This spring, the bluegills have been much more hestant to take my flies. I have often seen them rise up to the fly, almost touch it and then swim quickly away. I thought it was the smell, so I washed my hands, tried bacon grease, and a couple of other things to no avail. Saturday I was fishing a pond where the water is clear enough to see what the fish are doing. It was the same problem, a light touch and no hook. Finally as one bluegill was turning away from a mountain dew fly, I gave it two quick jerks. The fish turned and grabbed it so deeply I could not get it back out. A short time later I was stripping in a foam spider and I saw a fish following it. Again a couple of quick jerks and I had the meanest full size green sunfish I have ever caught. It seems I have been so busy getting the perfect fly, be it popper, spider, leech, whatever that I was neglecting the other part of fly fishing, making the fly appear as something alive. I am working on my retrieve philosophy before I get back to the water. I need to get a retreive that more closely resembles live food. I guess that sometimes, a slow retreive is not the correct one. When the Bluegills are chasing and feeding on small fry, the fly had better act like it is scared to attract a bite. I just have not figured out how to make the fly jump forward just when a fish swims up to it. Most of the time I cannot see them.
Cardinal,
Darn fish’ll teach us something EVERY trip…IF we let 'em! What they want & how they want it presented can vary day to day. We just need to adapt as you did. When they’re not hitting, I try different presentations before I change flies.
Mike
You can call me Mike & you can call me Mikey…Just remember that this site’s about sharing!
My experience with blue gill is that they often look at a still fly and often leave it be, as you describe. Get it moving away from them, either steady or jerky, and they give chase, but again don’t strike. Get it wiggling, almost in place (like a struggling bug thrashing legs but not going anywhere), and they can’t stand but to be first to digest it.