Bluegill on a wand

I bought a 3wt outfit to fish the smaller streams, but from watching posts here, I see that there are many people that use the light stuff for bluegill. My questions are: Are you using some kind of sinking/sink-tip line to get down under, and does a 3wt. handle that sort of set-up, or are you stictly dry fly/emerger fishing near the top, with a floating line? Do you weight the leader with lead, or use a weighted fly? How does a light rod handle fishing deep? Not many bluegill here in my part of Idaho, but there's enough that I want to chase them. Any suggestions you can give would be appreciated.

Lou: Thanks to Rick Z and a couple of others I have gotten wrapped up in fishing for warmwater fish with a fly. My first choice of rods for the gills is my 3 weight, which is a 9 footer. It makes a 6 or 7 inch gill seem like a much larger fish. I use nothing but a floating line as most of the gills I catch are in less than 10 feet of water. I like to take a floating fly - say a foam beetle and place it a short distance from the line/leader connection, say 2 feet, and then about 3 to 5 feet further down the leader use a wet fly or a nymph. Sometimes I weight the bottom fly with a #8 split just above the fly. The floater acts as a strike indicator and also as a fish catcher.

Hope this helps.

Tim Anderson
Klamath Falls, Oregon

Floating lines. If I want to fish deep, I use a weighted fly.

Jim

Bluegills, these fish are gangsters. Meaning that they sworm the prey and submerge it by allowing the younger species to pop at it and bring it down to the larger/older of the gang. Naturally, the youngsters get a leg or head of the bug, while the larger will consume the body. Hence, my method is a typical two fly setup. Obviously, one will go deep and the other floats. Depending on your terestials, I use a floating green hopper and sinking brown beetle. Till this day, I walk away with a full count from the adventure.

As per using a 3wt rod, Bluegills are playing fish in Central PA; hence, I use them for practice on my 5wt and enjoy the fight. Where as, anything caught is the reward from casting precisely under branches and limbs or around stumps. Besides, one never knows when a large mouth bass will be hungry enough to pop a fly! :shock:

I fish BGs with a 2wt. I don't want to fish more than 8-10' deep with that rod - and I generally fish much shallower. 2-4' is more like. That's topwater territory. I can; however, get down to the 8' level with #12 beadhead flies - or 14's for that matter. Just takes longer to get there but - hey - I'm in no hurry. Also if your water is clear panfish will "feed up" 2' or so. Also, think "edges". Edge of the lake, edge of weedbed, edge of lily pads, edge of wood, edge or current, etc. Hang a scud off the back of a small hopper. Lots of ways.

don

Actually missed your main question - floating line, leaders of 7 1/2' to 8 1/2' [8' rod], beadheat flies - usually 1/8", sometimes 3/32".

I use a floating fly line and a leader of about 7-9 feet long my tippet usually never is above 4 pound test unless I'm fishing heavy cover then I'll go to 6 pound test. I use a good bit of fluorocarbon tippet material which sinks better than mono. Most of my flies on top are in the sz. 10-12 terrestrial ties and I use a dropper off of the hook which is the top water fly of about 2 feet long with a sz. # 16-24 nymph bead headed. With this set up the top fly is your strike indicator.

I've gone to 6X tippet for most of this year. It has made a difference. 'Course the lakes I fish are very, very clear.

donald

I very rarely fish panfish with anything lighter than 4x, but then, clear is not a word you can use to describe a lot of the water here, and there's always the chance of big ol' mister largemouth latchin' onto my fly. I guess the point is that it all depends on the situation. One of the keys to this game that often gets overlooked is adaptability :)