Here in extreme southeast Oklahoma we have been in drought conditions for all the summer and into the fall. The drought broke when Rita dumped some rain in our area. Alot of ponds dried up to mud holes including one of my favorites. The landowner asked me today over lunch if I would come fish his two ponds to determine what, if any, kind of fish were left. My wife didn’t buy the story but she let me go any way.
Things started out very very slow. The pond was still a good five foot low. There was a midge hatch going on so I fished awhile with a #16 soft hackle and a thread midge dropper. I only picked up one dink of a bream.
I switched to a popper and picked up a couple of nice sized bream then they wanted to see what else was on the menu. I switched to a czech nymph I had stuck in my box and the action picked up for awhile, including a 2lb bass.
Then I switched to a bully spider. I’ve never had great luck with this pattern. Let me tell ya that changed this evening as I went on to catch loads of bream and crappie. The bully I was fishing was rust brown with rust brown legs. I believe this must have been taken as a crawfish imitation.
So I’m happy to say I think this pond will jump back nicely provided we get a little more rain. The only thing absent were the really big bass and the large size bream. I still need to check that other pond but hopefully the drought is behide us.
ps: the trout fishing is still excellent.
Mike B
[This message has been edited by idabelangler (edited 07 October 2005).]
When I read the Wilson’s book on panfishing (I believe it was them who championed the Bully Spider), I tied a whole bunch of them up. Like you, I’ve never had a lot of luck with them. Then this summer I was fishing with my friend and FAOL contributor Wrangler and he cleaned my clock using Bully Spiders. I must not be tying them right. JGW
The bully spider in yellow whoops on any other fly on the ponds I fish. Last weekend I tried to NOT use it, but when three or four other flies would not produce I switched to the yellow bully and caught a mess of gillies and one little bass.
I likewise have tried the Bully on and off for a few years and as far as I can remember [which isn’t very far sometimes!!] I’ve never even had a hit on it. The lakes I fish are usually very, very clear and I put it down to that. However, this year we had blooms on and of all year and I pulled them out again. Nothing. Maybe I’m holding my mouth wrong. It seems to me they drop too fast to fish the top to 10’ level and they’re not heavily weighted enough to fish deep. I have other patterns that fish better in both situations.
Interesting reading this weekend. As we’ve had freeze warnings the last two nights I didn’t try to fish this weedend but did read a bit. I have a set of the “Warmwater Flyfishing” from the 90’s and was reading an article written by the Wilsons on winter BG fishing. Quote - “for the 0-6 foot depths we use our own bully spiders in a #12”.
The “shallow” pond I fish is 13-17’ deep. Most of our weedlines in most of the lakes are 17-20’ deep because of the extreme water clarity we have. Only on the flats on a few of the lakes in the spring and perhaps later in the evening at other times of the year would a fly swimming at the 6’ level be useful! Always something useful comes out of FAOL discussions!
Let me add some more information. The ponds here are very cloudy green because the runoff is from rich farm soil and it never freezes. Also I fish in shallow coves in one lake, the other pond is just shallow. I guess that explains why the bully spider works for me.
The Bully’s spider is an excellent fall pattern. It’s best to fish it in a longish, light tippet. Takes will almost invariably come on the fall and be quite light. I like a bright pink body with white legs - the bluegill just lose it over that combination.
The BS works well in my ponds. Preferred colors are the yellow/black and rust colors. After the fish get “conditioned” on the BS, I do have to rotate them out for a few months before going back to them.
There is a southern flyfishing site where the tout the merits of the bully spider tied with beadchain [or lead dumbell eyes] at the butt of the fly. This would give quite a bit more depth and also have an “upright” hook to cut down garbage hooking. I’ll have to tie up some for next year. [I think we’re close to the end here for this year. I like the little rods and don’t like to fish really deep with them.] I’ve seen reference to the pink/white gilly before. I’ve been using a lot of yellow and chart. this year because of the water colour.
Jim -
Go to [url=http://www.southernflyfishersforum.com:8014f]www.southernflyfishersforum.com[/url:8014f] and access their pattern achrives. It’s on page 8 I think - beadchain bluegill bully. Just remember you’re tying the fly upside down and you have to reverse the side you tie the legs on. Let us know how you do on it. I just watched the late weather and it’s going to be C O L D here for awhile!
I too tied some after reading about them in the book. But like others they were not productive. I think because try as I may, I had a hell of a time trying to tie those rubber legs on as discribed in the recipe. I never could get them to stick out 90 degrees from the hook. So I figured that since I had other flys that were productive, those would be one less I needed to worry about.
Anglerdave - There is a trick to tying the fly legs on easily. Their book does a terrible job of explaining it. I’ve read that Terry Wilson was origionally a school teacher - I hope the kids had an easier time of it. <G> Go to [url=http://www.warmwaterflyfisher.com:9f9be]www.warmwaterflyfisher.com[/url:9f9be] site, then to / fly tyers bench / fly of the month for March 2002. Tying the legs on correctly is dependant on three things - 1.) getting the lead “shoulder” in the correct place; 2.) using round legs; and 3.} tying them in on top of one another. You can then use your fingers and wraps of thread to force them into position.