In reality, the fish you catch there will be shellcrackers, but most of us don't fret over the difference. To us, they are all bluegills, or bream, or sunfish. During our outing, Paul kept the canoe within a long cast of the shoreline while I sent my bug into the tree-canopied shallows. I caught several bragging-size 'gills. One of them sucked my fly in as I twitched it, then took off toward deep water as if someone had set its tail on fire.
Most bluegills fight it out in tight circles.
This one ran like a red drum. It was a bluegill so big that it had a rounded face rather than a snout, its body nearly as deep as it was long. It sported a bright orange vest that set off its dark, almost black, upper body. It was a glimmering thing of beauty and power. I wondered why I don't do this more often.