Just wondering what success others have had on Bream with Fly Rod?
I managed about 8 today here in AL. The water is still very cool but temps are hitting mid 70’s this week. I caught these on a BH Pheasant tail with rubber legs in size 16. Rigged 6 feet below indicator on 5x flouro, allowing the wind ripples to cause the fly to twitch. Water was clear in the shallows and teal green in the deeper sections of the river. The fight was impressive. I pictured the fish with a quarter and one with a penny next to my Batenkill reel just to show the sheer size. I literally could not hold them in my hand like normal bream over the dorsal around the belly. Had to cradle or lip. What a blast! Can’t wait to do it again.
And no these photos were not doctored.
Those big boys qualify as “tiie" bream. The kind that are so big you have to hold them up against your "tiie” to get the hook out.
I remember when I was back in the Air Force and myself and my buddy Gramps went fishing on Holly Lake outside of DeFuniak Springs, Florida. We caught a mess of crappies on minnows and Gramps sort of dozed off in the boat.
I picked up a fly rod and started tossing a “Sneaky Pete” popper in amongst the stumps. I hooked a colossal bluegill and just as I was swinging it into the boat ol’ Gramps woke up and rocked the boat and hit my line and knocked that big boy off. That bluegill was 15" long if he was an inch. I barely had half of his body out of the water when Gramps woke up and released him.
I remember a lake just south of Dothan, Alabama that was crystal clear with a white sand bottom. We stopped and looked at that lake one time and I swore I saw hubcaps swimming around in it that is how big the bluegills were. They were spooky as any trout too. I forget the name of the lake but for a long time the world’s record bluegill came from that lake.
I apologize for calling “bream” by the name of “bluegill.” I’m a Yankee and I just can’t help it. :lol:
Beautiful fish! For some reason, they haven’t started hitting yet in my neck of the woods but I think another week or so of warm weather and they’ll start. I live on a 50 acre lake that has lots of big bream. My personal best was a nice 14 inch bream last spring caught on a size 10 black leech pattern. I can’t wait to get back out in my kayak with my four wt rod.
Avalon,you may have been close to Merritt’s mill pond in Marianna,FL.It is a shallow,spring fed,200 acre lake that has really big shellcrackers.The daily limit is 10 with a 10 inch minimum.
I’ve never fished it but it is pretty famous in the Southeast.Maybe I’ll get there one day but bream fishing doesn’t get the hype of bass or trout fishing.
About 3 miles from my house, there is a county park with a spring fed lake built in 1896. The springs flow even when we have very dry weather, and the water comes out of the ground at 68 degrees year round. The lake has some of the largest bluegill I have ever caught. Last year, I caught three over 11 inches!! The growing season has a lot to do with sizes like this and in the pictures. When they get this big, they are a load on a 4 wt rod!
My biggest on the fly rod are 2 of 'em at 11"…1 on the 'boo & 1 on the 3 weight. One taken on a black & red epoxy ant, & 1 on a yellow w/grizzly hackle woolly worm. I continue to search for that elusive 12 incher…a real trophy here in Ohio. When I get it, it will be photographed & released.
Mike
I got lucky one day in a lake that’s managed for trophy panfish here in SE PA. I caught 7 that looked like they’d been punched out with a cookie cutter. They all measured 10 inches long and 7 inches from top to bottom. The biggest one I ever hooked came many years ago when I was a starving college student in Tennessee. Caught it in Reelfoot Lake, it was a little over 12 inches long, and tasted just as good as the crappie when we fried it up.
On my local creek, if I catch one 7 or 8 inches long I’ve had a good day size wise. I found by using larger flies, size 6 Sneaky Petes or baitfish patterns 2-2 1/2 inches long. I’ve cut the number of sunfish I catch in half but increased the average size to between 5 and 7 inches.
I grew up in Montana fishing trout. I got to spend the last few years in Wisconsin and I absolutely fell in love with warmwater flyfishing. I would much rather fish stillwater for crappie and gills than fish for trout in any river.
In fact, my favorite fish is the crappie. What a cool fish. The biggest gill I ever caught was between 9-10", so I never caught any hogs. Biggest crappie was maybe 13" so again, nothing huge. Of course, in Wisconsin the growing season isn’t so great and a 10" gill is a pig.
Its kinda a dream of mine to spend some time in Kentucky or someplace each year when I get old enough to retire (that’ll be like 25 years though )
You guys are lucky to have those opportunities…don’t take those fish too much forgranted dreaming of trout 8)
Pound for pound there are no harder fighting fish in the world than a big bluegill. It is amazing sometimes what they can do to a 5 wt. I usually fish them with a 3 wt and boy is it a blast!
Caught a 13incher 3 years ago fishing for bass. Last year i got 1 that 11 inches but had over 50- 9 incher. They are fun to catch on a 3wt flyrod for sure. Cant wait to get back in my yak.
Penny
Quarter