I am looking for some good flies for bluegill and suunfish. i fish them regularly with a spinning rod and i would like to start with a fly rod.
any and all trout flies will catch panfish! but i use this one all season long
Hi cdpaul,
Go to Rick Z’s feature on the home page of this site “Muddy Waters”, go to the bottom of the page and click on “archive of panfish.” Look through the articles and there is quite a bit on patterns there. In particular look at the four features by Rick on his favorite flies.
Beyond that, I like small hackleless buggers like the “olive and orange” and others. Olive is a great color.
I have done well with nymphs such as a pheasant tail, a gold ribbed hare’s ear, wets like the gray hackle peacock and others.
My most productive top water is a foam spider, and I tie them in #10 and #12. Yellow, peach, black, and chartreuse are good colors.
A small popper is a hoot to fish, and I don’t think there is anything much more fun in warm water fly fishing than catching nice size bluegills on a #12 or #14 popper. It just doesn’t get much better than that.
I also carry mayfly dries, and at times if I can match the hatch when they are taking mayfly dries off the surface they will work. (Truth is bluegills will take dry trout flies pretty well.)
Another good fly is a damelfly nympth. Have done well with them.
Regards,
Gandolf
I’ll second Rick Z’s patterns. But normally anything with bead chain eyes and rubber legs will draw panfish out.
Green Weenie (sometimes called “greenie weenie” so the name rhymes)…I tie them without a bead head but I’ve also seen tying info online that adds a bead head. Both versions have weight under the body material and both are very simple to tie (very very simple).
Very effective on a slow troll behind a float tube (or cast and slow-retrieve if you prefer).
Poppers!!! Crawfish patterns as well (small ones)…I’ve cleaned plenty of bluegill and found crawfish parts in their stomachs so they clearly enjoy the taste…
Terrestrials (ants, spiders, hoppers)…
Mid-sized gills are like teenage boys…if the object in front of them even remotely resembles food, they’ll try it. 
If you look at the thread “What’s your biggest Bluegill” on the Warmwater BB http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?t=29362, you will find that a number of people included their top producing patters towards the end of the thread. If you are not familiar with the specific pattern, go to the FAOL search engine and type in that pattern name. It should give you a photo and directions.
Good luck.
Jim Smith
Hair beetles work for me and they are easy to tie. Pinch down the barb, stack a bunch of hair (remove the under fur) and tie down the hair starting at about the center of the hook to the bend with the cut ends toward the bend of the hook. This forms the under body of the fly. Next fold the hair back to the eye and tie it down so the hair is on the top of the hook. Trim the hair like you would for an Elk Hair Caddis. Whip finish and cement.
Here is a link to another way to tie them. http://invictaflies.tripod.com/id80.htm or just search for ‘hair beetles’ there are tons out there. OR just go to the home page and search the FAOL database for beetles.
These poppers fish great, and they are fast, easy and cheap to tie -
Tie up an Elk Hair Caddis in #10:
Blonde Elk Hair, Black dubbed body, Brown hackle.
Twitch retrieve it like a small popper.
If you want to fish a tandem rig, tie up a wet fly:
#16 Hook, Fine marabou-tip tail, fine black uni-wire, black saddle hackle tied wet.
Fish it on a 12" dropper
Never met a bluegill that would turn either one of them down:D
I have had some good luck with this fly for both gills and crappie this year… Simple to tie as well! Black buck tail, small brown hackle, peacock herl body with brown thread. Here is also a stringer from 1.5 hour trip earlier this year. Do love those panfish!
I seem to have luck with smaller sized bead head hare-ear style nymphs.
Best pattern I used for really big ones was a gold bead head olive wolly bugger size 10, with a dark olive tail. I use smaller patterns rather than larger patterns for bluegill.
I’ve had good luck lately with a silver bead head and a pinch of Doug Swisher’s Rub-a Dub in olive or yellow.
cdpaul,
I like the Briminator for panfish and bass.
I’ll try to post a pic later on.
IF you want, drop me a PM with your Email address, and I’ll send you a .pdf file on how to tie it.
Kirk
One of the best patterns is a Pom Pom spider in green, with white legs. Super-easy and cheap to tie.
Any small foam bug with legs will work well.
And lastly, an Elk-Hair Caddis, tied in all black, or black and grey, is as good a cricket imitation as there is.