Bluegill Fly Fishing Tips

[timsfly]

I just usually have one rod when I'm in my 10' canoe, and I can throw a teeny just fine on the 5 wt,

If I was going to throw the teeny for an extended period of time I would use my ultralight, but

I just throw it once in awhile.

I was catching a lot more fish on soft foam poppers and clouser minnows.

[fishinwrench]

I just usually have one rod when I'm in my 10' canoe, and I can throw a teeny just fine on the 5 wt,

If I was going to throw the teeny for an extended period of time I would use my ultralight, but

I just throw it once in awhile.

I was catching a lot more fish on soft foam poppers and clouser minnows.

Oh, ok I'm with ya. I guess I just saw the Zoom bag and crappie jig and assumed you had spin tackle in the boat.

You should check out Greg Coffey's "Coffey Grinder", it's a weedless foam cylinder version of the Torpedo...pretty awesome. The smaller ones pick up and cast pretty good on a 6wt. and REAL good on a 7wt. Plus, if you get one tuned just right you can walk the dog with it.

[timsfly]

I throw a 3" zoom minnow on my 5wt sometimes also, sometimes the bass and bluegill just like plastic better.

I fish all kinds of stuff on my fly rods, I'll fish what ever is working

I'll look into the fly info you have on the last message.

I have tied small wood chopper type plug flies out of deer hair, foam cylinders,

and balsa wood, I put a small blade at each end and a bead on there so they will

spin freely, but I just liek the teeny torpedo in frog color sometimes.

[Poke 'Em]

Lastly, the best presentation I've found for big gills is either motionless (if on the surface) or vertically falling. Gills love to hit a fly that either appears helpless in the surface film or is slowly sinking (like a drowning or emerging insect). They aren't likely to chase down a fly when you are stripping it in. That's what makes rubber legged flys so productive, it's not the "action" of the rubberlegs as much as the fact that the legs really slow the sink rate.

I'd have to disagree. I've probably caught more bluegills on a small (size 12-16) clouser minnow stripped quickly with very short strips than anything. Today, for example, I caught probably 35-40 'gills, and most of them came by throwing a size 14 clouser, letting it sink for about two seconds, then stripping it in, non-stop, making about two-inch strips.