MY beginner's questions on tying panfish flies.

[DWSmith 0]

After a long hiatus I'm attempting to get back into fly fishing this season so now is the time for tying.  I have a few comments with follow up questions.

I want to tie a few patterns until I become proficient at tying them.  How many flies of a single pattern should I tie?  I'm thinking maybe 25 to 50.  What do you think?

What are some of the most productive panfish patterns?  I want to narrow it down to perhaps 3 patterns to work on.  Should I work on more than 3 patterns, say 5 patterns?

This should help me begin this leg of my journey.  I'm sure I'll have more questions later.  I'm also open to suggestions if you have more ideas for me.

Thanks,

Dan

[gillage 0]

I don't think you need to tie 25 to 50 flies of one pattern. I think you should be fairly good with a pattern at 6 to 12. You will know you are there when all your flies for one pattern all look the same. It's different for everybody. When I first started tying it took about 6 tries then it gets easier.

I can recommend my top 5 patterns for panfish (Bluegills) that work for me and if you want more than that I can give you my top 10 or 15 or 20 patterns ( you can message me)

My top five in no particular order :

1) Foam Spider

2) Brim Fly

3) Gill Getter

4) Jitterbee

5) Mini Hopper GFA

......and I could have very easily given you five no ten, no 15 more

You should be able to find tying instructions/videos online, youtube is your friend,  if you need more help let me know and I will send you pattern notes from my OneNote App that includes material lists and tying video links etc.

It's easy, have fun

Rick

[Poopdeck 0]

I agree 25 to 50 of one pattern seems a bit much. Don’t forget you can easily cut material off a hook and practice away with the same hook until you start tying them how you think they should be. Foam spiders are an excellent blue gill pattern. I also like a white dry fly like a white wulff, foam ants and beetles and any wet fly like a Carrot nymph which is nothing more than orange dubbing and a partridge feather. Feel free to make the wet fly body any color you like or you can use a body of peacock herl with a partridge feather. The possibilities are endless when it comes to panfish flies. 

[Guest]

May not be much help cuz I don’t follow pattern recipes.  You can make plenty good bugs from the basic mat’ls.  Aggressive fish are easy.  Sometimes when nothing seems to work need to maybe match some bugs.   My favorite technique is a popper, cork or foam, and a dropper that looks like some forage.   Keep flies small and not overdressed.   
Anecdote.   Private pond, park etc. and they won’t bite.   Chum with bread and then the bread fly😛👍  Oh might wanta fashion a lil hook disgorger.   Bass?  

 

 

[DWSmith 0]

Thanks all!  GREATLY appreciated.

Denduke, Bass? Not certain as to why but I've never really been interested in targeting bass.  I've caught quite a few over the years and I like landing one but I prefer catching big specimens of the smaller species; bluegill, crappie, goggle-eye, etc.

[niveker 0]

If you're just starting and not sure if a pattern is going to work, I would only tie 2 or 3 at the most of that pattern.  As Poopdeck says, you can always take a razor to the tied fly until you're happy/comfortable tying that pattern.

The good thing about panfish flies is most of them can be tied using inexpensive materials available at craft stores.  

Here are a few I tie for my local lake: Tequeeley, Clouser, Gurgle Pop Poppers,  McGinty, dragon nymph, un-named pattern, Sparrow, Madam X, Crayfish & golden jig, Stealth bomber. 

, , , , , , , , , 

11 hours ago, Poopdeck said:

The possibilities are endless when it comes to panfish flies. 

I couldn't agree more, lots of fun to tie and you can really let your creativity run wild, like Denduke does.  

[Philly 0]

There are four patterns that I mainly use for panfish.  I prefer fishing for them with top water.  I'll leave the others to offer you some sub-surface flies to consider.  The first two are fairly easy to tie.  All are made from craft foam.  They're all tied on size 6 hooks.

Floating Mop fly(mop fly on the left, mop style fly on the right)

You can turn this into a sinking fly by replacing the foam head with a bead or small dumbbell eyes

Tony's Froggie

This was shown to me by a tyer named Tony Spezio.  The original was just the body with the marabou tail.  I find them more effective with legs.  I also supersize them for bass.

This one has no name.  I used a large soft foam body you can get online or at a fly shop as a template for the body.  This also gets supersized for bass.

This one was shown to me by Harry Steves.  I modified it by widening the mouth.  The body is a heart shaped piece of foam.  So I call it the Heart popper.  I also supersize it for bass

My most effective colors are yellow, fluorescent yellow, white and chartreuse.  I normally tie them, since they work, 6 to 12 at a time.  I would suggest tying 3 to 6 of a pattern.  If the pattern works for you then you can tie more.  As already mentioned, experiment.  

[mikechell 0]

I call them "Chell's Panfish Attractors".  I catch more fish on these than any other fly.  Saved a few trips with them.

Hook: size 8 or 6 Aberdeen  (pictured are 😎 

Eyes:  ceiling fan bead chain (hardware store)

body:  neutral dubbing (tan or mustard)

Tail:  Fly tier's dungeon "Crystal Flash" in blue

hook covering "wing": raccoon tail (I like raccoon because it doesn't soften in water, so it keeps the fly a little more weed resistant.

thread:  the one bright spot other than the eyes on these.  I also use a color similar to the body if I'm heading for clear water.

[flytire 0]

 

foam 

rubber legs

tinsel

[niveker 0]

That should keep you busy, Dan.  

[DWSmith 0]

7 hours ago, niveker said:

That should keep you busy, Dan.  

Yep.  That will keep me out of trouble ... I hope!  Thanks again all.

[DWSmith 0]

On Youtube Savage Flies/Matt O'Neal says Tom Lentz states that the 3 best Bluegill flies are the Gill Getter, Panfish Polecat, and the Bream Fly (or Brim Fly).  Maybe I should put those on my list too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsV4OIGS6ss

[DWSmith 0]

Denduke,

What did you use to make those hook disgorgers?  Maybe bicycle spokes?

I keep seeing the red, plastic ones in the stores for $0.99 but those look way too big for what I'm fishing for.

Thanks!

[gillage 0]

10 hours ago, DWSmith said:

On Youtube Savage Flies/Matt O'Neal says Tom Lentz states that the 3 best Bluegill flies are the Gill Getter, Panfish Polecat, and the Bream Fly (or Brim Fly).  Maybe I should put those on my list too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsV4OIGS6ss

Absolutely, they were on my top 5 list above.

I have NOT had as much success with the Panfish Polecat, YMMV

[DWSmith 0]

8 minutes ago, gillage said:

Absolutely, they were on my top 5 list above.

I have NOT had as much success with the Panfish Polecat, YMMV

Oops!  Sorry.  I didn't catch that last night when I posted.  Well then those 3 will definitely go on my list.

Thanks Rick!