My dad will be spending a week or so at a lodge in Missouri located on a small reservoir (250 acres +/-) that has some slab bluegill and maybe some redears or other sunfish. Neither he nor I have done much fly fishing for panfish recently, so I was looking for half a dozen or so patterns to tie for him. I’d appreciate some suggestions that could be expected to work well in this timeframe. Thanks.
What timeframe?
I seldom (as in, it has been many years) bother with anything but an olive bugger in 10 for panfish.
Here are 3 patterns that I use for Bluegills:
-
Small Wooly Bugger
Hook: #14 Dry Fly Hook (TMC 100)
Thread: Black 6/0 or 8/0
Tail: Sparse (12 fibers) Chartreuse Marabou (1 inch long for a lot of movement)
Body: Black UV ICE Dubbing (or Chenille)
Hackle: Black Whiting 100-PACKS Dry Fly Hackle size 16 (yes smaller than the hook) -
McGrub
Hook: Size 10-14 TMC 3761 or Daiichi 1530
Tail: Black or Peacock Krystal Flash
Body: Black Chenille (Med. For #10, Fine for #12-14)
Thread: Black 6/0 or 8/0
Wing: Black or Peacock Krystal Flash
Head: Thread
[ul]
[li]Mount the hook in the vise and lay down a thread base that just starts behind the eye, and travels to the end of the shank.[/li][li]Select a six inch clump of a dozen strands of Krystal Flash and bind it to the hook with enough sticking past the end of the shank to form a tail equal in length to the shank. Bind the Krystal Flash down onto the shank while advancing the thread to the front of the hook until one eye length from the eye. The Krystal Flash should be pointing forward from the eye.[/li][li]Advance the thread back to the start of the tail and bind in a segment of chenille. Advance the thread to the front of the hook, one eye length from the eye.[/li][li]Wrap the chenille forward to meet the thread, tie off and trim any excess material.[/li][li]Pull back the excess Krystal Flash (that is pointing forward) to form a Trude-style wing and tie it in place with several thread wraps. Cut the wing off even with the end of the body.[/li][li]Build a thread head, whip-finish and trim.[/li][/ul]3. Itsabug (Originated by Gary R. Yaden)
http://www.southeastflyfishingforum.com/forum/panfish-fly-bluegill-itsabug-t5273.html
Vinny
You may need to get deeper than we normally think about for bream. Carter Nelson is a very knowledgeable tyer and guide, here’s a link with a few of this patterns. http://www.warmwaterflytyer.com/patterns6.asp
Oh, sorry about forgetting the time period. Mid-June.
Hi Longs for Cutts,
I like a marabou damsel fly nymph when the damsel flies are plentiful. Other flies that have done well for me include (not in any order of priority):
- Mayfly patterns to match the hatch when mayflies are hatching, I’ve seen it when they wouldn’t touch anything else that I threw at them because they were so fixed on a mayfly dry
- A foam spider pattern in yellow, peach, or chartreuse, and friend also really liked brown or black, tie them in #10 and #12
- The olive and orange, see the article in the archives of panfish, in #10 or #12
- Be sure to look at Rick Ziegers lists (there are 4 article) of favorite bluegill and crappie flies in the panfish archives, I consider this the single best source of information
- Cap spider and jitter bee at times if there a bit deeper, again small size
- Brown hackle peacock, #12 through #16 or so
- A pattern like the olive and orange with a peacock body and a light olive tail, and one with a peacock body and black tail, again #10 or #12
- For sheer fun, and great results at time, poppers in size 12 or 10, my favorite colors include: yellow and chartreuse
- I’ve seen times when the Murray Marauder was just the ticket, favorite colors include: black, olive, yellow, and chartreuse, #6 or 8 to #10 or so
- Yea, small buggers at times, favorite colors include: black, olive, yellow, and chartreuse, again #10 to #12 or so
- Read Rick’s article on midges. There are times when a midge pattern was the only thing that would work for me. Sometimes around here in the twilight I have seen midge hatches underway, and a Griffiths gnat has worked for me at that time. Rick has patterns that may be better, but I have not been able to give them a fair chance, look in his articles for his thoughts on patterns. What I know of Rick makes me think that you can really trust his midge patterns
- A hex dry fly, at times when the hexs are on the water the gills, a hex dry can do well
- Gold ribbed hares ears and pheasant tails, #10 or so through #16s or so. I have seen all black versions work at times. Flash back may add to the appeal fairly often.
One other thought: at the time of year you list, you might hit them when some or almost all are on the beds. If that is the case, you just about have to find where the beds are, because my experience has been that if they are on the beds it can be pretty tough to catch them any other place. If the water is clear look for the circular depressions. If the water is not clear, you will have to find them with the fly rod, although they say you can find the beds by the fishy odor. My nose is bad enough that I am not sure I could find one that way but seem to remember that one time I did.
If you find a big bed you can catch a lot of them. Be sure to let many of them go, if you are catching really large ones, as you can make a big dent in the population of the big gills in the pond if you overdo how many you catch. I have read that you can also wipe out a big percentage of the gills that bed in a particular spot that way too. This can be done to the point that then next year there might be hardly any of the big gills in the area where they had bedded for many years.
No one pattern has worked for me all the time. I try to switch flies until I find one that works. I am not a very good bluegill fisherman, but fish much harder for them than for anything else.
Time of day makes a difference too. For example, the damselfly pattern has worked best for me during the middle of the day, as opposed to early morning when it did not work. The midge hatched that I have managed to catch on were in the evening, but Rick’s articles indicate that they can be the predominate factor at other times, and maybe all day at times.
You can see that in many cases I like #10s and #12s. The reason is that sure, the smaller versions sometimes work great too, but if you have a #10 or #12 on, it tends to discourage the dinks.
Best of success.
Regards,
Gandolf
Wally,
Cracklebacks work great here in VA; #10 in just about any color (red, orange, yellow, chartreuse Uni-Stretch or Sexi-floss work well). Fish it dry, wet, beadhead, whatever.
Regards,
Scott
Another warm water site is Fly Fish Ohio http://www.flyfishohio.com/ Joe Cornwell has several videos for panfish and smallie patterns.
Without a doubt, I always carry some #10 black furled tail mohair leeches. Rick Z’s fly flat out works.
I have a couple hares ear variations in size 8-12 that do well. Best is a #10 with rabbit fur tail, dubbed body, and black bead chain eyes with soft hackle. The next best would be a #12 bead head soft hackle on a scud hook.
I also “came up with” my own nymph that is my #1 gill catcher. It uses black peacock ice dub and copper wire and bead… That combo seems to be good around these waters too.
All that patterns others have listed (that I have tried) have worked for me. Lots of great patterns listed above!
I would add a #10 Gartside Sparrow. It even works after dark.
Another great resource to check out for good panfish patterns is on Ward Bean’s “Warmwater Fly Tyer” website:
http://warmwaterflytyer.com/
Look at the “Purpletrator” on this site - what do you think of using estaz as a tailing material like that? It looks a lot easier than furling a dubbing loop LOL
For Blue Gill I always like to trail a #12 gold bead hare’s ear behind any other fly that I’m fishing.
#1- Size 12 Gold Bead Hare’s Ear.
#2- Size 12 Olive or Chartuse wooly bugger.
#3- Size 10 Bully Blue gill fly.
Have a great time with your dad,
John G.
Thanks for the replies. Now to narrow them down to half a dozen patterns, considering it’s just going to be dad and only for a few days… 
Tons of good suggestions and honestly bream, sunfish, bluegill whatever, are not uber-picky usually. Here are some of my go-to patterns:
Boudreuax variation
Chewy Boudreaux’s by El Frito, on Flickr
Any sort of smallish popper:
Big appetite by El Frito, on Flickr
Also, they love chironomids. Probably my biggest Gill-getter pattern by far. They will hit them in the dead of winter and the heat of summer:
Bluegill w/Chironomid by El Frito, on Flickr
Basically anything you throw will be taken by blue gill. Don’t rack your brain too hard on this one. Anything with legs will be a hit with them.
Only thing I might add would be a couple small pine squirrel leeches (think slumpbusters, but a tad smaller) to bump along the bottom for the redears. Bluegills love 'em too.
My favorite are #12 small balsa poppers that I make, baby bluegill EP fly and the Classic McGinty wet fly. My newest addition is these tiny Deer Hair mice to try out on 1-3wt this spring.
Those are all awesome pictures, Curtsi!
Curtis…those are all really AWESOME pictures!!!
12-16 Gold bead hares ears and gold bead pheasant tails as well as small white generic poppers bring in the red-ears, pumpkinseeds and hybrids in ponds and lakes here in central Illinois in the summertime. Luke