Central Alabama unconventional fly fisher here

[bobtiesflies 0]

We're in the middle of a long stretch of unseasonably warm weather with no end in sight. I've been snooping my spots to see what the fish think about the warm weather. Here it is still February and I watched the all too familiar pre-spawn rituals of bass right on the banks, and lots of them. Bluegill were congregating in the warmer shallows, hitting on cigarette butts thumped out in the water... Guess where I'm headed in the morning?

 

In between fly tying hours I've been searching the internet recently for other tyers and casters in the Southeast.

 

I've been looking at some of the photos of bluegill patterns featured here and on other sites... ooooh boy. I'm going to be honest so don't be offended. Most of the patterns I've seen are completely counter intuitive within my years of: 1) observing Southern bluegill habits, and 2) catching fish. I've got some patterns I'm a bit stingy about sharing that I've developed over two decades of hands on experimentation on fish.

 

I guess it boils down to Function over Form when I start tying. I don't fly fish to look cute whirling artistic bugs over my head. I do it to catch fish and lots of them. There's more satisfaction for me catching my limit (50) in bluegill in less than 2 hours in the summer heat than there is showing off a home-made fly that might well have jumped out of a Salvador Dali painting.

 

But to each their own. I have to compliment some people with pictures of their flies on this site. I can't compete with their imaginations. I just invest time to find what the bluegill are eating and come up with a reasonable facsimile of it. I saw some tails on bluegill flies that if swallowed by a dinner plate size bronze nosed hump-head would stick out the fish's anal vent... and I have to wonder...WHY?

 

I'll get around to posting some pictures when my niece loans me her digital camera. I'm still toting around a 35mm Yashika.

 

I'll be making some other posts in the future.

 

That's it for now.