I dont care what anyone says about the lowly Bluegill. They are, pound for pound tougher than any bass. Imagine if a bluegill grew up to 10 pounds. They would whoop a bass's tailfins.
I use a chenille sinking spider and various bead head nymphs. I tied a bunch of Micro Clowsers with rubber legs to try out. My typical set up is a 5 wt with a hopper or popper and use the nymphs as a dropper. Depth of the water will dictate how far under the popper,the dropper will be.
Death on Bream.
Last weekend, I caught two bass on that Hopper/Dropper rig. That was quite fun!!!