Bluegills

[boychick]

I've never really targeted bluegills in ponds before and I'd like to give it a shot. Dry flies, small poppers, nymphs, streamers? I don't know where to start. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-B

 

[Swattie87]

You can probably catch them on all of the above. I usually like to throw buggy attractor dries...similar to wild Brookie streams. They like some movement to the fly...twitch it, then pause for a few seconds. They'll hit it on the pause. They're a lot of fun...the takes are often violent and explosive.

 

[afishinado]

boychick wrote:
I've never really targeted bluegills in ponds before and I'd like to give it a shot. Dry flies, small poppers, nymphs, streamers? I don't know where to start. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-B

Yup....all of the above. My favorite is fishing on top. Dry flies work, but I prefer to use small poppers. Dries get waterlogged and torn apart too easily, while poppers remain afloat for a long time. Great fun. Good luck.

 

[boychick]

Thanks guys, I think I'm going to go out and try to fish some dries for gills.

 

[fishingkidPA]

i caught about 40+ the other day on drys, stripping in prince nymphs and small streamers. great fun

 

[brain]

it's easy to catch the small to medium sized fish...and fun.
fooling the larger fish is slightly more challenging...and more fun. large sunfish on the flyrod is a seriously good time. the hardest part is keeping the smaller fish off the hook. i have found that bigger guys like to look at their food, before eating.
plop a popper or slider in and let it set...awhile. once you can't stand it anymore, give it a little twitch...just enough to get some ripples off it. if one doesn't inhale it, let it set some more. repeat as necessary.
please don't keep them all.

 

[boychick]

Thank you for the tips, this is great stuff. Please keep the info comming. By the way, I'm a catch and release guy. I don't keep any fish. The gills are safe

 

[boychick]

I went to the local pond the yesterday and had great fun cathing bluegill on dry flies. I tried a number of differnt flies, ant patterns and parchute anything were prefered by the fish. Swattie made a great suggestion, the slight twitch and pause seemed to provoke attention from fish when the fly was being ignored. Thanks for the advice guys. I appreciate the help.

 

[Swattie87]

Glad it worked for ya! I haven't been to any of my local lakes at all this year yet...I think you've convinced me to make a stop now though. Very nice bluegill in the pic.

 

[wgmiller]

Ironic timing... I was just out this evening with my girls fishing for bluegills in my development pond. While not on the fly, this was a trip to have fun with them and get them on some fish. My youngest (5 YO) burnt out quickly, but my oldest was a champ. I had a #6 white barbless bugger on and we had a bag of bread handy :-D Again, this was about having fun... We chummed em up a bit and she was having a good ol time!

She caught one or two "hogs". I don't know what they weighed, but they definitely put a bend in the rod. Each fish landed was lip hooked and was easily dumped off the hook which made it nice. As anyone who has fished for bluegills or panfish knows, keep the hook out of their throat can be a challenge.

This may be a good way to introduce her to fly fishing...

At any rate, panfish sure are a good way to get some 'pullage' and spend some quality, engaging fishing time with the kids!

Okuma...errr...spinning rod

 

[Swattie87]

You guys are killin' me with these pics! Can't wait for Summer and WW fishing now. Very nice wg...those guys are a blast on any kind of light rod. They look like they may have some Green Sunfish mixed in there...slightly bigger mouths, orange in the fins. Does that pond have Greens by chance? Could just be pure Bluegills coloring up for the spawn I guess too.

If you're in Mt. Joy we should meet up and fish the Swatara or Conestoga this Summer.

 

[wgmiller]

I'm not 100% sure exactly what's in there. Some of them even have pumpkinseed coloring as well, so who knows. I can tell you there are plenty of big largemouth in there that will willing hit a fly. Got into a 16" the other day. The only thing that sucks is dealing with the reeds.

Yes, the 'stoga or Swattie is "on" for this summer!

 

[1wt]

I was just out this evening with my girls fishing for bluegills

While not on the fly, this was a trip to have fun with them and get them on some fish.

wgmiller,
Great! when my daughters were that age, I bought them pink "snoopy" rods. LOL tiny pushbutton outfits at WalMart.

We always had a ball, and my girls still remember those fishing trips with dad!

Bluegills are the best!!

 

[boychick]

WG, good report. I'm gald you got out with your kids. Bluegills are a ton of fun and its a true gift to a child to share the joy of fishing, one that can last a lifetime. Some of my best childhood memories are of catching bluegills at the pond in my development. I still have fun chasing them, I killed 9 hours fishing dry flies for bluegills the other day. Before I got back to the car and saw how long I had been out, I assumed I had only been fishing for 3 or 4 hours... oops I'm thinking about making a stop on the way home from work today.