Favorite Early Season Fly

[cycler68]

In another three weeks or so the rivers and ponds around here will be thawing and I'll be back out trying to get something to eat my fly. Last year my luck wasn't particularly good though I did get a few bluegills to hit a small olive wooly bugger. This year I'd like to see if I can improve the odds so I'd like to know what works the best early in the season. My main targets will probably be bluegills, largemouth bass and crappies.

[drolfson]

Well Cycler,

Over here on the other side of the missouri, I have found that dark hare's ears just this side of the ice as it melts away from shore tend to do well.

Just remember that they (both the fish and the bugs) can still be lethargic. Usually the NW 'corner' of the impoundment where the sun starts warming it each day will get the first and fastest action that early.

Man, I hope you are right! I have been itching for some sfter water! All of the lakes here in Omaha have araound 12" of ice right now. I tied up a bunch of flies to try once there is open water though. You can see them here: http://limetrude.blogspot.com/2008/0...iawl-bach.html

Hope you can get out and have some fun as soon as the water breaks up!!

[Rick Z]

Several flies will work. The main thing is to fish very slowly and use flies more in neutral colors, borwn, black, grey. You can use flies from size 8 on down to size 24. I stay with about size 10 as I want them to get more food for the effort to take it.

Rick

[Philly]

My home creek is closed to fishing from the end of February till the opening of the early trout season in mid-march. After opening day,based on the number of smallmouth I've seen the trout guys using fat head minnows for bait catch. I'd fish a small bait fish pattern either dead drifted or with a very slow retrieve. I usually wait till mid-May before I do any warm water fishing.

[cycler68]

Now that I reread my earlier post I think I was a little over anxious for the thaw to begin. But it's been months now since I wetted a fly and now that I've begun tying I've got some new creations to try out.
Rick Z & drolfson you have given me some good ideas about what to try. I began this thread to try and winnow down flies and methods to the two or three best ideas to try first so I won't be trying to tie everything imaginable and then fish them in random, unproductive ways. If none of the established ways work I'll try something really different.
One thing that has me puzzled is what food item fish, in this case members of the sunfish-bass family, key on first, or do they, and the reasons why.

[flybinder]

Cycler;
First off, don't get so "ORGANIZED", dagbabit, ya' give the REST of us a bad name!
"Tying everything imaginable and fishing in a random, no sense, order is what makes fly tying and fishing so much fun at times and especially in early season! Geesh, NEXT, you're going to be wearing a plaid sport coat and TIE with your waders! Cut it out!

Now, obviously, with you being in IA and myself, in Oregon our spiny ray fishes probably don't PM or email one another, very much, so they act, respond and spawn, in slightly different ways and times. I find the Crappies and Bass fairly aggressive in their "pre-spawn mode" about mid March, then, super aggressive, willing to hit almost anything, during their late March and early April spawn time.
Anyhoooooo........ here's 3 flies that I've tied for "early" Craps and Bass for the past several years...fishing in my own region.
The first two are not at all, "large" by most standards. They're both tied on Mustad #94840s, #12. The white fly is tied on a #38941 Mustad, #12

Whether they'd work for you, in your area, I truly cannot say!?!








Just a few, ideas, since ya' asked!

[cycler68]

flybinder,
I don't think you have to worry too much about me becoming too organized. Besides reading, eating, breathing fly fishing mags and the like I have been know to read Mad but I would appreciate it if you didn't let this out.
The pics of your flies look great. I see you tie a couple of them with coneheads sooooo I see you fish deep and then there is the one without a conehead so you fish shallower too. Gol dang it I gotta fish shallow and deep and cover the whole water column. You sure don't make it easy for a guy.
Rather than fishing in a tweed jacket and suspenders your more likely to find me with some sort of fine meshed net on a long handle trying to get bug samples from a lake or pond and then burying my nose in a book trying to identify what I've got.

[dudley]

"Hornberg - Old Flies - Fly Angler's OnLine week 186 "

[DaleW]

Scuds work best for me early in the season. Last year, this one right here worked extremely well and caught a bunch of brem for our early camp out and fish fry.


http://www.blueflycafe.com/product/S...udsWormsShrimp


But I have noted that color preference can change from season to season. For example, two years ago, when brem began their surface feeding, a black and white popper could do no wrong. Last year the black and white was a dud and yellow poppers were the color they were going after. So the orange scud was the color for early last season ... we'll see for the upcoming early season.



Dale

[flybinder]

Thanks, Cycler. Your last post, cleared up a lot of worries I was having about you!! "Occasionally reading MAD mag." in fact, puts you just fine and on the right track, to become an accomplished fly fisher!
Thank you, also, for the kind words on my flies. Like so many of us, they "were born", out of the age old recipe of "Wonder what THIS...would look like, tied on the hook, with THIS?"
A quite very scientific method of fly design when one wishes to "match the trash catcher hatch".