How many gills or crappie do you catch on a fly?
Maybe better put how many do you catch before you think you have gotten the worth out of the fly?
Rick
How many can 1 fly catch…???..cause I’ll use it as long as it’s able to do so…lol
Hi Rick!
I’m guessing 30 or 40 'gills. Hare’s Ear Nymphs (my favorite throw) are pretty tough flies, but eventually the wrapping gets shredded and the thing starts unravelling completely.
Joe
“Better small than not at all.”
Depends on how much the fly has been damaged (damage done by fish varies). Sometimes more damage, sometimes less damage per fly. I have gone up to the figure Joe is using on just one fly. Not often but sometimes. About 15 or 20 is closer to my average for one fly. After 30 or 40, the fly is totally destroyed.
Robert B. McCorquodale
Sebring, FL
“Flip a fly”
Foam flies get beaten up pretty good, meaning the Gurgle Pop. But the nastier they look it seems the better they work. Sometimes it takes a fish mouth slime to make a fly more attractive to bluegill. Those little wooly buggers I tied for a couple of swaps get beaten up real good, too. Dang those bluegill are nasty bastards! JW
I may be an exception, but for bluegill flies durability is probably the number two factor for me. Don’t have to tell you that hard little mouth is murder on flies. Of the half-dozen flies I use, most any will handle 35 or more.
It would have to be the only thing they’d hit if I couldn’t get 15-20.
If we get even one fish on a bug, we feel it has earned it’s right to freedom. Kinda hate turning them loose to rocks and trees before they perform at least once. 
Durability does seem to vary with some materials used. Some bugs can be made “bullet-proof” during assembly, too.
Watching Lefty Kreh bullet-proof a wooly bugger is (was) educational and handy, to say the least. 
…lee s.
Hey Rick,
I’ve been swapping flies and fishing
with RW’s dry flies for years. I have one
of his original Royal Wolff flies that I
quit counting at 100 bluegills and redears.
It appeared as sound as the day I received
it. Warm regards, Jim
Depends. If it’s the only copy I have of “the only fly they’ll hit” it’s usually one or less B4 I snag it somewhere and lose it. If I have a half dozen of the pattern I usually catch a couple hundred fish on the fly!! <G>
donald
I’ve never really thought about the number of bluegill on a specific fly, but I would guess 50 or more is average. I try to tie my flies to last. For example, if I’m tying on a chenille body, I will smear a drop of super glue on the hook/thread base prior to wrapping the chenille. This body is not going to come loose. I find that bass often mangle flies worse than bluegill and my personal best is 84 bass and 9 large bluegill in one morning on the same fly. I could have kept on fishing that poor streamer, but I thought it deserved to survive. It now sits taped to my computer monitor as a reminder of a very fun day of fishing.
Jim Smith