Hi all, Can anyone offer any advice on fly fishing Lake Michigan near Chicago? I want to try out my fly rod to start targeting largemouths, rock bass, perch & panfish. Any recommendations of patterns or techniques for each? Thanks
A 6 wt rod paired with a sinking line will let you target bass and perch; even out on the lakeshore waters. Inside the smaller harbors and in the shallows, a floating line is probably best. But I dont fish that way.
For bass, on the sinking fly line, a goby pattern works. Dont be scared of using a 4" pattern that sinks well and can scoot close to bottom.
There's a great fly line made by Scientific anglers called a "Kelly Galloup streamer express" . Its got a big long sinking section that is nicely transistioned from a floating running line. For perch, a small white minnow streamer.....(think of imitating a crappie minnow) on that same sinking line will get you perch all day long. In deeper bigger waters, letting that line get way down.........think about a slighly bigger minnow streamer...(think of imitating an alewife/smelt. )model your fly after that. In every case, I am a big believer in putting a nice, big holographic eye on all of these types of flies. Hareline dubbin makes some that are maybe a year or two on the market that are unbelievably realistic. WORTH THE PRICE.
Big perch will not want to dink around with crappie minnow sized streamers 'most' of the time. give them something big for their meal. This will also improve your odds for the odd brown, coho, or steelhead that may be around the shoreline where you are stripping your deeply sunk streamer.
Good luck and have fun. Watch your backcast so you don't impale any cute jogger girls.
