I like the hex and the drakes a lot MillCreek.

Mr. Webb threw out a few more patterns that make me want to throw my vise in the dumpster.

Gene - digging the creative ties. They're definitely unique. Have you tested out the Tiger Barred Rabbit strip zonker streamers from last month? The blue and white one looked great.

Like that one a lot. Well done.

Nice.
Try orange rabbit with red maraboo. Nothing beats a TT for swinging.
Make sure you pretie with some 12# Maxima before you hit the water.

Simple poppers for smallies.

Matt

Matt, have you found any of the paint combinations work better than the others? I've tried many, many different poppers for LMB in The Valley ponds but black and black and yellow account for 80% of all the bass I catch on the surface.

I'd say olive and yellow. Last year a yellow body dressed with olive seemed to work pretty great on the Ump. Popper was pretty beaten up. Black and yellow is indeed a good combo, I've had good success with gurglers in that color. Black and chartreuse, also. I felt like experimenting with this batch. I mean, looking at bass gear lures, they don't seem to have any rhyme or reason for color choices. I'll give you feedback on the results when the water goes down. They probably look better to me than the fish. There are some brightly colored frogs/tadpoles (or waterdogs?) on the Umpqua. Have you seen them? Brown backs and an yellowish orange belly. I did some deer hair patterns in those colors last year but never caught one with it.

Matt

Can't say that we've seen any tadpoles on the Ump. But we fished primarily above Tyee and fairly close to Umpqua, maybe the frogs are located somewhere else.

Gene,
Yeah, I suppose they are too big to be a tadpole in metamorphosis. After looking online for pictures resembling what I've been seeing, the only thing that's close is the rough skinned newt. Which would most likely explain why I see them in such abundance, as I believe they are poisonous to predators, so I don't know that a smallmouth could eat them. I see them suspended in the really slow water. Only other thing I can think is a mud puppy/water dog, but I can't find any pictures with those colors.

Thinking back, the frogs I have seen on the Umpqua are pretty small and yellowish in color. I fish pretty close to Umpqua, too. Usually put in at Mack Brown, I believe.

Matt, if you haven't tried a pencil popper on the Ump, you should. I've done really well bringing up the larger bass with pencil poppers in the mornings and evenings.

I haven't. You pop them or twitch/slide them? Other than the poppers above, I usually fish deer hair patterns. Divers, froggy looking patterns. I rarely fish below the surface on the Umpqua. Too much fun on top.

I believe this is what I'm seeing there. Couldn't figure out how to enlarge the image, so I included the link.

http://week.divebums.com/2007/Aug27-2007/rough-skinned-newt_peter-brueggeman.jpg

Looks like a "mud puppy" to me. As you mentioned, they are poisonous so fish won't touch them.

You pop and twitch the pencil poppers. The idea is to give the impression of a fish struggling on the surface.

I didn't realize my wife had fly tying supplies mixed in with her craft projects. Thanks for the glass beads sweetie!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rough-skinned_newt

Does your wife know what you have done... ?

MCM, I'd say that's fair trade for the feather shortage/scare the female fashion world has put us through.

Good looking golden pattern. I don't have a lady to pilfer craft supplies from so I actually bought beads at a craft store a while back for the same segmentation purposes, but haven't used them yet. Nice job with those.