Flies for Bluegill, Bass, etc.

[John Harper]

I just checked out a nearby creek that runs through a well known golf course in town. Upstream I found a huge pool. My buddy says there are bass, bluegill, and probably cats in there. There is a lot of room to cast upstream as well, and the sides are full of reeds. Looks like bluegill turf for sure.

What flies should I try? I figure some woolly buggers at least. Maybe set my buddy up with a fly and bubble rig since he's not a flyfisher. I heard a lot of crickets in the canyon on the way out, maybe them too?

Any advice is welcome.

John

[darrin terry]

I've had some ferocious bluegill attack clousers to about 4-inches in length. Lots and lots of different patterns work for bluegill and bass in my limited experience. With the clousers, I did best with olive over white in sizes 4 & 6, and just varied the retrieve until they smacked it.

I am sure everyone has their own favorites though.

[hpskiff]

Here is my favorite -Wilson's Bully Spider. Just twitch it under a thingamabobber.

[Wildman]

Hare's ear or pheasant tails work great for Bluegill.

[RichardCullip]

They will eat bigger nymphs (I like hares ears or clouser's swimming nymphs) and smaller woolly buggers (sizes 8-10) and give some small panfish poppers and/or foam spiders a try. They will readily eat top water flies and you just might entice a great explosive top water take from the bigger bass in the pond.

[flybob]

John, sent PM!

Look at macro shot in this post:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7349

bob

[WadeK]

All of the above is accurate. I especially like #10 or 12 Foam spiders with a #10 or 12 bead head Hares Ear or Pheasant Tail nymph 1-3' behind it. This works well on my 3 or 5wt with 4X tippet and 5X between the flies. If you go bigger than size 8 your catch rate will fall off sharply but the Bluegill you catch will be good sized and Bass will be more likely. If you go smaller than #14s you will get lots of deeply hooked Bluegills and hardly any Bass.

[clee]

For bass I like clousers and wooly buggers, everything else in my bass box is basically filler...
Although I'm dying to try out this articulated guy I just came up with:

For bluegills I like yellow wolly worms and Gary Borger's All Peacock fly both fished on sinking lines:


Hook: TMC 5263BL
Tail: End pieces Peacock eyes
Body: Peacock Eyes wound with copper wire before winding around hook shank
Collar: Evenly cut pieces of peacock eyes placed in Dubbing loop, spun and than wrapped like hackle

[darrin terry]

I just took a pic of my bluegill box to send to a friend and remembered this thread. Thought I'd post it in case you were interested.


The clousers I mentioned in my previous post are in a separate box. The light blue soft hackles were the hot fly the last time out.

[Wildman]

Fascinating just how many flies a Bluegill will attack! I am going to school on this thread as I have a few small Bluegill lakes near me. Great box, Darrin!

[darrin terry]

I want pics of 'gills you've caught soon Jim.

[Wildman]

The one closest has been covered with ice but should be warming up shortly if these darn short wave lows would quit coming through and snowing once a week. The other lake is just up the road and I just haven't walked up there this season. I'll do that and take some pictures.

[darrin terry]

No deadline Jim. Just looking forward to seeing more bluegill. Headed out again tomorrow to the same pond I fished on Friday. Should be good. I'll report on the days results either way. I will probably tack it onto my report from Friday as it is the same pond.

[Reyne]

Last week, Greg (fishfreak) and I met at a local lake to bass fish from float tubes. It was a slow day until I stripped this on a sink tip, casting tight to the weed line:

After a couple of small LMs, this:

and five of these:


Wade, how true regarding hook size, as this was tied on #6 stinger hook, Gamagatsu B10S.

[darrin terry]

Nice 'gill! What is the tail on that fly made of?