Bluegills save the day - again

[Rcassady]

Had an unexpected experience with bluegills this past a.m. Went out onto tailwaters below a local dam to try for some holdover stocked 'bows and some smallies and had no luck for about two hours on some seriously low water. Finally started getting some bites on an old standard, the hare's ear nymph, but no hookups.

A couple of, shall we say, not-so-nice bait fishermen came onto the hole I was working and (best case scenario) not understanding the amount of space I need for casting or (more probable, and worst-case scenario) not caring, they set up about 25 feet downstream and began casting into my drift. Nice.

Discouraged, but not looking to confront these guys about it, I move upstream to an area where I usually do casting practice a few hundred feet from the spillway (never had a bit of luck there), and begin immediately getting some bites and finally, a hookup, then another, then another, and so on.

One smallmouth and a bunch of smallish bluegills later, I'm suddenly feeling a lot better about the whole situation and the day in general. None of them were record-size, but after the last few fishing trips have been total skunk fests, those little fish really made a difference.

Catching them was interesting because I've never caught them this way. Water is REALLY low right now everywhere around here, so I didn't use any weight on the nymph. Typically I weight nymphs with a sinker, but today, they had enough time to drop.

The other reason I didn't weight is, when I was out last weekend, I was wading in a different, nearby waterway and a large number of nymphs were either floating on or swimming near the surface.

Just another example of what a learning experience this can be. This week I celebrate the one-year anniversary of purchasing my first fly rod.

Two postscripts: First, while I didn't have to change the fly the rest of the morning, that thing was absolutely destroyed and will never be used again (this is a good thing, especially since I can now tie my own). Secondly, I took a glance or two down at the guys who pushed me out of the "productive" hole. Didn't see them catch anything the whole time I was there.

[jimmadsen]

good for you - nice to be able to have some bluegills ready and able to help out!

The worst thing is not so much that they crowd you out - it's the fact that unless they fly fish too - they will never understand that it's not about the catching, it's about the fishing. For most of us, fly fishing is more therapy tan fishing. There's a rhythm to casting that you can lose yourself in - I would rather have a day of accurate casting and no fish than a day of fish but full of tangles and mis-casts.

[quivira kid]

I've become a big fan of a hare's ear for bluegills this past year! They do enjoy 'em quite a bit.

[Rcassady]

Yeah, I don't know why it took me so long to make the leap to a hare's ear to specifically aim at bluegill. They used to kill the "waxworms" I cast as a boy at the local lake, so it just makes sense that something with a similar profile and (near) coloration was actually what they were going for.

Everyday's a learning experience on the water.