Never Stop Improving

Several years ago, a buddy of mine turned me onto a fly pattern I had never heard of called the Bronze Goddess.  He swore by it for creek bass (usually spotted bass, sometimes smallies), so I looked it up and tied a few.  Well, he was right, and now I wouldn't dream of hitting a creek for bass without a box of them.  Early on, I stuck to the script.  I tied the Goddess in craw-style colors, with brown/orange and black/blue being my most productive colors.  I started branching out a little and tied it in more of a baitfish color, gray/white/pink, and really found something golden.  For whatever reason, that fly in that color combo has caught my three biggest small stream bass over the last few years.

Here's what a pile of "standard" Goddesses look like in the hand.  Over the winter, while completing my creek bass box project, I tied this pile in preparation for this coming summer.  As you can see, the head of the fly is tied with estaz/ice chenille.  I utilize the Goddess as my go-to deep fly for these smaller waters.  It's not weighted real heavily, but it's heavy enough to get down faster than the rest of my creek bass flies.  I universally tie this in a size 6.  (The original recipe is found here: Bronze Goddess)

Ever the tweaker of fly design, I had a thought a few weeks back to modify the most productive fly in my box.  Why?  Because it's what I do, I guess.  I love working with deer hair, and thought that a deer hair slider style head might work really well on this pattern.  I have since cranked out a few trial patterns of the deer hair Goddess, and I really dig the results.

I also threw in another color combination, new to this pattern for me.  A really productive color combo everywhere I have fished it for warmwater species that eat streamers is white/bright blue/chartreuse.  If white/gray/pink works so well in this fly, why not add another "baitfishy" color combination and see what happens?

I'm optimistic that the rainy season is dwindling down in SE Ohio now, and with flows starting to clean up, I'm getting antsy.  I discovered some new-to-me water close to home last year that produced one of the large spotted bass above, and I plan to explore the area a little more this summer.  Hopefully I'll have some photos of large creek bass smiling with a mouth full of this pattern in a few months.  Even when you have a pattern that works well for you, never be afraid to experiment with new color combinations or tweaks to the design...you might just turn a base hit into a home run.