I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I enjoy bass fishing. Like a lot of other dedicated bass fishermen, I too have my fair share of assorted rods, reels, and lures that I regularly employ on my bass outings.

Many serious bass fishermen use different outfits and lures to address the many different situations and scenarios that they may face on any given outing.

Open-faced spinning outfits work well when “finesse” fishing with lighter and smaller soft plastics such as when fishing a “wacky-worm” or a small tube and jig, but there are times when something a bit heftier is more suitable — enter the casting outfit. Bait-casting rigs, as they are often called, are usually rigged with heavier line and are better at handling certain lures, especially when working weeds or openings in lily pads.

That being said, there is another type of equipment that I also enjoy using from time to time when pursuing both smallmouths and largemouths, and that is a flyrod and surface poppers of some type. This type of fishing, sometimes referred to as bass bugging usually employs a heavier fly rod than used for trout with 7, 8, or 9 weight fly line and a leader heavy enough to engage some hefty bass that may even be in weedy cover. I’m sure I’ve said this before, but one of the greatest thrills of fishing is taking a fish on a surface lure of some type, and that’s especially true when working a surface popper with a flyrod.

Like a lot of other bass fishing lures, there’s generally a pretty good selection of surface type lures made just for the fly rod. Generally speaking, these lures are smaller and lighter than those being cast by heavier spinning and casting outfits. They are often made of cork or some other floating, lightweight material, including deer hair, which is hollow and floats fairly well.

My fishing friend, Doug Zahner, builds his own poppers, and he has racked up some pretty good days on smallmouths on the river. On occasion, I too will pitch poppers in the river or other streams when in pursuit of smallmouths, but I have no problem using the same technique when fishing from my boat on a lake or when standing on the bank of a friend’s pond.

Surface poppers can imitate a number of critters that bass feed on including grasshoppers, large winged insects that have fallen into the water, frogs, mice, lizards, salamanders, and maybe even snakes. Probably the most commonly used surface popper is a frog imitation or a mouse imitation. Colors can vary from white, green, orange, brown, and a variety of other colors and a multitude of patterns. The good old green frog pattern is pretty reliable, but that being said, I have had some great action with a white popper ribbed with black while fishing smallmouths in the river.

Most of us usually think of fishing poppers in quiet water with little or no surface disturbance, and that works well. Still, you might be surprised how well a surface popper can perform even in some current in rivers and streams, especially later in the season when smallmouths have moved into these areas.

I’m not about to give up my spinning and bait casting for bass, but I think it’s time to add the flyrod and poppers to my arsenal, especially now that the water has warmed, and surface activity should be increasing.