Great job with the Improved McGinty, Joe. Nice catch you got there :D. Specks, Bluegill, and even a Shellcracker. Now I just know you had a ball. Great article. Thanks. That fly has my confidence. It does happen but its rare when I don’t get a bite on it.
Yep. That’s basically what I do. Within about three feet (that magical three foot zone) off the weeds along the shoreline works great from a watercraft. I even cast directly from shore when bank fishing with good luck. Its a good fly for shallow or suspending fish, both Specks and bream (occasional bass too). Yes I use these tactics for Specks during the off-spawn months (usually about the second day after a cold front) early morning or late afternoon low-light periods but not during summer. During fall and winter when the water is cold and they are in close to shore chasing minnows or insects. I don’t fish much during summer because the fish don’t bite well when its really hot. I fish the fly very slowly after letting it drop and it drops slowly being unweighted. So I can count down the drop depth. I retrieve the fly with slow start and stop strips of the line if they haven’t bitten it already on the drop. I typically use a 2x (6lb.) tippet of standard Berkley tippet material but a fluorocarbon tippet is handy when the wind or current doesn’t push the fly and tippet under so I sometimes use the same tippet size but with Seaguar fluorocarbon. I use the heavier tippet due to the occasional LMB so I have a better chance of getting the bass in than on a lighter tippet and the Specks and bream don’t seem to be leader shy with the 2x so far (I may have to go lighter if that becomes the case). If the fish are deeper I may switch to a Crappie Candy to get the fly deeper quicker and if they are really deep, I use a slow full sink fly line on my spare reel spool with the Crappie Candy. Imagine what the Improved McGinty might do on bedding Specks during the spawn :).
It doesn’t ONLY work for me just in close to the shoreline weeds or grass. I’ve used it in deeper water. Even slow fishing it from the bottom but of course it would probably be better if it was weighted in this case.
I want to remind you, anlgerdave of the time we went fishing and you did not want to use one of my flies, until I had landed several fish, and you had none. Anyway I think you are too late, we have corrupted Joe now.
Sorry to disappoint you but the fly rod is an eight foot two-piece EagleClaw Black Eagle fiberglass parabolic (full flex) 5/6wt. and the reel is an Okuma 5/6 Sierra. The fly line I use is 5wt. so I call the outfit a 5wt. even though it is really a 5/6wt. Scientific Anglers WF-5-F and on the spare spool I have Scientific Anglers WF-5-S. I got the whole rod and reel outfit including spare spool, backing, fluorocarbon, and the slow full sinking fly line from a local hardware dealer for around $120. Not bad.
BTW, you won’t find my Black Eagle full flex fiberglass fly rod on the EagleClaw web-site’s rod listings. The same model (BEG300) will be there but in graphite only. My 6/7wt. Featherlight tip flex fiberglass won’t be there either (mine is black colored with a foam grip, not yellow with a cork grip).
Now, now, fellas; please try to remain calm. I went out yesterday afternoon and caught my first female crappie of the season using…using…what else?..OLD RELIABLE. Later I did switch to something else, though, but you’ll just have to wait to learn what that was. 8)
Joe isn’t the only one who is too slow at trying new flies. I have been slow to try new flies. It is hard for me to tie on a fly that I haven’t caught any bluegills on before.
Crappiecat, are you looking for the pattern for the improved McGinty? I can’t remember where I have seen it, but know I have.
My original or traditional. Sorry for the poor photo as I took the picture in a hurry.
I have heard that fly shops are not stocking the classic McGinty or the Improved McGinty. Even Joe said as much. I suppose that all the latest flies are more important to them and other fly anglers than the classics. That is a shame. You will probably have to get someone to tie some for you if you don’t tie flies yet or get the fly shop to tie some for you. If you don’t tie flies yet, can’t find any, or the shops won’t tie any for you, send me a PM.
For new flies I usually use the last half hour or so of fishing to see what other flies might work. You know wha the fish have been biting, so this is a time to try new flies to see if they will work.
That is how I have come up with some of my favorites.
The more flies you have that will work (or you have confidence in) the better chance you have of catching fish.
The can all get choosy at times.
Rick
PS I just knew that Joe couldn’t keep it off his line that long.
How Joe got that Shellcracker to pose for a photo is beyond me. They won’t stay still long enough for me to get a photo of them most of the time but I do catch them even though I don’t have photos of them yet.
Actually, that red ear wore himself out flopping on the ground during the time it took me to walk back up the lake shore to my pickup, find my camera and return.
Despite the suffocation stress it was suffering during that time, I was surprised the fish hadn’t somehow flopped back into the lake. (It did, after all, shake the hook free of its jaw while flopping on the ground.) Also, I was surprised that it held still long enough for me to get my camera unlimbered and take the shot.
Red ears are one super-energetic panfish. For me here in Kansas they are an incidental catch. But in waters where they are abundant and grow to size, I can understand how a person could easily become obsessed with fishing for red ears.
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