crickets

i have a friend that says he can only catch what we refer to as coppernose hybrid bluegill at a local private lake on live crickets. temps here are high 90 to 100+. we have good success earliy in the year at same lake using hare's ear nymphs, jitterbees, etc. he also uses light spin tackle with sliders and other soft plastics. he contends that nothing will produce now other than live crickets. I am determined to prove him wrong but he is an excellent catcher of fish. amy suggestions welcomed, hope to go saturday. we also catch very large shell crackers (chinquapin) early each year, 1 pound is average, and they disappear after may or june? whatsupwidat?

You are catching shell crackers during the spawn. After that they get lock jaw unless you find the "perfect" snail fly. That has yet to appear.
For the coppernose you can try a march brown nymph.

Depend on what kind of trees are around the pond you might want to drop a green weenie or a catalupa pattern; ant patterns would be worth investigating also. But my brain thinks go early or go late for the maximum advantage.

Try the Foam Butt Caddis.....Fly Of The Week, May7th. Twitch-retrieved with small 1" twitches, pausing about 5 seconds between each twitch....they love it. :)

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Try a 1/80 oz black microjig under an indicator (I like a small hackle collar just behind the jighead)....experiment with depth based on depth of the outside weed edge or weedbed tops. I caught a few Redear Sunfish (Shellcrackers) and plenty of bluegills about a week ago on such a rig.
If the black fails, try with a gold or silver Springbrook Wunder style microjig.
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...rookWunder.jpg

Gotta remember if fish started only eating one thing (like crickets) they would starve to death. the fish are obviously eating other things so what you need to do is experiment around. go back and forth between natural colors and bright ones. i can tell you from personal experience my absolute favorite bluegill fly is a short fat yellow chenille spider with a deer hair wing. yellow seems to be my all time most effective color for bluegill here, but if your only success is on live crickets, try flies that are the same color as those.

and the most important thing, fish SLOW and with a very slow sinking fly. LOOOONNNGGGGG pauses are the only way to bring in stubborn summer panfish

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Originally Posted by DDRRedneck500

Gotta remember if fish started only eating one thing (like crickets) they would starve to death....
and the most important thing, fish SLOW and with a very slow sinking fly. LOOOONNNGGGGG pauses are the only way to bring in stubborn summer panfish

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Try a black woolly bugger, stripped very slowly for red ears (i.e. shell crackers / chinquapins)... once caught a 2+ pounder this way at Bodcau in northwestern LA... That's Louisiana not "Lower Alabama" HA!

In the spring, my go-to pattern for all of the sunfish is an all black leech tied on a size 10 weighted hook. As the temperatures rise (both water and air) I switch to the Cap Spider pattern by the late Michael Verduin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzZekzILGRI which is a killer fly for bream. I find that tying this pattern with only two legs on each side is much easier and just as if not more effective. To fish this pattern, cast it as close to weedlines or brush overhangs as possible and then strip it in with quick 1-2 inch strips with a 1-2 second pause between strips. The larger fish tend to take this pattern very softly so you really have to watch the tip of your fly line for slight movements. In the past three trips, I've caught approximately 75 bream (red ear, bluegill etc), with at least 50 of them being between 10 and 13 inches long all on this pattern. It is a must-have pattern for bluegill fishermen.

Jim Smith

Check out Davie McFail's video of tying a foam cricket on you tube, it is awesome!

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Originally Posted by James Smith

... I switch to the Cap Spider pattern by the late Michael Verduin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzZekzILGRI which is a killer fly for bream. I find that tying this pattern with only two legs on each side is much easier and just as if not more effective. To fish this pattern, cast it as close to weedlines or brush overhangs as possible and then strip it in with quick 1-2 inch strips with a 1-2 second pause between strips. The larger fish tend to take this pattern very softly so you really have to watch the tip of your fly line for slight movements. In the past three trips, I've caught approximately 75 bream (red ear, bluegill etc), with at least 50 of them being between 10 and 13 inches long all on this pattern. It is a must-have pattern for bluegill fishermen.

Jim Smith

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Michael Verduin was a warm water tyer /fly fisher who created a number of innovative, effective, overall just marvelous flies. As Jim stated above Michael's Cap Spider is a killer bream pattern and his tying demo. posted above is a must for all water water tyers, as are his Catalpa Worm and Plastic Pig.