Chavez,

You wrote near the end:

"Could it be that all the places I fish for panfish, the fish don't care and will eat anything I give them (not likely I think)?"

Actually, you've figured it out, sort of.

Most 'bluegill flies' are easy, quick ties. Things where you can put together a fly box full in an evening's tying.

Not because these 'work better' than the more imitative trout flies, but because they work just as well.

Panfish like the bluegills, redears, whatever they are, are NOT trout. They do feed differently. Like all of the 'sunfishes', these fish are opportunistic predators, and you don't need to 'match' anything for them to strike.

It's the 'presentation' that matters. A bit of chenille wrapped around the hook will catch the same fish as a well tied GRHE as long as both are presented properly.

So, you can (and I 'prefer' to in most cases), use trout style flies to catch bluegills and such. I like tying the trout flies, and since I tie as a form of relaxation, I'm not too concerned, in most cases, about how long a fly takes to tie. I've been catching a lot of big bluegills lately on a #10 stonefly nymph that's pretty relistic and takes quite some time to tie. This is in warmwater lakes in Arizona, though, so the 'gills here have never seen a stonefly.....

But, many of the trout flies are fun to tie and the 'gills and occasional bass don't seem to mind them.

They work just fine, but they don't work 'better', nor worse, than the panfish specific flies that we see out there.

It's the fisherman, not the equipment.

Good Luck!

Buddy