What to Tie Warmwater This Spring, Go To Flies

[Gandolf]

Hi All,

The talk about fish moving has gotten me motivated and I am starting to tie. Right now I am tying a few flies to give a friend who moved to central Oklahoma this past fall. He is not a fly fisheman, but has an old bamboo rod, and wants to give it a try. He is interested in bass, and to a lesser extent panfish, and has purchased a small number of bass flies. I have come up with my own list for his flies, primarily panfish flies, as that is what I like to fish for, know best, and like to tie, but I am also going to tie a few bass flies for him.

This has gotten me to thinking about my own flies, and tying for this spring. I saw a post on another site, and what are Go To flies for panfish.

What are you all tying and what are your Go To flies for panfish?

I will post my own list in a second post to this thread.

Thanks and regards,

Gandolf

[Normand]

my workhorse fly is as follows also in white, yellow or chartreuse foam body

[funbun]

Cat's Whisker. I've had my best luck with brown. but I'm plan to try colors with gray body with black or olive wing/tail.

[James Smith]

Gandolf,

My early spring go-to flies for bass and bream are as follows:

1 Carter's sculpin - tied with black rabbit fur tail, black chinnile body, grizzly/olive collar and black or silver beard. Super pattern for me that catches me hundreds of bass, crappie and large bream every year.

2 Black leech tied either with rabbit fur tail, and seal fur dubbing brush or with black leech yarn. I use size 10-12 for bream and upto size 2 for bass. Again a pattern that has caught me hundreds of fish; including 27 yesterday afternoon

3 For later in the summer, I switch to a polar fiber minnow tied in chartruese and olive over white. Killer bass pattern for me.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need more information about any of the patterns.

Jim Smith

[Philly]

I vary what I use for top water, mainly between these four.
Sneaky Petes
Chernobyly Ants
Booby flies
Gurglers
Size and color vary depending on what I'm fishing for.

A couple of old patterns I haven't use in a few years but decided to add back to my box this year are a variation of Tony's Froggie.

and a Fun(craft)foam popper.


I've been doing very well the past couple years using beadhead green weenies with and without legs as a dropper fly for panfish.

Subsurface I use mostly bait fish patterns for bass. I've been using mainly Mirror Image blended with Angel hair for the pattern. I like pastel shades light blue, green or purple of the back and white

[Gandolf]

Hi All,

I listed some of my go to flies on the other site, and getting tying made me think about that again. Some of my favorite flies, in no particular order, are as follows:

1. Pheasant tail, either standard or Rick's red thorax
2. Gray hackle peacock
3. Small poppers
4. Foam spider
5. Jitterbee
6. Small mayfly dries, gray Wulff, and a cream Wulff
7. Damsel fly nymph
8. Olive and orange
9. Hot flash minnow
10. A bee pattern (McGinty or Denton)
11. Bully Spider
12. Maribou miss

[ohiotuber]

Yellow foam gurgler
Black/orange or black/chartreuse foam beetle (Bill Skilton's version)
Red butt epoxy ant
Yellow unweighted woolly worm, red wool tail & grizzly hackle
White foam spider w/white rubber legs.
Where I fish, at least ONE of these flies (usually more than one) always seems to work. BTW, I like the legs to be longer than the norm on my gurglers & spiders.
Mike

[jkurtz7]

Being mostly a panfish angler, here's what I usually tie up.
Wets:
Picket Pin,
A variety of soft hackle patterns, what ever combination that strikes my fancy at the moment.

Nymphs:
Gold ribbed Hares ear.
Light Cahill.
Squirrel belly nymph. This one is a bit different.
Tail: dark brown fibers from a partridge tail feather.
Abdomen: Fox squirrel belly dubbing.
Ribbing: Small oval gold tinsel.
Thorax: Fox squirrel belly dubbing.
Wing Case: Same as tail, folded over to form wing case.

Surface bugs:
White sponge spiders
Foam Ants
Generic foam beetle
Adams Wulff

Streamers:
Mini Buggers.
Mickey Finns
Magog Smelt
Clouser Minnows.

Jeremy

[white43]

Just did this the other day. Too early for Gurgle Pops so I tied weighted and beadchain Gill Busters; weighted and unweighted Hare n' Coppers; beadhead Hare n' Coppers; Panhandlers for crappies; several red softies; and some of those totally deadly Tuber Buggers. Several swaps have filled in the gaps and opened new venues. I'm more ready than the lakes around here. JGW

[Big Bad Wulff]

MY favorite:

beadchain-eyed wooley bugger. Catches everything.