Time of year

[Coin 0]

If you where going after Gills in June or July and then again August or September what would be your first fly choice top water or a wet fly?

[skeet3t 0]

Over the decades, I have found that bluegill will hit anything. My mother caught them with a piece of red cloth on a hook. Any wet or dry fly will work. If you are tying your own, make it simple as possible. Here is a good one, brown hackle peacock or red tail as it is called in England. Photo is property of a publication.

 

[gillage 0]

Big Gills can be just as wary and selective as trout. I have my most success fishing top water early in the morning and in the evening. I love fishing top water and watching Gills with their backs out of the water chasing down a gurgler or popper. All that being said. wet flies would be my first choice for a June, July, August, September Bluegill trip.

[Guest]

When bed fishing popper dropper is a good choice.   The aggressive ones nail the popper and the chironomid down in the  beds gets the shy ones, match the hatch.  The sky is the limit on the droppers.  My lakes have huge hatches of the midges and the bellies of the gills are full of the pupae.  You can go larger on the sizes; they don’t mind.    Multi fly rigs aren’t for ereybody though.  A lil popper with a big hook gap helps when OleBucketMouth nails it.  They hang around the beds too.   Foam bugs are easy too .  

 

 

 

 

[Philly 0]

Pretty much the same flies I plan on using the last week in May.  I prefer fishing top water for them.  So the majority of my flies are "dry" and made out of craft foam.  I just packed these up today, so I won't have to rush around at the end of the week trying to pack them and end up forgetting them.

These are all tied on various size 6 hooks.  There are more yellow flies than other color.  That seems to be the hot color on the lakes I'll be fishing.

I don't do a lot of fishing for them sub-surface.  I am going to give soft hackles a try.  These are also tied on size 6 hooks.  Some are weighted, some aren't.

 I plan to fish them by themselves or the unweighted ones, like denduke mentioned, as a dropper.  The weighted ones I going to try fishing with a slip strike indicator(bobber).  I've got the leaders set up.  Intended more for crappie, but they should work on gills also.

[Guest]

Interesting how you lined the 4x6 photo boxes with slitted foam, Philly.   I got the case w/16 clear boxes for Bday.   

[Philly 0]

The ones I picked up are either 5x7 or 6x8.  I lined them with 5 mm white foam cut to the shape of the boxes.  I got the outline by pressing the box, not the lid into the foam, then cutting the shape out.  The distance between lines depends on the size of the fly.  The smaller ones are 10mm apart.  I did some 15 mm.  All the bass fly boxes have lines 20 mm apart.  I can get a dozen bass flies(size 2/0 or 3/0 hooks) in a box and as many as 30 of the smaller ones(size 6)in a box.  I really didn't cut down on the number of boxes, so much for that brilliant idea, but at least the flies are separated  by type.  I'll have to see if they have a case similar at one of the craft store similar to yours or pick up one of those soft tackle bags that holds Plano boxes.  Right now I have two small tackle bags, one holds 7 or 8 of the larger boxes and the other holds 6 of the smaller ones.  I'm not  planning to carry all the boxes in the boat next week.  The only time I'll do that is if we can get into Canada by the end of August.  Next week is sort of a test run to see which flies work the best and only carry those boxes with me.  I'll post the bass boxes down in Warm Water.

[WWKimba 0]

You can do a similar thing by using pinking shears to cut v-cuts in the foam and just use strips of foam.

Kim

[skeet3t 0]

FWIW, I fished a place about 4 feet deep along a creek channel during the high water lever dictated by TVA. I would cast a wet fly, let it sink and when I saw the line tip jerk, I set the hook. Probably one of the "dollar a dozen" flies at the big box store.

[Poopdeck 0]

I like an all white dry fly sometimes with a little red sometimes with a ice ice dub body. You pick the style as long as it's all white but I prefer something best described  as a white wulff variant. It don't matter much for me as long as it's a white dry fly. Sometimes the gills won't go for anything on top so I will fish a wet fly. If they don't want the wet fly I'll fish a copper John nymph. Most times I use the dry fly as an strike indicator for a wet or a light nymph. Sometimes I use a heavy nymph to sink the dry fly under the surface to fish as a wet. Blue gill aren't difficult but they can be very selective to a certain type of presentation. In fact I may go down to the local creek tomorrow for some gills since I won't have time to get the boat out. 

[DarrellP 0]

I have found that the Cajun Coachman and a McGinty with a white calf tail wing are my best flies for Gills, followed closely by an all black nymph with a black bead head and pearl flashabou rib.

[skeet3t 0]

DarrellP, the McGinty brings to mind fishing below Dillon Dam outside of Zanesville, Ohio. Yellow perch were spawning in the rocks below the dam. I don't know how many we caught but it was probably near 100. Dad let his backcast hit the water. Bingo! A perch hit it and became a flying fish on his forward cast. All were caught on the McGinty. Now I want to go fishing!!!!

[niveker 0]

23 hours ago, DarrellP said:

McGinty with a white calf tail wing

+1 on a McGinty, surprising how well they do.  A Madam X is great for top water, and they work just as well once they get slimed/waterlogged and sit just under the surface.