Panfish Flies

[shakey]

The neat thing about panfish flies is, the material can be cheap.

Bully spiders,briminators,marabou streamers ,all use cheap material.

I have caught countless sunnies on rubber bands tyed to a hook , tinsel bodies with a marabou wing, bead chain tyed on with bright thread , and even bare shiny hooks.

Bluegill and bass alike will take a wooly worm with a yarn tail and oversized hackle .

 

[Baron]

I like tying wooly worms cause the have a way of making an amateur look good and they produce. I bought some yellow Bully Spiders and not even a strike. In fact I did poorly with most yellow flies at Gouldsboro. Shows how trained some fish are to recognize food colors......Pavlo's Fish Syndrome it would seem.
Shakey I've done all those antics to catch them as a kid and it was a blast.

 

[shakey]

You can even tye gartside gurglers with craft foam alone.

 

[Baron]

I might have to by the time I'm done financing all the supplies I'm using, lol.

 

[Baron]

Marabou is a mess to work with. Here is one of my attempts at a SMP:

 

[Bamboozle]

I pretty much tie all of my Clousers with artificial hair similar to the Supreme Hair that Wapsi peddles. I can get the colors I want easily, it has a sheen and I like the waviness.

After tying it in, I use extra coarse thinning shears on an angle to make the tips uneven.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

Marabou is MUCH easier to work with if it's wet.

My son has been using a panfish clouser I tie for 15 years. He likes to flips a rod length of line out from our canoe, let it sink then lift it to near the surface (repeat). He catches a LOT of fish (bass, pickerel, crappie, perch, other sunfishes, etc.). Any beginner can do this and catch fish.

The fly I tie for this is a modified small clouser:
Hook: #10 3xl ($3.50/25)
Thread: 70D or 6/0 ($2-3), color of choice, mostly black, red, or chartreuse
Eyes: Small dumbbell ($4/20) or bead chain eyes (usually chrome)
Wing: Angel hair ($3/100?) extending a hook gap past the shank (short), color of choice (usually silver or rainbow)

So, for well under $14 in materials ($0.40/fly), you have a proven, easy to tie fly that will fish anywhere in PA. It catches trout, too!

Keep it simple. int:

 

[Baron]

Bam
I guess I'll try it again but as I have Artificial but not from supreme. The natural is so nice to work with.

Fly
The little SMP above it similar to a Marabou Clouser except the tail isn't tied down to the bend. Send Photos if you get a chance.

 

[Bamboozle]

Let me add that you will or already have inadvertently discovered that top quality dry fly necks aren't the only thing you need to be selective about...

…cheap is NOT always better!!

Many beginning or intermediate tiers think that just because a material is inexpensive or plentiful, it is all the same. That is FAR from the truth. A lot of pre-packaged stuff is about 50% useable. Even the quality of cheap stiff like marabou, peacock herl, wing feathers or “strung” feathers can vary widely and lousy quality stuff is always harder to work with so you waste more.

Many years ago, I got frustrated at the quality of dyed paired wing feathers I was finding in fly shops to use on classic wet flies. I hooked up with Don Bastian, a legendary classic wet fly tier who also sells materials. I ordered from him and he picked out the feathers for me…

It was a night & day difference in quality WITHOUT a significant increase in cost.

I also had a similar arrangement with the late great Chris Helm who was a master working with deer hair and other natural hairs. I’d call Chris, mention the flies I was tying, the problems I was having and I had Chris pick out the packaged hair. As a result, I got great quality stuff that is SO much easier to work with than the junk I was buying in the fly shop.

Moreover, thank heaven for Bugger Packs and other wet fly and soft hackle products from Whiting Farms. Sure, it costs more than a lot of the generic cookie cutter packaged crapola in the fly shops, but it is worth every penny IMHO because I get MORE flies per-package.

Bottom line, it isn’t easy to find a fly tying supplier who is staffed by someone with the fly tying knowledge, experience and credibility to choose materials for you or someone who packages their own stuff, but at minimum…

…if you buy some packaged stuff that frustrates you, don’t always blame yourself or inexperience for the problems. And while you are at it, try other “brands” of materials and look for another source.

 

[Baron]

Bamboozle wrote:…if you buy some packaged stuff that frustrates you, don’t always blame yourself or inexperience for the problems. And while you are at it, try other “brands” of materials and look for another source.

Tell me about it. I bought herl that breaks when you bend it.

Its all a learning curve. I think that being a WW fisherman allows me to use up a higher percentage of the materials than if I only tied for trout. Plus I'm so new to this that my feet aren't even wet yet. Lov'in it though.

 

[Baron]

Dave-W, hows about a recipe?