Mississippi waters offer plenty of opportunities for anglers who want to catch fish on a fly rod.
John David Santi worked his fly rod in smooth, rhythmic motions and gently laid a fly on the water’s mirror-smooth surface above a bream bed teaming with bull bream.
Cast after cast, he effortlessly and steadily picked off one bream after another. One more perfect cast resulted in another strike and hookup, but something was amiss.
“Ka-whoosh!” The water exploded as a bass crushed the bream that had just smacked his fly. Santi used all the skills he’d learned from a lifetime of fly-fishing to fight the monster bass, which wallowed before diving again, then slashing up through the surface like a hooked alligator.
Fly rods are tools, and Santi’s was made for catching bream, panfish or small trout, not lunker bass.
The enraged bass fought like a bull in a china shop, but Santi finally wore it down and brought it to the boat. The feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment made his day, and he quickly released the 61/2-pound lunker.
While many forms of fishing center on how many fish you can catch, fly-fishing is also about the experience and the ambiance with nature. For many, it’s a chance to experience something few are able to enjoy in the hustle and bustle of the modern world.
Fly-fishing opportunities
While many people think fly-fishing is limited to trout, it is much more than that. Mississippi is chock full of fly-fishing opportunities, both public and private, to catch bass, bream and crappie on fly tackle. Once learned, it’s not a big step to head to trout country and catch rainbows, browns and brookies. Many of the same techniques apply, and you will find trout in the same areas of a cooler stream or river where you’ll find and catch bass.
“There’s a full moon every month during the summer, and the bream bed during that time,” said Santi, a native of the Memphis, Tenn., area and an Ole Miss graduate. “If you’re looking for some fine fly-rod action, then fishing for bream is the best way to get started in Mississippi. Bream and bass are abundant, and there’s plenty of places to fish for them.”
Learning to cast proficiently is a matter of getting a fly rod in hand and practicing. And one of the easiest ways to learn how to cast is by fishing.
“If you’re learning to cast, you can go to your local golf course or public lake,” Santi said. “(Many) golf courses are closed on Mondays, and many allow you to fish in the lakes on the course during that time. Those water hazards usually have a lot of fish that haven’t seen a lot of lures, and the grounds around them are clean, with few trees and brush on the shorelines. That makes it easy to learn to cast. You just need to spend time doing it, and you’ll have fun catching a few fish, too.”
Municipal parks often have well-manicured ponds or lakes available that you can fish from the bank, and if you have access to a canoe, kayak or small boat, you can fly-fish almost anywhere.
Fly fishing for bass
“When you’re looking to catch bass with a fly rod, you have to look at it in two different perspectives,” Santi said. “You’re either going to fish in lakes or ponds with no current, or in a river, stream or creek that has current. They can be attacked in similar ways, but each have their differences, and you have to account for that when planning your strategy.”
“Creeks like Bear Creek in north Mississippi and the Chunky River near Meridian have good current and offer scenic flows and spectacular fishing for both bass and bream. They both offer good topwater floats as well.”
Current is important; everything is related to the flow, including the way fish position.
“When you’re fishing creeks with moving water, it’s all about the current,” Santi said. “When I work the creeks, I’m going to concentrate on fishing the overhanging limbs and trees in the outside bends as well as the swirling eddies in the creek — no matter where they’re found. Streams that have shallow shoals, like the Chunky River, offer good ambush points for bass both above and below the shoals.”
Santi, a co-owner of Team Renegade Outdoors, a digital marketing and outdoor production company, also concentrates on areas below shoals around which eddies curl. Bass sit in the slack water and attack any baitfish or lures that happen to float past.
If you already fish creeks, streams and shallow rivers, you know where bass position when feeding; just use a fly rod in the same places and tailor your presentations accordingly.
“You can fish for trout in streams and rivers around the country and employ the same techniques that you do for bass right here in Mississippi,” Santi said. “The trout will stage in the same places, and you can find them in those outer bends, around brush and cover as well as in the eddies. Typically, they utilize the same ambush points.”
“If I’m fishing lakes and ponds, I’ll employ the same tactics that I do when bass fishing, but in shallower water. I’ll work the banks and also concentrate on depth changes, as well as weed lines, stumps, logs and laydowns. A lot of the flies we use are weedless, and you can use them in and around the weeds too.”
Fly-rod advantages
“The good thing about a fly rod is that you have the ability to make another cast and get right back into the spot where you want to be without spooking them or reeling it back in and casting again,” Santi said. “You can move the popper around and find the beds pretty quickly and make a quick, silent entry without ever spooking the fish, and it’s easy to cover a lot of water too.”
There’s also a huge advantage when utilizing a popping bug on a fly rod in current.
“Fishing with a fly is a different way to go about it, and you’ll be exposed to a different experience and see things you wouldn’t ordinarily encounter,” said Santi, who spends the summer guiding fly fishermen at Teton Valley Lodge in Driggs, Idaho. “You can actually use a popping bug and cast upstream of your target and let the fly float to where you expect the fish to be, so the lure has time to get into position and look as natural as possible before it goes by the ambush spot.
“If you miss the mark, you can do a roll cast and try it again, or you can mend your line and keep it in the strike zone a little longer as well.”
Where to wade
While boats are involved in most fly-fishing on lakes and rivers, strategic locations can be a boon to wade-fishing in areas where it is allowed.
“When I get to some key ambush points or areas that usually hold bass, I’ll anchor the boat and wade” Santi said. “When you’re fishing shoals areas, you can wade-fish above and below the shoals and cover the area thoroughly. If you just hit the high spots, you’re bound to miss out on some great fishing.”
In addition to shoals, other wade-fishing areas are also productive when there is ample room for casting to the key spots such as the outside bends in streams.
“By getting out of the boat, we’re able to make multiple casts to different locations and cover the whole spectrum,” Santi said. “When you get a chance to work the outer bends, you can work the whole area much faster and key on the prime spots. After you find where they are holding, you’ll be able to work that area and concentrate on fishing rather than hunting for their locations.”
Equipment and lures to get started
Fly-fishing expert John David Santi has some recommendations for fishermen who want to add a fly rod to their arsenals.
“If you’re looking for a fly rod to do-all, to catch bass and bream, I’d recommend a 9-foot, 5-weight rod with floating line with a 4- to 5-foot sink-tip, weighted line,” he said. “I’ll use a tiny, foam popper with a Bream Killer or sinking fly — like a small nymph or bug — behind it when targeting bream.”
Anglers can get into fly-fishing without spending a lot of money on equipment: rods, reels and flies. A basic outfit will save you time and money when getting started and give novices the opportunity to catch fish and see if they enjoy it before buying more-specialized equipment.
