No clues about warm water fly fishing

[perch]

My latest post was about the price of fuel slowing down ( seemingly to a crawl) my pursiut of trout.
Now that I am done (maybe) whyyynning about not getting to trout fish as often as I would like here's another angle.
I have all of this fly fishing and tying stuff and surely want to use it. Warm water seems to be my newest and most readilly available pursuit.
Sadly I am not the sharpest tack in the box.
To wit , I am once again without a clue.
What to use for flies and what strategies on warm water quarry i.e the noble blue gill or majestic bass and of course the much misunderstood crappie.
Seriously , I have fished all of those and all the other fish of the midwest and am a pretty good hand at it with a spinning rig or bait caster , I have given those methods up for the fly rod . I dont figure on going backwards at this point in time .
Sure would appreciate if I could get a few heads up on where to find articles to look at for teqniques and fly patterns to use . I prefer top water but have no allusions about the learning curve from going sub surface to top water and am not bothered to start out slow and figure out what s going on .
Thanks for any info that comes my way

[Big Bad Wulff]

The almighty wooley bugger is a great start. Put some chainbead eyes on it and you have a huge hit.
Anything with legs on it will get bluegill to hit. Also beadhaed nymphs are big with the bluegill.

Make your fly look like a minnow or an insect falling and dropping into the water and you have a good warm water fly.
There is nothing too mysterious about warm water fly fishing.

[James Smith]

My top two bluegill fies are an all black leech tied on a size 10 hook with a red beadhead and the cap spider also tied in black. Either one will consistently catch bluegill and redear sunfish with the occasional bass thrown in for exitement. The black leech tied on a size 6 or 4 hook is a terrific bass fly as is the Polar Fiber minnow. For crappie, my top producer is Carter's Sculpin tied in bright colors such as red and white or purple and white.

Jim Smith

[Caribe]

Perch,
Welcome to the warm water world. Once you start..you may never go back to "just trout". Assuming you can find water that contains fish, this forum will be full of ideas on how to catch them. If you like the surface it's hard to beat a simple popper. Blue gill love them and the occational bass. I am partial to foam tied flies. Blue gill and bass can really tear up those "delicate" trout tied feathers. If you find some fish..its hard to go wrong. Experiment on your own and I'm sure your fishing instincts will lead you. To quote one member on this forum " there is no substitute for time on the water". Enjoy

[dixieangler]

Try starting right here with Rick's articles. Link below to the archive.

Archive of Panfish

[ohiotuber]

Try starting right here with Rick's articles. Link below to the archive.

Archive of Panfish

There are LOADS of great panfish articles in the archives. For surface flies, I like yellow gurglers, black foam beetles, small sneaky petes, & white foam spiders. For wets, try yellow woolly worms, red butt epoxy ants, & soft hackles. Keep movement to a minimum....most often, just enough to softly "twitch" the legs or hackle.
Mike

[Clay]

While the pan fish and bass spring to mind for many. I would like to introduce you to the next generation of fly fishing targets. Please remember that once bonefish were considered trash fish and no one would ever fish for them on purpose.

http://www.rockymtnfly.com/features/case_for_carp.aspx

http://flyfisherman.com/midwest/dwcarp/index.html

http://www.midcurrent.com/articles/t...hews_carp.aspx

[EdD]

Most of your trout patterns will work for bream. I prefer them a bit bigger, 10 or 12, to make it harder for 'gills to swallow them whole. I'll even go up to an 8 for the bigger 'gills, especially with sparser patterns.

Dark day - dark fly, and bright day, bright fly can carry over for sunnies as well as for trout.

One of my best 'gill flies is a woolly bugger tied with olive green, mohair yarn, long and soft yellow hackle, and a chartreuse, krystal chenille tail tied as a small loop parallel to the water. (Think beaver tail.) The chartreuese loop seems to draw strikes towards the hook, just where I want them.

I like barbless or de-barbed hooks. I like to tie parachute dries for 'gills. I tend to use synthetics for the posts. I also tend to loop the post under the shank of the hook and still tie it in very well. That helps to keep 'gills from swallowing the fly all the way to its vent. It also means that I can generally release fish caught on those flies by grabbing the post and slipping the hook out. It makes releasing 'gills a ton easier.

Slow movement (retrieves) tends to be better, but that rule is subject to modification by the fish.

In trout fishing, "current is structure" may apply. In panfishing, structure is structure. Current is generally not fished, unless if it very mild. Calm pockets in the middle of current can yield well, however.

Bigger 'gills are usually beneath the small fry where the water is deep enough.

I think that local 'gills strike faster than stocker trout. It helps to put you on your game for those days when you DO get out after trout.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice. That might be the nicest thing about chasing bream. There are so many opportunities to practice.

Good luck.
Ed

[WarrenP]

perch,

If you really want to have some fun with bluegill/bass, go to the main page and in the search window type in, "Sam's One Bug" and click enter. Very easy popper to tie and, evidently, not used by many, but, it is a fantastic popper and a lot of fun to use. I have caught 100's of bluegill with it plus a few bass every now and then.

Just a suggestion for a good popper.....

[Eight Thumbs]

Hi Perch!

For warmwater fishing you only need to know two words. Gurgle Pop! Pete Fraily's lure is found in the FOTW archives and is almost as good as a worm or minnow for brim and LMB. Pete swears by a #8 yellow GP. I like them a little smaller in sizes #10-#12. Yellow is a good color but chartruese, white and black are also good. Hang a nymph on an 18" dropper in sizes #12-#16 and you've got a fish-filled day. I've been using Brassies for the dropper but I don't think you could go wrong with any standard trout nymph. Try Gurgle Pops, effective, easy to tie, durable and CHEAP, you'll like 'um! 8T