Weazel;
When I first began my WW journey a few years back, I had just found FAOL, and gave the SHWAPF a try. Man, that thing is deadly on Gills. Fish it dry, wet, in the surface, weighted, as a dropper or tandem. . . you name it that will catch em.
Weazel;
When I first began my WW journey a few years back, I had just found FAOL, and gave the SHWAPF a try. Man, that thing is deadly on Gills. Fish it dry, wet, in the surface, weighted, as a dropper or tandem. . . you name it that will catch em.
Don Rolfson
I tend to use a black beadhead wooly booger fly 90% of the time. I tie it slightly differently than standard. Use marabou for the tail, but I dub the body with polar fibre and then pick out the dubbing for the thorax. No hackle is needed. I usually use a size 8 3XL hook and a 1/8 black tungsten bead.
Good luck!
Warmouth
Wooly worm in black, chartruese,olive or peacock. Sometimes bead head sometimes not.Foam back "its a Bug" when their feeding on top. TransparAnt in black and chartruese.
I find anything that is yellow with rubber legs work very well for bluegill. The bully fly is amazing for bull gills
Heres a start [url=http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/panfish/part304.html:2608e]http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/panfish/part304.html[/url:2608e]
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If flyfishing were a sin, I'de be the devil's right hand man.
I'd second the gurglepop and add the suspending gilbuster as well as a clouser minnow.
Any nymph with rubber legs will attract all kinds of bluegills.
Have fun with the gills.
My go to fly is a foam cricket, with a black hares ear abdomen. I can catch a gill or crappie on almost every cast. Then to change things up a bit I use a gurgle pop.
Isn't this fun!
It is true that bluegill will eat many different flies. The same can be said for trout and lots of other species. If you don't care what size you catch, put a midge larva or nymph near just about any cover and you probably will have non-stop action.
To tip the scale a little toward larger fish, you'll first have to find their habitat. Once off the beds, the biggest fish usually hog the best cover/feeding lies. One characteristic these lies seem to have in common is availability of shade. Ledges, rock crevices, overhanging brush, heavy weeds, lily pads, etc. Find those types of features near deeper or open water, and there will be some good sized 'gills hanging out.
Then use a popper or hopper on top, or a mini bait-fish imitation down below, in sizes 8-10. BTW, versions of all patterns mentioned in this thread can be found in the fly of the week archives.
IMHO, to tip the scale toward maximum fun, just throw small poppers tight against lily pads.
There is an article floating around that opines such activity is child-like. If that is so, I hope I never outgrow this Peter Pan complex.
Jim
I throw my cricket patterns right along the edges of lillypads usually the smaller fish hang around them, but I can get like 4-5 hits on one retrieve.
If stuck with one fly to fish bluegill with the rest of my life it would have to be a Madam X.
It can easily be fished on the surface, subsurface and sunken and just seems to produce for me when all else fails.
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