That’s a very nice bluegill.
Jeff
Looks like a Shellcracker (Redear Sunfish) to me. Red around the gill flap is the easiest way to tell. Nice one, WP. 8 inch? What did it bite on?
Dixie;
That is a 3 - 31/2" reel. Warren caught 3 like that and I know where hehehehehehehe!!
dixieangler,
I responded to your question, but, I must have forgot to hit the submit button. I did not measure any of them, but, they were really nice. I caught 6 of them plus one bass. They were staging in a shallow area of the river where another creek was dumping warmer water into the main river. I think they were thinking about spawning. I released all of them. I would have stayed longer, but, a nasty storm was blowing in and there is just something about standing in water holding an 8 1/2 foot lightening rod and saying, I bet you can’t hit me, that bothers me! They were caught on a “Reverse Spider” that was a FOTW. The fly was suppose to be a steelhead pattern, but, I liked the looks of it and downsized everything to make it a trout fly. It really produced good results all last year. The trout stopped hitting it during the winter, but, are back on it now.
I tie it on a Mustad 9672 size 12 hook. Do a thread base, tie in about 6 herls from a pheasant tail for the tail, run the thread to the thorax area and wrap about 4 turns of .025 lead for weight, cover lead with thread, tie in a brown hen back feather behind the hook eye and wrap it so the feather barbs point forward over the hook eye instead of back over the body, tie in dark olive chenille behind the collar you just made, run the thread back to the tail tie in point, wrap the chenille back to the tail tie in point and tie it off there and do a 3 turn whipfinish at the tail tie in point. Tied this way makes it very durable. Everyone I have given this fly to has had very good results with it. It looks odd but the hackle opens and closes like an umbrella and really has a lot of movement.
Tie up some and try them in your area and let me know how it worked for you.
When you say “Reverse Spider”, are talking about a “Reverse Soft Hackle” wet fly? A spider to me is something like a Spongy Spider, Gill Getter, Bream Killer, etc. that looks like a spider by the way it is tied. If I’m not mistaken, the British call soft hackles “spiders.”
dixieangler,
Go to the FAOL home page and in the Search Window below where the FOTW is pictured, type in Reversed Spider and click on “go”. The next page that comes up will show the Reversed Spider as tyed for steelhead. There will be several items there and I think the Reversed Spider is number 4. There will be a step-by-step with pictures showing how to tie it. I downsized everything and used dark olive chenille and brown hen hackle. Where they show the chenille wrapped over its self on the front half, so it will have a taper, I wrapped .025 lead wire and only have to wrap the chenille from the front to the back and the under wrapped wire will give me the taper.
You released one of the best eating fresh water fish out there. I released over 100 this past week into ziplock bags in the freezer. Took me three trips to find the beds on this pond but located them Thursday evening and caught them then, Sat. morning and yesterday evening. My favorite time of year to fish and catch redear.
2nd PM sent, Warren. I don’t know why you didn’t get the first one. Thanks.
dixieangler,
I have received both of your PM’s and they both say the same thing: “This message has been removed by it’s author before it was delivered”.
I will PM you my home e-mail address and you can reply to it.
Warren
Stupid new system. :roll:
very nice bluegill(redear)! 
fun fun fun
i love catching bigger ones on my little 3weight
That is weird. Why does a search from the home page find it but a search from the SEARCH section not find it?
Since you haven’t been forthcoming, I’m going to guess that it was Bedford Lake the Elk River a little upstream of Tim’s Ford.
Jack, I know that you have heard of spring creeks, have you ever seen a spring river? The Collins sinks into gravel in Cannon County (I think) and re-emerges later. I think that’s sort of neat. See if you can get access to Charles Creek. Give us a report. It has some deep pools and it might be good for 'tooning. The cattle guards might be too much of a hassle, though. I don’t know how it is now. I would take a wading staff to get past them and to deal with snakes, even if you are 'tooning. Check out the creeks that you drive over. There used to be some little gems in your part of the state.
Ed
Ed,
No, they were caught on the Duck River, but, thanks for the 2 leads on other spots!
Don’t forget that the Duck has had some very good fishing for Rock Bass too! You’ll usually have to get it down a bit in the water column. If you want to work upstream of a lake, the Stones River upstream from Percy Priest lake has some very good fishing. But I don’t know exactly where that would be…
Glad to point out a few spots for you. I would have thought that you already knew about them.
Ed
Ed,
Thanks…I was just “pulling your leg” about the 2 leads. The Duck also has some terrific black perch fishing and I really enjoy them as table fare! I have not had a chance to fish Bedford in the past 2 years. Since they have not had a caretaker there in 2 years to make sure the creel limits have been kept, the lake may be void of any good fishing. I hope to give it a try, maybe this weekend, if there is no wind. I will just purchase the one-day pass and if the lake is still holding some good fish, I may just get the one-year pass.