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Pogo long ago said "We have met the enemy and he is us." I think we
fall in to this trap and have a tendency to perpetuate it by our own
actions. Let me explain what I mean by this and I expect some discussion to
come out of this.
Every warm water fly fisher I have talked to very much gets around to
the point that warm water fly fishing does not get much attention in most
circles. There are not many magazine articles about warm water fly fishing
and there is not much advertised for it in fly fishing catalogues. Rods are
usually listed as trout/panfish. The panfish flies in the catalogues are
usually poppers of some sort.
There was a thread on this board about the demise of the "Warm-Water" fly
fishing magazine. Everyone missed it and wished it was back in print.
The explanation at the time for the demise was that there were not
advertising dollars to keep it going. The producers of products who
advertised in the magazine did not feel they were getting the return for
their dollar. They felt that warm-water fly-fishers did not use and/or buy
much high end equipment. Whether that is true or not is another matter.
What really brings me to write this is the thread that is on the warm-water
area of the Bulletin Board now.
The question was asked of where bluegill flies could be bought. A good
question and nothing wrong with the question.
I will admit having some trouble with some of the responses to that
question. There were several answers to just use trout flies. I know that
many of the trout flies will work to take panfish. I know that some of them
work very well, at times. I also know that there are times when other flies
work even better.
I also know from being in a multitude of swaps that there are many flies
which have been made to use for panfish specifically. Most of the flies that
are in my Favorites articles came in from swaps. The problem is that these
are not commercially available. It is very hard to get commercial places to
stock and sell panfish flies. They do not seem to feel it is worth the
space and effort to sell flies for panfish.
I do know there are several flies that work very well for crappie that
are not tied commercially. I would not want to give these up to fish with
flies that are usually tied for trout.
There are numerous bluegill patterns that I would not give up.
The point of my "rant" is that if we want warm-water fly-fishing to be
recognized and have products developed for it that we will have to make the
demand for them ourselves. Instead of suggesting using trout flies for
bluegills, suggest the folks look for tiers who would make them some flies.
Here on FAOL is a good place to look for help on the Warm-Water board. This
website has two articles a week on warm water subjects. This is more than you
will see any other place. There are a few other web sites that are
specifically for warm-water fly-fishing. You can find them easily by typing
in warm water in Google.com.
You are free to agree or disagree with me on this. The sport and the board
are large enough to handle it. The main thing is to have the freedom to
express your opinion.
Hope you can get out on the water. ~ Rick
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