Favorite Early Season Fly

[Bluegill222]

I'm a big fan of soft hackles early in the year. For gills and crappie it's usually an olive soft hackle in a 12 or 14. For bass I'll bump up to an 8 and tie a somewhat bulkier than standard body to get their attention. I fish them unweighted this time of year so they sink verrry slooowwwwly. Soft hackle have a lot of movement even with a super slow retrieve and that slow retrieve is the key because cold fish are slow fish, they won't chase food like they will later in the Spring, but if you bring it by them slow enough, they won't pass up the opportunity.

[CRAPPIECAT]

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

Now you have me thinking! ....ouch!
Last year early season my best fly was a black #10 GRHEN and almost nothing else would work, but after reading this I am looking forward to a warm day to try it out again......sorry, we don't get much ice down here!

[coonriverdog]

I think you might be a bit early too, but I sure hope your right. Early March would be great!!!! In ponds and small lakes here in Stuart,( west central Iowa), I always seem to do good with beadhead haresears or pheasant tails, about size 14, tied kinda chunky. I fish them under an indicator set at a depth of the first good breakline from shore. This is usualy about 6-8 ft. and cast into the wind and let the wave action move my fly. If you ever make it down this way in the Spring, let me know, I got a place or 2 that have 9-10" gills.
Tim

[cycler68]

A consensus seems to be forming here. Fish small, something buggy rather than fishy and fish s-l-o-w-l-y. For gills it seems the right size is about a 12 or 14 and for bass a size 8 is about right. All the good information should put me on the right track and save me from going up some blind alleys.
Last spring I was mainly fishing minnow imitators a little bigger than needed. I probably fished them a bit on the fast side too.
I just got a new rotary vise today and some more materials so I'll be sitting down to tie up some more flies pretty quick, probably this weekend. I'm finding that by rolling my own I have more control over how my flies are made and so can make them fit my style of fishing better.
Again, thanks everybody for the good ideas and generously sharing your favorite patterns.

[cycler68]

coonriverdog,
Getting together with you sounds like great fun. I'll have to see if I can work something out. Besides going to fish with you I'd also like to head back to Linn Grove for a day of fishing spring pike and muskies. Last year I didn't catch anything but I nearly had a panic attack when I saw two muskies in the shallows well withing casting range. Just to bad rather than freezing and then very, very slowly casting to them I yelled and pointed. Then, of course, they spooked.

[rrhyne56]

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.

Don't rule out a popper/dropper combo. That will let you fish oh.....so....slowly.......

[Eight Thumbs]

I like a slowly fished woolly bugger in olive or black for the early season. Either, beadhead or weighted dragged right along the bottom works fine. For brim or crappie, I like size #10-#16. For bass, size #10-#2. My second choice would be a Clouser fished the same way. I really like brown/orange for this deep dragging. 8T

[coonriverdog]

cycler,
I went to high school in Arnolds Park, Linn Grove is around some of my old stomping grounds. I've always wanted to catch some pike on a fly. where do you fish for them around Linn Grove???

[cycler68]

Coonriverdog,
There is a dam just outside Linn Grove that is very popular for early season pike and walleye fishing. I went there last year on a nice day in April and boy, for such a small fishing hole, was it crowded. Trouble was except for some carp, very few people were catching anything and it was just the same for me. There were a few muskies present - I saw that pair - but fishing for anything was very tough.
I'll admit my experience fly fishing is limited as I have only been at it about three years so I don't know what the problem was except maybe the pike had already had spawned and were in their resting period before they really put on the feed bag.
This year I think I should try the post-spawn period because it looks like timing the pre-spawn period is just too hard.
As for early ice-out fishing I do plan on sticking to bass and bluegill simply because the fishing spots are much closer.

[James Smith]

My best producing early season fly is the Carter's Sculpin tied in black with a grizzley or olive grizzley collar. It's called "SEM Sculpin" by Carter Nelson, it is here; www.warmwaterflytyer.com under Bottom Flies & Jigs. I fish it fairly slowly in very early spring with 3-4 inch strips of line and a 1-2 second pause to let it fall back down. Absolutely great fly for me that produces large bream, crappie, and bass. I submitted this fly in a swap a couple of years ago and had a guy from Pennsylvania contact me saying he had caught a bunch of nice rainbows on it one day when he was having an otherwise fishless day.

Great overall pattern for me.

Jim Smith