New to Panfish/Stillwater, questions

I just started fly fishing a couple of months ago, and after spending some time on some of the local trout streams, I finally got a chance to try some lake fishing. We (that is my wife, kids, and I) spent the weekend at my Dad's cottage. Growing up, I had fished the lake a lot, spin rods, jigs, lures, whatever we though might work. Never did catch much but some smallmouth bass and perch. Pulled out my fly rod and walked to the dock, caught more bass from that lake in one hour than in the past 20 years, both small- and largemouth bass (I know, weird lake). Managed to catch a couple of sunfish too, never had caught them from that lake ever. I think I really am starting to like pan fish fishing.... (panfishing? is that the right term?).

After trying some ant imitations, then some basic bivisibles, then some nymphs... I ended up using a really bad version of a Muddler's Minnow I had in my fly box. It was only a head of deer hair, with a badly formed deer hair wing. It was my first attempt at spinning hair just to see how hard it was. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I do need some practice. Anyhow, after that started producing, I kept that same fly on for the next three days. Used it more or less like a popper, gurgling it with short jerks, then letting it rest. Man was that fun.

Anyhow, now I've got some questions. I started reading the panfishing articles here on FAOL, and it seems that most people still use nymphing for most of their fishing. I can't seem to get that to work. If I stuck with a popper style, am I missing out on a lot? Or can I just work on my presentation and get it to work for me?

What are some of your favorite popper patterns?

What types of retrieves work best? How much should I retrieve before recasting?

Just wondering,

Dave

If they're working, by all means, stick to the poppers and the muddler minnow. Sometimes though the fish are holding deeper or keying on subsurface food types. The key is often strike detection, it's amazing how subtle a take can be. I've watched bluegills in clear water inhale and reject my fly multiple times on a single cast and never move the leader. Seen bass do the same thing when they aren't feeling terribly agressive (yep, it does happen). One thing you might do is fish the nymph as a dropper about a foot below the popper. When the popper twitches, set the hook. That will get you used to watching the leader on the surface to detect strikes.

How far to retrieve? Retrieve until you are confident the fly is no longer in productive water. Sometimes that may be a few feet, somtimes almost all the way to the rod tip. Vary the speed, length and number of strips, and pauses between strips until you find a pattern the fish are liking that day, then stick with it. It'll be a little different each time you are out.

I like poppers in white/black, black, yellow, and chartreuse, but I've rarely found a color that won't catch at least a few fish on any given day.

Surface fishing is fun! If you can get them to take it on a popper, stick with it. I use mini gurglers, spiders, and bluegill poppers mostly. Rubber legs make them go crazy around here, so any pattern you like with foam and rubber legs will catch something.
For subsurface, use a boa leech, bully spider, or small buggers with just enough weight to sink slowly. Use them as a dropper below your surface fly like bluegill said, and you'll catch fish if anything is biting.

I was out recently with the kids at a toy store, found a Kooshball, two toned, kind of orange with some tan as well. I looked at it and thought: "Dems wud make great buug leggies." Now I just have to raid my wife's craft supplies for some of those foam balls she has for crafts, get to shaping them, and I should be good to go.

What do y'all prefer for popper bodies? Balsa, basswood, styrofoam, cork, flipflops, some other type of foam?

Dave

Next time you're at a craft store or Wal-Mart, get a few 8-1/2"x11" sheets of colored foam. Then look up "gurgle pop" and a foam beetle pattern here at FAOL and get lost at your tying bench for a few hours.

Zac

For bluegills and other sunfish I've found that wet flies outfish poppers exponentially. I generally use a black gnat, but any old wet will work. Just let it sink and watch for ypur line to move then strike.

As to smallmouth and largemouth, I've found Clouser nimmows that imitate baitfish are effective. As to surface flies, Crease flies can be dynamite as can my favorite, an oversized Sneaky Pete I call the BUMF. (Big Ugly....you figure the rest out.) The BUMF is a black torpedo shaped body with about half a dozen rubber legs and a thick, short black marabou tail and tail hackle. Just flop it out, let it sit, twitch it and the bass jump all over it.

Usually when fishing lakes, I'll fish a popper and drop a soft hackle or nymph of some sort off the popper. There are a lot of ways to do this but I typically tie a line to the bend in the hook of the popper and hang the wet fly about 18: or so below the popper.

I find it about equally split between fish I catch on the top and those I catch on the wet fly.

Jeff