Lately I’ve been fishing pond and I can’t get them to take any of my normal offerings but there are fish actively taking insects or nymphs on the surface. I’m thinking of Adams, Griffith’s Gnat, Renagade or mosquitoes. But I’m interested in other options as well.
Greg
those are a great start, also ants, stimulators, bivisibles, ELK HAIR CADDIS!!!,( my most producin dry fly for bluegill, humpies, royal wulffs, trudes, black gnat, all i can think of for now
I like a Griffith Gnat when brim are taking small stuff on the surface and they don’t seem to want my larger offerings. Actually, I try to match the size of the predominant surface bugs with the Griffith Gnat. 8T 
Try this one for nymphing:
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytyin … part7.html
I ty it as a bead head. For dies I like the Griffith Gnat, moose main mosquito and the bumble bee. Ants work fine too.
That nymph is a killer in early spring.
Size 12-14 Stimulator. (yellow)
Greg, for the last couple of weeks I have had my best success on an Elk Hair Caddis. Using mostly 10’s, but also 12 and 8. I tie the body with spun natural deer hair, clipped close and bleached elk for the wing. It floats very well and the gills hit it hard! Hope you have some luck.
Gerry L
Gerry L
That sounds very cool! You might think about submitting it for the “Fly of the Week”. Is there any chance that you could post a picture of the size #10?
Semper Fi
Greg
Hans Weilenmann’s CDC and Elk is by far and away my best dry fly for blue gill. It is darn buggy and nearly impossible to drown.
ED 8)
Here’s another idea to get them to bite. How about a small soft-hackle. Though the gills were working the surface on your pond, they may also be taking flies just under the surface. An unweighted soft-hackle might be interesting. A peacock body SH might be a good place to start.
That being said, my favorite panfish fly for surface fishing is a small popper, like the gurgle-pop popper shown in the FOTW archives. Not exactly a “dry fly”, however.
Greg, It may be awhile before I am able to do a pic for you. Sorry.
To get an idea of the shape refer to the Irrisistible’s body. Add elk hair downwing and your done No tail. No hackle. Any light wire dry fly hook you might have on the ranch will do. We had great fishing over the week end.
Regards, Gerry L
Standard foam beetles and hi-viz beetles are good. I suppose they aren’t traditional dry flies, but lemme tell ya, they never sink and can take a few hundred freshwater piranha attacks before they’re spent if you tie them right! I also like Stims and EHCs.
I tye an olive woolly bugger with a chartreuse, krystal-type chenille tail (looped) on a size 8 Mustad 9671 that works very well locally. The loop of chenille for the tail makes it float for a while.
Ed
If you mean hackled, then a CDC&Elk and Griffith’s Gnat. As far as floating, then add black beetle, black ant, and small foam poppers and sliders with some flash in them.
cdc elks caddis, black gnat, and hares ear nymphs
For a classic dry fly I’d have to agree with the Elk Hair Caddis. It seems to make bluegills mad for some reason. They will attack these when nothing else, including live-bait, is working.
Semper Fi!
Hi Greg,
When the hexs are on, a hex dry has worked for me. I carry them even though I don’t currently have access to a pond that has a lot of hexes. When I see any on the water I will generally try them, or a hex nymph.
When the gills are after the hex drys, and hex dry pattern is the way to go.
Regards,
Gandolf
My most productive gill fly is a black foam spider with white rubber legs tied with red thread. Fished in the evening in the last 30 min before total darkness.
How about hoppers, they make a nice little splash that can get the gils attention.
If their feeding on small flys, they may see this as an opportunity to have eggs bennidict when they’ve been eating dry toast.