I am new to the board and new to fly fishing. I am currently fishing with an old spin/fly rod with a reel from wally world, and I fish in little 1/2 to 1 acre farm ponds in central illinois. Right now I’m limited to fishing little poppers until I order some flies.
My question, if you had to choose 5 flies (aside from poppers) to fish with for bluegill/little bass, what would they be? I am on a budget and can’t afford to experiment with dozens of flies and I would appreciate the considerable expertise you all seem to possess in droves.
Mr. Bassman, John can put it all into focus for you. He sent me some Wolly Buggers, Black Leeches, Corn Flies amongest some other beautiful flies. In addition I would reccomend Clouser Crawdads and Black Knat. These are all wet flies and they work!! Poppers are Ok but when the going gets tough, the tough get with wet flies to produce the Bluegills and the Bass. good luck, Jonezee
IlGill,
Welcome to the best site going! You’ll find plenty of help here.
I also fish mainly farm ponds, & my “go to” flies are: sponge spiders & beetles, red butt ants, & my favorite, the yellow with grizzly hackle/red tail wooly worm, which is a wet fly that is a killer on a slow dead drop.
Mike
I fish ponds regularly and have found the following flys to be very effective: 1) wolly buggers, 2)prince nymphs, 3)squirrel-tail nymphs, 4) bully spiders 5) and just about any nymph tied as a dropper behind a popper. Any fly with rubber legs added is more effective in a pond. Good fishing!
I want to thank Jonezee, for the compliment on my flies. I would very much agree with his choice of flies for pond fishing. I have tied some small crawdad pattern clousers that work great. When pond fishing. I carry a small box that is almost as exact as he has listed. John
Thank you all for your comments, I have a much better idea of what to do now. I also found the panfish archives and have been voraciously reading through it. Jonezee, what is a corn fly? I haven’t seen a reference to it anywhere.
Same recommendations as the others adding Mosquito Dry Fly, Mini-Bugger in Green and Old Reliable(Hare’s Ear Nymph) With or without a bead head.
Il Gil you need to get yourself tieing your own flies. After the innitial purchase of equipment the flies are better producers than the store bought stuff because you can adjust the flys to make them work better for you. $50.00 to $100.00 will get you everything you need. Maybe even less on ebay.
Send me your address and I’ll send you some flies.
My wife would kill me if I dropped that much at one time on fly tying equipment. I have too many other hobbies at the moment that require minimum investments(I make chainmail jewelry). That said I will plan on getting into it sometime, hopefully sooner rather than later. The intricacy of it all appeals to me.
Thank you for your generous offer of flies. I’ll PM my address to you.
I was wondering the same thing! Anyone out there have a recipe for them?
I’m a newby to the board and have a very limited experience fly fishing (started 3 yrs ago, tying 2 yrs ago). Most of my experience is on a small farm pond going after gills and bass. Have fished the local reservoir with the fly a number of times also, but haven’t made it to the mtns to fish trout yet—its a goal right now.
For what its worth, my deadlier patterns here are various patterns I’ve found online and tied myself, but my top three are: the yellow-bellied nymph, a white maggot pattern, and the gold ribbed hares ear
I’ve recently tied a couple dozen jelly beans and can’t wait to try them out after reading all the buzz about how effective they are for gills, what a great site!
Here is the recipe for the Corn Fly that I sent to Jonezee. Here is the recipe and a pic of it. It is a simple fly and very effect on many kinds of fish even though I designed it for fishing for Carp. John
CDC Corn Fly For Carp
Hook: Mustad 94840 #10-#14
Thread: UTC 70 Yellow
Body: Yellow Fine Chenille
Tail: Light Dun CDC Puff
Head: Cover with SH Hard as Nails
IlGill;
Welcome to the best site on the net. Join us in the chat room some evening. Just remember to wipe your feet and no cleats! LadyFisher likes it neat and clean!!
One more suggestion. AlCampbell’s “Crapie Candy”.
It’s in the Archives and maybe you have a friend that ties that can whip some up for you. Do not, I repeat, Do not watch or you will be addicted too!!
I know if I witness fly tying in person you’d have to pry the bobbin and hackle pliers out of the my hands to get me to stop! Maybe I can wrangle a vise for a christmas present.
As it is I’ve been a little overwhelmed with the generousity of people on this board, be it the free advice or an offer of free flies from Rick Z and Greg Hunsicker. I can see why fly fishing is so addicting; the people draw you in. Thank you
There’s been a pile of really good lists for you so far, and really, there’s not much left to add, but I can’t resist giving my fab five (in no particular order):
pheasant tail
soft hackles (olive, black, and peacock bodies have been working best for me
hoppers
flying ants (I tie mine with yellow z-lon wings)
foam beetles
Hope it helps!
oh yeah, learning to tie your own is a lot of fun, not real expensive to get started (materials at craft stores can be way cheaper than most fly shops), and allows you to create exactly what the local fishies are after.
I just love flies that are easy to tie and proven effective! I’ll definitely give the pattern a try–maybe not just for gills, either. I’d like to expand my horizons and try for some carp with it also.
I would add a black Gill Buster to all of the above. One of my most effective pond flies. Shoot, it’s one of the most effective of any type of water. JGW
Welcome aboard!!! I enjoy using a black #8 wooly bugger with very short strips, alowing time for the bugger to just hang there for a bit in between strips…
