I fished the neighborhood pond this evening. I picked up a nice bass on a top water chartruese stealth bomber. After that bass, I missed about 10 other bites which looked like Crappies just rolling on the fly.
It was very frustrating b/c I would let them take it as to not set the hook to early but to no avail. Is this just a simple refusal or is there something else going on? Should I just have changed to something smaller? or different color? Go sub-surface? Anyone else experience this??
Hi warmfishnc;
Yep! happened to me several times this summer. I was typically using a yellow gurgle pop and crappie come up and roll at the fly but not bite numerous times. Finally one would bite. I would have tried something sub surface but the bass & gill action was so good that I didn’t want to miss it. This behavior seemed to happen more frequently if not always at dusk, how about your incident?
Oh, by the way it was fun to watch.
Wayneb
I too have had this happen when using surface flies for bass/bluegills. Crappie would hit even large bass-sized topwater flies, but would almost NEVER get hooked. I did get a couple of them, but nothing compared to the number of “hits”. Its almost like they are rolling on it, or bumping it, but not really biting it. A slow subsurface presentation will usually get them to bite, though.
Hi WFNC,
I don’t often run across crappie in my fly fishing ventures so I’ve never seen this behavior from from crappie. My own experience has been that rolling behavior occurs all the time with brim, They will actually roll their bodies across a Gurgle Pop as if they are trying to sink it. Once underwater, the brim and his friends toy with and nip at the fly but seldom give you a good bite that results in a hookup. Sometimes the brim will tail swat a fly which results in a loud splash but no hookup either. Obviously the fish are not hungry but still very active. I’ve written several threads about this behavior and gotten some interesting ideas but no definitive explanation. 8T 
I am kinda in agreement with Eight, but for a different reason. I believe they try to roll it to get it under water so tehy can attack it, but I think they do this because they fly is too large. When I encounter this, I will jump down a fly size or two and seem to have better luck hooking up. Just my experiences.
Drop 'em a size 8 or so Hares Ear Nymph, slightly weighted…WHAM!
This is the PERFECT situation for the ‘popper-dropper’ technique.
A small nymph behind the topwater fly will get most of these fish for you, without sacrificing the fun of the topwater hits.
Buddy
Amigos,
This thread offers for me a first-time opporunity to become knowledgeable about the defiinition of the term “rolling on the fly”.
I’ve always been curious about what the term means but never took the time to research its definition.
My initial guess was that “rolling” means the crappie swims to within mere inches of the angler’s fly pattern – but remaining below my fly – before at the last second reversing course and diving for the depths. Always staying BELOW the angler’s fly.
Reading this thread, it sounds to me like my guess was wrong? Truly, I never imagined the possibility that a crappie, or any fish, does something like swimming upward at high speed and leaping into the air just high enough that its body “rolls” across an insect floating on the surface. (The fish’s motive being to submerge and thereby incapicate the insect).
Do fish really, actually roll over the top of intended prey items or are you guys just pulling a Kansas farm boy’s leg? Maybe this has happened to me while I’ve been fishing and I wasn’t knowledgeable enough to make an informed gripe in any of my stories.
Anybody on the BB know of a video link where I can see, photographed in slow motion, a fish “rolling” on a fly? That would be really cool to watch!
Seeing the footage would let me think about solutions to warmfishernc’s “rolling” problem. Because it sounds to me like warmfishernc’s problem is my problem, too. Everybody’s problem maybe.
Joe
“Better small than not at all.”
My experience is that you are probably hooking the crappie, but it is in the thin tissue of their mouth and the hook tears out very quickly. They have their mouth open very wide and there is no hcance for the hook to set in any other place.
Bass and gills just don’t have that think memebrane and thus are caught when tis happens.
Rick who has not figured out how to change this.
Hi Joe,
I think that both of your ideas are correct. As I’m using the term to describe blue gill behavior, I’m talking about the fish physically rolling its body over the top of the fly. When I experience this behavior, the fish doesn’t become airborne but instead raises it’s head out of the water just enough to reach over the top of the fly and pulls the rest of its body over in a downward dive. The brim doesn’t become air borne----no mantra ray crushing a row boat here! The tail swat involves a much larger surface commotion. Here, the brim swims near the fly and seems to strike the fly very hard with its tail. This produces a startling about of splash but few hook ups.
Your second idea also occurs with brim but more frequently with trout. The fish charges the fly from below but at the last second changes it mind and reverses course back to the bottom. This typically creates welling up of water around the fly but not much splash or surface commotion.
All three behaviors have one think in common—no hook ups. Others may use different terms or have different interpretations for these terms. 8T
That’s how I caught this one a long while ago. Foul hooked but still caught on the pond surface.
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I pursue crappie using a flyrod alot,if you see a slight v or wake coming to the top but not really busting the top it is probably crappie running minnows to the top of the water,they will also feed on mayfly nymphs with zest.We have a two acre mill pond and i have blue duns that hatch oct-march and i catch them on small 16-20 mayfly dries and emergers and can be just as hard to catch as spooky trout,fun on my one man boat too!
Thanks, 8T. I guess maybe the term refers to any “miss” by a fish rising to a surface fly. Which could include smacking the fly with the side of the head, tail swatting the fly, swimming over the fly to submerge it, and reversing course at the last second and creating a big swirl under it.
I feel better already; fish – especially bluegills but perhaps crappie, too, for all I know – have abused me in this manner lots of times. Did I say “lots of times”? Sorry, don’t even get me started!
So…warmfishernc: I guess my only advice is to just keep casting and hope for better luck. Helpful, aren’t I?
Robert, you only posted that crappie photo to torture us poor Midwesterners.
Joe
“Better small than not at all.”
Joe,
I’ve been abused this way myself on many trips. When the brim are pulling this trick, you can’t buy a hook-up with a million dollars and a brand new Sage. 8T
I went to a local pond this evening and used the popper dropper technique.
I had a gurgle pop for the popper and one of my “tinsel” flies for the dropper. The tinsel flies are easy to tie and quite effective. A bunch of maribou tied in at the tail (white seems to work the best) and then wrap tinsel (silver) up to the eye. Sometimes I tie some red thread at the head and sometimes I just add a bead (like this one).
Jeff
Thanks for all the input guys.
With some new knowledge, I returned to my pond Sunday armed with a crease fly and a crappie candy dropped about 3’ behind it. An hour later I had brought to hand 9 crappie and 1 nice bass. I feel redeemed.
I don’t like these new early evenings.
Been following this thread with interest. Thanks for sharing your techniques and experiences folks. I look forward to trying out some of these wonderful tips. Great photos of some beautiful fish too. Thanks.