How deep to you fish for bluegill?

[jimmadsen]

hey folks - I'm in a bit of a quandary. The only time I can really get away and fish is over my lunch hour and I'm fly fishing from shore and have to cast out 10-15 ft past the vegetation to hit open water.

As you can imagine this presents it's own set of challenges. I'm thinking about tying a rope onto a garden rake tossing it out there and dragging it back to "rake" out a couple of clearings. But that's another posting.

Back to fishing. Since the sun is high, I know that the fish are not hitting anything on the surface but are holding and eating further down in the water column.

Just curious...
1 - How deep do you fish for Bluegill when they are not feeding at the surface?
2 - What methods are you using to get your flies down to them? Split shot? Weighted flies?
3 - What are you using for a strike indicator?

Thanks for all your help - still trying to figure out this warm water thing!

[mnklagoon]

hey!
i read in the sports afield almanac that people do use rakes to open up areas. it also causes a feeding frenzy according to them. they say it releases micro organisms that fish feed on....who knows but i think you should try it. i know when fly fishing for large bass i look for break ups in vegetation because it usually means a large fish is using it as a channel! it seams to work. i try to fish as deep as i can in high sun. i use bead heads and seems to get me in the zone. im usually about 6-8 ft.

[James Smith]

It sounds like the weedline might actually be a good place for you to fish. I would consider tying up all black cap spiders http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-ti...ishing-169727/ and let them drop about 2 feet outside the weedline. This is an excellent pattern for summertime bluegill, easy to tie and very productive. I would of course also try an all black leech pattern tied on a size 10 hook with several wraps of wire undedr the body for weight. Let us know what works for you and how you do.

Jim Smith

[jimmadsen]

Hey James - thanks for the note.

The real problem with fishing deep on the other side of the weed bed is it's a real tussle to try and lift them up over the weeds and slide them across the top to shore. The deeper I fish, the harder it is to get them up and over. Once they are on the weeds I just have to pull back and slowly horse them through, all the time wondering if I shouldn't have changed my tippet the previous cast!

That's a great pattern - I'm working on finding a place to get my bench set up. We don't have a basement in the house we moved into here in Oklahoma so that extra space is all used up for now. But I hope to find a secretary's desk that I can use for a scaled down version and tuck it in a corner somewhere.

I'll try raking some weeds out and let you know how it goes...

thanks!

Jim

[steveks]

Dragging a rake will help to clear a area to fish, but it will also stir the insects that live in the weeds and cause them to feed. As for depth I normally start about 1' and work my way down, with wieghted flys. I don't like to use split shot around weeds it just gets hung in weeds. Good luck post a pic of what you catch. And for a strike idicator I have have had very good luck with the Thinga ma bobs in 1/2" size they just need a good butt section of leader and they will stay where you put them.

[Panman]

In response to the strike indicator question. When fishing for warm water fish I use some sort of popper. I used to use a hookless indicator but after having a LMB smash my indicator I switched. It has paid off a couple of times.

Tim