10 Pound Largemouth Bass On The Fly: Fly Fishing for Bass 

Kieran Hoffman, March 2026

Largemouth bass are the most pursued game fish in the US. This is for very good reason. They are in every state, making them accessible. They can also be very aggressive, which makes them exciting to catch. Lastly, they can be caught in many different ways.  

Most anglers pursue largemouth bass with a conventional baitcaster or spinning rod set up. When the opportunity presents itself, however, you can use a fly rod and have success. That is where this story starts. 

I had the opportunity to fish with a guide friend, Tyler Woolcott. He had told me he was on big fish and that we could likely target them with fly. So the night before the trip, I took the floating line off of my 11 wt setup and put intermediate line on. This would give me the ability to get the fly in front of the fish as they were on the bottom in 7-15 feet of water. My rod was a Douglas Sky G 9 ft 11 wt rod, a 9/11 Abel SDX reel and Airflo Intermediate 11 wt Tarpon line. These fish were big, so it was time to bring out the big gun. I proceeded to put on a 13-foot long leader that went from 60-40-20 lb fluorocarbon. This would work in tandem with the fly line to sink the fly quicker. Finally I tied my fly on, one generally used for big tarpon. It was a medium dumbbell black dragon tail fly with a thick body. It was 5” long – it had to be a big enough meal to entice the bass. 

I made my drive into central Florida and met with Tyler at the ramp. My drive had been filled with dreaming of a 10 lb bass on fly. After about 3 hours of fishing and catching multiple on baitcaster and spinning gear over 6.5 lbs, we found the fish we needed. It was an aggressive and very large fish. After a few casts at the fish and having her refuse the fly, we knew we needed to change the cadence. I popped the fly up over the fish aggressively and she shot up and slammed the fly! Fish on! After a big jump and a big run, she came up to the surface where Tyler was able to net her. The excitement was at an all time high! I could tell this fish would be my personal best, but wasn’t sure by how much. Once we got her on the scale, we got the news we wanted. A 10 lb bass on fly! 10.11 lbs to be exact. A lifelong goal of mine realized, and on a fly rod to boot. 

It took a lot of stars to align in order for this to happen. We needed weather to cooperate, and it was a perfect weather day. We needed the fish to be doing their thing, and they most definitely were! Lastly, we needed the gear to be top-notch in order to give us the best chance possible, and it delivered. The Douglas Sky G is incredibly good at casting which allowed me to make pin point casts right onto this fish. It is very sensitive in the tip in order to help me feel the bite when the fly is so far down. And to finish the job, it has a very strong backbone in order to turn the bass and get it up quickly before she spit the fly or broke me off.  

We love when a plan comes together and the things we dream come to fruition. Couldn’t have done it without a good friend