From: scl@sasha.acc.Virginia.EDU (Steve Losen)
Subject: Re: Fly recommendations for bluegill
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 22:43:51 GMT

In article <1jmkpcINNkqc@grapevine.EBay.Sun.COM>, greg@antizen.EBay.Sun.COM writes:
|> 
|> Can anyone here recommend any good flies for bluegill?
|> 
|> BTW, Why is there two fishing newsgroups? Inquiring minds
|> like mine want to know....

I do a fair amount of fly fishing for bluegill and other sunfish
species.  I don't have any real trout experience.  I've found that
you don't need to tie anything more complicated than a popper and
one of the most effective flies is a weighted (or unweighted) hook
with a wrapped chenille body.  Choose a bright color like fluorescent
green, orange, or pink.  Black is also good sometimes.  I've tried
putting hackle on these but it doesn't really help.  I'd rather
fish than tie, so putting feathers on these flies is too much of
a nuisance.  Good sizes are 10, 12, and 14.  Use a fairly long shanked
hook (not as long as a streamer fly) with a turned down eye.  For
weight I wrap the hook with fine lead wire.

Fish the weighted flies slowly.  Let them sink and move them slowly along
with short gentle pulls.  Watch the line for hits.  I sometimes use the
unweighted versions with a small cork tied to the leader as a strike
indicator.  I put the fly about 2 - 3 feet beyond the cork.  Cast the fly
near cover, let it sink and watch the cork.  Give it a short gentle pull
every now and then.  This is deadly.

Poppers are always good for bluegill.  They're much more of a pain to tie
because you have to glue your corks to your hooks.  I also wrap thread
around the cork because the glue inevitably gives way and you can keep
fishing even with a somewhat loose cork if it's tied onto the hook.  Then
you have to paint the corks (I use 3 coats)  Tieing isn't that hard, but
it's a lot harder than the chenille flies.  For bluegill use small poppers
with 8, 10, or 12 hooks.  Don't get carried away with long tail feathers
or you'll get too many short strikes.  I use "stubby" tail feathers that
are never more than about 3 times as long as the cork.

I've never used dry flies for bluegills because they are probably too
much trouble for me to tie and I've heard you have to dunk them in
some sort of potion keep them afloat.  Corks don't sink no matter what.

Hint:  your poppers will last a LOT longer if you never grab them by
the cork when removing from a fish.  Work the popper loose by pushing
on the eye of the hook.

My father and brothers tie tiny jigs that are also very good for bluegills
and other panfish.  I've used these with much success, but am not set up
to tie them.  Use very small jig hooks (eye bent severely downward).  They
use sizes 16 - 10.  To make the weighted head, use plumber's solder.  Snip
off the "right amount".  This varies because sometimes you have good luck
with tiny jigs with heavy heads and sometimes a slower sinking jig is
better.  You just have to experiment, but suffice it to say, these jigs
are so small that you don't use any more weight than a split shot.  upend
a beer can and put the piece of solder on the bottom.  Holding the hook
with needle-nose pliers (use the kind with wire cutters for clipping the
solder off), dip the eye-bend of the hook in plumber's flux, fire up a
propane torch and melt the solder into a droplet.  It's a good idea to put
a small dent into the beer can bottom so that your drop of molten solder
doesn't scoot around too much.  While the solder is molten, dip the
eye-bend of the jig hook into the droplet.  You need to break the surface
tension so that the droplet surrounds the hook.  You'll probably have to
dance the propane flame over the solder to warm it up enough to flow
around the hook. Then hold the hook very still for a few seconds until the
droplet solidifies.  Instant tiny jig head.

My father and brothers don't bother to paint the heads.  They tie on fine
rubber legs and a few strands of tinsel to make a short skirt.  They like
orange, red, blue, and yellow rubber with gold or silver tinsel.  As with
poppers, keep the dressing short or you may get a lot of short strikes. 
Fish these very slowly.  Just pull them gently along the bottom.  Although
they sink very well, they are pretty light and are no problem to fly cast.
Use a fairly long, light leader (4lb test) so that they will get down.  We
use nothing but floating, level fly line and monofilament for leaders. 
With a 7 or 8 foot leader, you can fish bottom down to 10 feet or so,
although you don't often have to go that deep.

-- 
Steve Losen                     scl@virginia.edu

University of Virginia Academic Computing Center
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.fishing