Bluegill Tactics and Techniques

[flybob]

Bluegill Tactics and Techniques,

After reading “Bluegill Fly Fishing and Flies” by Terry and Roxanne Wilson, I decided to take my newfound knowledge and insights into the psyche of the gill to my favorite local bluegill factory for a test drive. Up until now, my relationship with gills has been pretty random, “hmmmm, this looks like it should work”, or “hey this looks like a good spot”, and no doubt with great results! Well recently I went on a gill hunt to some new waters and was pretty much skunked! There were plenty of big fat gills cruising and they did show a little interest in my offerings, but to no avail, the hookups eluded me.
I decided that it was time to study these little beautiful fighters that have recently captured my heart. I did a little research and found this book, I ordered it a couple of weeks ago and it arrive a week later. With a cigar in hand and of course my casual martini to complete the accoutrements, I resigned myself to a peaceful evening of reading and learning. In two days I completely digested the contents of the book, and an excellent book it was! Everything you ever wanted to know about the gill and more, equipment, fly patterns and recipes, tactics for each season, the annual cycles of the fish and much, much more. If you are truly interested in the life of the bluegill, this is the book for you.

I arrived at the lake, mid-week, mid morning and was surprised/elated to see that there was and outdoor class in session, probably 5th graders, studying the aquatic habitat of the lake. I wonder how many of these youngsters will be influenced for life from this little event. Other than the kids, I pretty much had the lake to myself, SWEET! I immediately headed to one of my most productive spots, just to see if they were gone, yup, gone, just like the book stated for this time of the year.

I made a beeline for a section of the lake that was comprised of a series of pools connected by short stretches of stony riffles. Reaching downstream of the first pool, I tied on a weighted Hare’s Ear Flashback under a “Turn-On” indicator,(thanks Stanbery, I love those things), and tossed it into the center of the pool. I kept casting for a few minutes before I started to get that familiar tap, tap, tap…. While I moved around the pool hunting for the pockets of gill that would be waiting for the sun to hit the surface, again, as the book had stated, BAM! I got a serious hit, as I quickly lifted the rod tip to get a good hookset, the line just went dead with a good heavy bend in the 2wt rod, not a typical reaction of a hooked gill. All of a sudden the line shot off the spool with the drag rapidly clicking away, I felt this before at another place with a broken line to show for it. In this case, there was not a lot of room in the pool for the fish to get a good run, and it quickly gave up. As I stripped my line in, I was rewarded with a flash of silver, just as it decided to make another run, this was no bluegill! This time I quickly subdued the fish, as I am not one to “PLAY” the fish as I have read in many books, I just don’t believe in prolonging the capture. As I brought the fish to hand, my suspicions were confirmed with a nice 10” Black LMB the hare’s ear firmly implanted in his upper lip. To this day all my LMB have been caught while fly fishing for Bluegill! What joy, what pleasure this brings me, and of course, on this rare occasion, there was no camera to document the moment. But rest assured the image has been firmly implanted in the neurons of my memory banks.

I gently released the bass back into the water and thanked him for making my day, at this point I could have left and felt good about my day of fishing. I cast into the pool a few more times and a little more tapping, before deciding to head up to the next one. With the same fly still tied on, I cast a short distance into the shallows just below some low growing shrubs and once again, BAM! Just that quick, almost a repeat of the first catch played itself out, except this one came in at about 8”. I could not believe my luck, 2 bass back to back within 10 minutes of each other!

Well I came for bluegill and bluegill is what I am going to get, I took off the Hare’s Ear and tied on a Robo PT just to see if they were there, and they were! As I went through my box testing out nymph after nymph, some catching maybe one or two and others doing nothing, my time was running out. It came down to one last fly and then I would call it a day. I had this big ugly Chrome headed Black Hare’s Ear, and then I remembered something else I read in the book, darker patterns late in the year! Heck, you can’t get any darker than black! I set it about 12” below the indicator, which is always my starting point, and cast to a spot with some submerged rocks where I had landed a few earlier, as soon as it hit the water the biggest gill of the day jumped on it and took it down, the gill set itself on the hook and the little struggle was on! Nice little palm sized male. I let him go and tossed the fly into the same spot again, and again another nice size gill hit! This went on for about 20 minutes, until I got careless with my backcast and lost the fly to the trees.

It was time to leave, a nice midday, midweek adventure of experimentation and validation of knowledge. I came home skimmed over the book again to reinforce what I had just experienced and then ran over to the tying bench to start production on the Harley Davidson, my nickname for the fly. (see the Harley in the Fly Tying section)

You can get the book at Amazon for about $12.

Thanks for all the support and all the great inspiration I get from the gang!
Bob

[darrin terry]

OK Bob, uh, I mean Sensei. Next time I am down there, let's hit that place. I am assuming it's the one we talked about last time.

Nice report my friend and well done on the research.

[mleng]

Good stuff Bob. I love fishing for bluegills in the late summer afternoons. It's just so much with a light weight rod and a panfish dancing at the end of your line!

Mo

[rayfound]

oh man I love bluegills. I'll have to try that method next time at the pond I was playing at by the inlaws.

[Eric]

Bob, thanks for taking us along on your Bluegill adventure. I realy need to hunt for one of those ponds in my neck of the woods.
Eric

[1mocast]

Nice - Gill Hunting and catching LMB's too to boot!

[stanbery]

Bob

Nice report.

So when would you like to go for some smallie on the lower?

The spot is just up from were we stopped last time wew were up there.

Jon

[Papasequoia]

I haven't caught bluegills since I was a kid, sounds like fun.

[Flyjunkie]

I cut my Flyfishing Teeth in the late 70's pitchin' flies to the Bluegill in Malibu State Park, along Malibu Creek... Sure was a ton of fun and I learned alot about presentation and reading water from targeting Bluegill... Haven't gone after Bluegill in afew years, but I always enjoy them... Last Bluegill i caught went about 2 lbs. and ate a #2 Muddler Minnow i was fishing for LgMouth Bass with.. Blew me away the size of the Bluegill (picture a Hubcap with Fins and attitude) and that it actually got the #2 hook in it's little Mouth....

Wilson's Book is a "Must Read" for anyone wanting to target Bluegill... and if anyone thinks Bluegill are push overs and too dang easy, I'd suggest targeting the Big Slab sized ones.. they are more wiley then any Spring Creek brown trout and will test your sanity.....


Next Spring I'll venture back out for the Bluegills in Malibu Creek once again....

[Justin]

Super report Bob!!
Makes me want to go out and try my luck at some 'Gills as well!
Cool to land a few Bass also, But Bob I goto to ask you 10" isn't that
a little big I mean that's not really a dink.
Thanks for sharing you awesome adventure!!

Justin

[flybob]

Super report Bob!!
Makes me want to go out and try my luck at some 'Gills as well!
Cool to land a few Bass also, But Bob I goto to ask you 10" isn't that
a little big I mean that's not really a dink.
Thanks for sharing you awesome adventure!!

Justin

Justin, this is the hardest time of the year to catch them, they are not in the shallows any more and they wait until the sun hits the water before they start to move and feed, on top of that, the dries do not produce! Tough fishing, guess that is why I am enjoying it so much.
As far as the 10" Bass, yes a little on the large for me, but remember, I am targeting gills, the bass are just casual meetings! But they sure are fun on a 2wt!

If I ever actually went to target bass, I would not catch any!

Thanks for all the positive comments gang!