Fly Fishing for Sea bass

Known as ‘the wolf of the sea’ in some quarters, saltwater bass can be found off North America’s Atlantic coast and from the coasts of southern Norway to north Africa.

It provides the perfect alternative when summer heatwaves have killed the fly fishing on inland waters but many fly anglers need no such excuse. These maritime predators have few qualms about venturing close to the shore in search of food and the combination of crashing surf and an angry hooked bass can be irresistible.

Feeding voraciously on crab, sand eels, and small fish, it still takes bass around five years to mature, so it’s no wonder that most fly fishers (backed by regulations in some areas) want to see them returned rather than kept for the table. Check what the rules are where you fish.

And be prepared for some detective work just to find them. You’re dealing with the ocean now, not just trout lairs in a stream or pond. You need to check the weather and the internet forums just to make sure that the boys are back in town, so to speak, and then you have to weigh up a long stretch of shoreline.

How to fly fish for sea bass

Scout out your local bass beach at low tide. Look for contours and channels in the sand, patches of rough ground or kelp, or any groins or other structures around which food could gather.

At high tide, if you can get to a high vantage point, note any patches of the sea where the water turns a deeper blue: that indicates a ledge where shallow water quickly gives way to deep water and fish love to patrol ledges.

Once ready to fish, watch what the birds are doing. Gulls swooping over the water could be targeting small-fish shoals that are also drawing bass into the neighborhood.

It’s worth fishing all levels to find what the bass are willing to respond to. Fish a popper pattern that creates a disturbance as you strip it back across the surface. Vary the speed and length of each retrieve; you’re trying to represent a stricken, wounded baitfish that looks like easy pickings.

You can pull back a streamer back just under the surface or let the tide do the work. Cast into the tide’s flow and let it bring your fly back, as the latter sinks deeper into the sea. Once your line straightens, it will yank the fly across the flow and a few little tweaks from you could be all it takes to make a fish attack. No worries about ‘drag’ here…

What are the best flies for sea bass?

If there's only one fly you're going to use: bring EP streamers. Shrimp patterns also work, best to use larger ones. Just like regular bass and pike, a sea bass will easily go after something half its own size. If they're actively feeding in the flats or between rocks you can try a crab pattern.

For the popper patterns you need when you’ve found your baitfish shoal being set upon by bass, drag a Foam Popper across the surface and it looks like an injured fish to the predators below.

The Clouser Minnow is always a good choice, and the Mushmouth is a really flashy pattern that is unmissable in the water. A Dustin’s Destroyer resembles most baitfish you can name.

If you know they're there, and nothing works (this is very rare to be honest), you could try something what many people don't know: small freshwater flies like a Diawl Bach and Hare’s Ear can also be effective.