Hatches 2011: Geezus Lizard and Texas Ringworm by Jay Zimmerman

Magazine — By HatchesMagazine on October 6, 2011 10:05 am

The Geezus Lizard and Texas Ringworm are two bass flies that have finally evened the playing field.

They have allowed fly fishermen to dabble into the not-so-secret voodoo world of conventional bass anglers worldwide. Their existence was born of a desire to find a viable fly rod application for lessons I’d learned in youth about bass and bass lures. Their conception consumed a large part of my adolescent and adult life.

As a kid in rural Ohio and Pennsylvania, I grew up with an easy understanding that fish liked to eat small bugs. I got trout. I understood bluegill. Those species ate bugs of a size even my noodly fiberglass fly rod could cast. I even felt comfortable with the smallmouth bass in our local rivers. Smallmouth liked to eat soft-shelled crayfish, and I could easily tie and cast a lightly weighted brown Woolly Bugger.