The BedRobber Fly

It's a busy day on the lake as I toss the loop of rope across the gunnel.  I pull the 18’ Bass Tracker up to the dock and tie it off.   A couple of other fishermen walk past me, headed down the dock, and give me the look.  Then another passes by, headed up the dock to park his truck.  I get it from him also.  I get the look all the time, sometimes along with finger pointing and an occasional chuckle.  These looks are from bass fishermen, and I’ve come to the conclusion they’re staring at the odd pile of brightly colored, saltwater-sized fly reels attached to absurdly long and flimsy rods stacked on my front deck.  This is bass country….tournament bass country at that. ..and it's springtime.

While most fly guys are up in the north country chasing the annual runoff, springtime is my favorite time to be down in the low country.  Not so much because the bass are making their springtime spawning beds, but because the bass seem to be everywhere.  If you catch it just right, some are on the spawn, some are post-spawn, and others are pre-spawn, but all are aggressive.  Now is the time, on my lake, that you can catch bass in 2 feet of water or 20 feet of water without even moving the boat. Just cast to either side.

That’s where the BedRobber comes in.  To be clear, the BedRobber is not a “bed” fly. The BedRobber is named so because it imitates the size of bluegill or sunfish that are constantly in and around the nests stealing eggs while the bass are in spawn mode.  Bass, male or female, are keyed in on the sunfish herds even well after their bedding chores are done.  The best fish to target are not the ones sitting on beds, but the fish cruising just off the beds in slightly deeper water. These fish are cruising through the spawn areas, hungry, and they are a prime target for patterns that appear to be a lazy egg-robbing sunfish.  I do a lot of sight fishing during this time of year, and when I spot a bass that’s shallow enough to see and moving around a lot, it's game on….

Post-spawn bluegill eater taken on a BedRobber

The BedRobber is a simple tie.  It rides hook down and can be modified to use smaller lead eyes for some weight if needed.  The magnum rabbit zonker strip and marabou add some hydrodynamics that keep the sink rate slower, so it suspends better. I get a lot of following fish, so the palmered marabou is important as it gives the body an appearance of “fattness” and make for a good silhouette from the rear.  Although I advertise this as a springtime fly, the BedRobber does well all year round.  The lakes around my stretch of the woods have tons of weedbeds, and bass will bury themselves dep inside during the summer when the temperatures get high.  Fished around these weedbeds and in the backs of coves all summer long, the BedRobber is one of the standard go-to flies in the boat.   You can spin up a variety of different color combinations, and your imagination is the limit, but the best two producers for me so far are an olive/green sunfish color and an all brown smallmouth pattern.