Does anyone fly fish for bluegills anymore?

[BobG]

This was how I got my start. We lived across the street from a large body of water in west central Ma that had an incredibly healthy population of bluegills. I learned to make small fly rod poppers and small deer hair bass bugs. Armed myself with a 5wt, a floating line and old sneakers and had at it.
It was amazing fun, especially for a twelve year old. Many of those fish were 9-10", and we ferocious fighters on a 5wt. I can still recall their spawning beds, Hundreds and hundreds of them.
My Mom still lives there, and each spring I walk across the street, looking for those bluegills, and thier beds. Perhaps to recapture some youth. Sadly, there are none.

Does anyone fish bluegills these days?

[Ray]

Bob,

I do!!!

What an awesome and cooperative fish. I used to live down near the Charles and would go after work to decompress. Kids love them too.

Pinched barbs for sure though!!

[notime]

Great fun on a dry and a great way to get kids into fly fishing. Our local lake always has some near the shore and when the kids go swimming I sometimes bring out the rod for fun.

I also enjoy fishing at dusk out of a kayak when lots of panfish go up top after bugs. It was more challenging then I first thought.

[Slappy]

I often jig them through the ice. They are entertaining, easy to catch and often attract large bass to my ice jigs.

They are most fun on a fly rod with a small deerhair popper. I haven't found any areas with big fish yet.

[captmike]

flyfishing in the pads for gills is awesome. I love that early in the morning

[BobG]

Are their numbers down as well? As I mentioned in my initial post, I still visit the old farmstead, and check out the coves and sunny spots where they would nest by the hundreds, and sadly, there are none.:confused:
My grandmother used to say the large bluegills were among the best fresh water fish she ever ate.

[Slappy]

Are their numbers down as well? .

Not in the ponds I fish.

They are very susceptible to an early season die off as water temps fluctuate greatly, so populations in a particular pond may go up and down.

[bdowning]

Every spring I flyfish for them up here (Central MA - Metro West). And I usually wind up catching small bass and trout too. Those bead-headed nymphs on a sink tip or floating line work well, especially at dusk or even at night.

-bd

[Bob Parsons]

When I take kids fishing in the spring, it is the main target species.

[Cheju]

A ritual of spring. Flyfishing for Bluegills over the weedbeds during May evenings. Have been doibg it for over 55 years.

Bluegills are the best eating fish next to walleyed pike. Fillet them and batter, then fry in a hot pan. Only problem is it takes a few to make a meal.

Cheju

[NatickDave]

I greatly enjoy fishing for bluegill and pumpkinseed on the Charles. They are in great abundance, and dominate my catch...next would be crappie, bass and pickerel. I target them to a certain degree, because I most like fishing the river on the surface on the warm evenings of early to mid summer. This has been a great way to get my daughter into fly fishing...and also in late spring when the water is still up, there is fantastic subsurface sunfish action from a canoe.

I am definitely not concerned about the number of sunfish. However, they are "seasonal" in some ways. Spawn and post-spawn is great, but late summer, when the water is green/brown and low, tends to shut down even the most eager species, and bluegill are surely the definition of eager.

Nothing beats coming home after work, sipping a lowball while I rig up and put on swim trunks and wading shoes, hitting the river with nothing more than a few simple flies, tippet and a hemostat, then proceeding to catch 30-50 fish per hour as the sun goes down. Ok, catching big browns and rainbows in montana does beat that, but you catch my drift, right?

ND

[notime]

Where do the bluegill hang out in the winter on a lake or pond. I've never targeted them while ice fishing. Do they stay in the shallows or move deeper once the cold sets in?

[BobG]

This topic turned out to be very enlightening.:brow
I always thought bluegills was something we all gave up on upon catching our first trout or striper? Looks like I was wrong.;)

NDave, you reminded me of something. I recall the action was incredible on the pre spawn and spawning fish. But, as you mentioned, it dropped of dramatically in the summer months. But I figured out a way to catch the big bluegills even in the heat of summer. It was an old trick Paul Kukonen showed me.
You needed to know where the deep holes and ledges were in the pond, b/c that's where the big gills stacked up in warm weather. Paul showed me how to tie a modified bass bug from deer hair. Very simple fly. On a small hook, you tie a full deer hair body. Just like a head on a Muddler, except the entire body. For a tail, just a couple small pieces of elastic band, cut into 3/4" pieces. On a sinking line, and 5' leader you cast the bug into the drop off, and allow it to sink to the bottom. The line would be on the bottom, but the deer hair fly would float a foot or so up, due to the buoyancy of the hollow deer hair. The elastic bands would probably undulate as well. I'd only retrieve the bug a few inches at a time, but if there were any bluegills around, they'd usually inhale it as soon as it came into reach.

[Slappy]

Where do the bluegill hang out in the winter on a lake or pond. I've never targeted them while ice fishing. Do they stay in the shallows or move deeper once the cold sets in?


They are often found shallow.

the key to targeting them through the ice is to go with very small jigs and mousies. Mousies will up your catch rate about 500%.

In the summer, they tend to hang out in rivers the riffles it is fun to target them there because the white perch are also usually there eating herring fry (if you know which of boston's rivers has both riffles and fry :rolleyes:) )

[north coast]

Not in the ponds I fish.

They are very susceptible to an early season die off as water temps fluctuate greatly, so populations in a particular pond may go up and down.


In the last several years,in the spring, I've seen huge flocks of cormorants devistate the bluegill populations in a couple local ponds. I mean as many as 3-400 of them working(very efficently) from one end of a cove to the other. They pretty much wipe out anything they can get their beaks around. I talked to the folks at div.of Fish and Wildlife about this. They said it is a huge problem,especially in some New york lakes,but that their hands were tied by enviornmental groups to do anything about it. Maybe that's what happened to "your" gills.
Cormorant season anyone?:brow
I take the kids bluegill fishin' a couple days every summer. they like it better than tuna fishing.(#$119)

[lhonda]

At the tender age of 5-ish, sunnies were the first fish I ever 'angled' for, at the 'Rezy' on rt. 9 in Brookline, MA. The old man took his youngest boy out one fateful day, armed with a can of corn, a hook, bobber and a Zebco closed-face Lechmere special. I can to this day remember exactly what I felt watching a bull pumpkinseed rise up out of a brush pile to savagely assault my Green Giant canned corn kernel. The rest is history, as they say. Long live the sunny!