Hogan's AP Baitfish Fly

I spend a lot of time chasing stripers in rivers and bass in lakes stripping bait fish patterns throughout the year in all sorts of conditions. Finding the perfect size, color, swim pattern, and density of fly is an endless search, and can be somewhat of a black hole as a fly designer and guide to dive into. Every so often, usually towards the end of the season when my boat boxes become overflowing with flies, I pull myself out of the black hole and say it can’t be this complicated… and start trying to come up with one fly for all conditions and bass that eat other fish. A few years ago the result of this quest was the All Purpose (AP) Baitfish. It is a simple olive over white bait fish in two sizes that swims straight and with its combination of synthetic and natural (bucktail) materials, pushes a fair amount of water and holds a good profile. It is an unweighted fly that will track straight on a floating to heavy sink line, but if the fly needs to get a bit deeper - throw some lead weight wraps to keel weight the fly and the swim pattern and drop can be tweaked. While by no means do you only need one bait fish pattern - if you are looking to cover as many basis as possible for any fish that eats other fish, the AP Baitfish is a good place to start.