Stripers.

Deceivers & Clousers for baitfish imitations fished along the edges of structure and some weedless rabbit strip flies or Seaducers for crawling over the vegetation. I also like to use Tarpon fly patterns sometimes, but tied on lighter wire hooks, and sometimes with weed guards. For topwater I like cork or hard foam poppers & sliders, and Gurglers. I tie most of my topwater flies with splayed hackle tails, even the Gurglers.

I've got a bunch of flies tied up, some are just experiments, and some are as I mentioned above, but the bass don't seem to be especially picky anyway. :thumbup: