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If bass are not actively feeding they will generally sit deep and either in or close to structure and out of reach of dry flies and you'll find it easier to target them with a seductive wet fly fished deep and slow. When their active its a whole different story and they will be attracted to almost any surface disturbance.  At times like that any larger dry trout type fly will probably work. If your not inclined to carry your trout flies with you when fishing for bass you might like to carry a few Bass bandits instead. These big buggy flies floats well and has a substantial profile and surface presence.

Materials

Process

A	Wind the thread in touching turns to the bend of the hook. Bunch up one or two Galah feathers and tie it in flat as the tail with the natural curve of the feather facing down. Tails on flies Take the thread forward 2/3 of the way along the hook shank and tie in a bunch of deer hair. Stand the deer hair up and separate it “Royal Wulff” style using figure of 8 wraps and a couple of turns around the base of each wing. The finished wings should be about twice as long as the gape of the hook. Working with deer hair

B	Directly behind the wings tie in a piece of closed cell foam that has been cut so that it is twice as long as the overall hook and as wide as the gape of the hook. Loosely tie the closed cell foam in all of the way back along the hook shank and then tie it in tightly just behind the tie in of the tail. Closed cell foam bodies Tie in several strands of peacock herl. It is best to tie in an equal number of herl and to tie half in from the butt end after trimming of the white butt section and the other half by the tip/s. By doing this you avoid a situation, particularly with poorer quality herl, of the finished body showing nice wide flue (Flue = the small individual fibres on the Peacock herl or Ostrich herl) at one end of the body and poor thin flue at the other end of the body.

C	Wind the herls around the thread to form a herl rope. Roping peacock herl Wind the herl rope over the body in touching turns stopping just short of the wings. Tie off the herl off and trim the loose ends. Pull the closed cell foam over the top of the body to form a back and tie it off just behind the wing. You may want to swap over to 6/0 silk at this pint just to make finishing the head easier.

D	Tie in the hackle feather and wind it 2 or 3 times behind the wing and 2 or 3 times in front of the wing and tie the hackle off. Dry fly hackle Build up a neat head whip finish and varnish. You may want to trim all or some of the hackle off flat so that the fly sits flat on the water.

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