05-11-2007, 05:50 PM
I love chasing the mighty bluegill with a 3 weight fly rod. Sometimes bluegill will hit anything and other times they are a bit more tricky.
In my experience when they are hitting on top it really doesn't matter all that much what fly you use. I use something that will last through scores of bluegill. My personal all time favorite is the extremely technical "sponge spider". [laugh] I have them in white, black and brown. Usually white is the best color but sometimes black does the trick. It takes a couple of minutes to tie them and they last all day. I also like small poppers. I have had a good time this spring tying various versions of the bluegill popper. There are some good kits out there that have the precut popper so that makes it easier. I use the popper in situations where there are very large bluegill and I want the little ones to miss the fly. I love casting both the sponge spider and the poppers underneath tree limbs and into the shaddows. I give them a couple of quick "pops" or twitches and then let the ripples die down then repeat. It is great to see the fin come up behind the popper and track it down. I can hear the jaws music now.[cool] Ok I better get off this subject it gets me too excited and I have to wait for the water temp to come up.
I use natural dries when I can see the pods of blue gill in open water. I have done really well with elk hair caddis but it probably doesn't matter.
For nymphs I like prince, pheasant tails, scuds, etc... bluegill sometimes really like rubber legs so if you tie a prince with some rubber legs it can really help. My all time favorite is a simple pattern called a tex favorite. I have a special place in my heart for that fly because I caught a bluegill that came within a couple of oz from the state record on it. I also tend to pick up stocker trout on the tex favorite while I am prospecting for bluegill. I generally use nymphs to find the fish when they are just off of their beds and then I try to coax them to the top with a dry.
Sorry I do not have a digital camera right now so you will have to do a google search to see the different flies.
Good Luck
Windriver
[signature]
In my experience when they are hitting on top it really doesn't matter all that much what fly you use. I use something that will last through scores of bluegill. My personal all time favorite is the extremely technical "sponge spider". [laugh] I have them in white, black and brown. Usually white is the best color but sometimes black does the trick. It takes a couple of minutes to tie them and they last all day. I also like small poppers. I have had a good time this spring tying various versions of the bluegill popper. There are some good kits out there that have the precut popper so that makes it easier. I use the popper in situations where there are very large bluegill and I want the little ones to miss the fly. I love casting both the sponge spider and the poppers underneath tree limbs and into the shaddows. I give them a couple of quick "pops" or twitches and then let the ripples die down then repeat. It is great to see the fin come up behind the popper and track it down. I can hear the jaws music now.[cool] Ok I better get off this subject it gets me too excited and I have to wait for the water temp to come up.
I use natural dries when I can see the pods of blue gill in open water. I have done really well with elk hair caddis but it probably doesn't matter.
For nymphs I like prince, pheasant tails, scuds, etc... bluegill sometimes really like rubber legs so if you tie a prince with some rubber legs it can really help. My all time favorite is a simple pattern called a tex favorite. I have a special place in my heart for that fly because I caught a bluegill that came within a couple of oz from the state record on it. I also tend to pick up stocker trout on the tex favorite while I am prospecting for bluegill. I generally use nymphs to find the fish when they are just off of their beds and then I try to coax them to the top with a dry.
Sorry I do not have a digital camera right now so you will have to do a google search to see the different flies.
Good Luck
Windriver
[signature]