Bluegill - Big Bluegill

Do you love big bluegill?

Mine is a weighted black fur ant. I know small poppers are most popular, but I'm convinced I can catch more and bigger panfish with something that sinks.

Views: 1691

Attachments:

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

  Ron your black fur ant is great and what a nice string!  A popper with dropper rig best of both worlds. I use the epoxy ant a lot, mostly as a dropper under my popper and it catches a lot of fishl  I also am very fond of the chernobyl ant, the predator fly, and the zug bug guess my favorite changes a lot to match which ever one the fish are biting today. 

I haven't fished a dropper off a popper for at least 30 years. Worked great, and the popper served as a strike indicator before I learned to watch the end of the fly line, but I quit using it because of bothersome tangles.

Same issue for me. When I see how popular droppers are, I wonder if I am doing something wrong.

  Good lookinn ant Ron

When I moved here from CO I had a box full of flies, mostly nymphs; in fact mostly GRHE because that was my fly out there. It turns out gills like those a lot also. I snipped the bottom of the wing case on some to fish them as an emerger but the fish didn't really seem to care. Anyway, little nymphs are pretty hard to beat for raw numbers of fish but the drawback is that even the 3" fish take them

I feel the same way when I'm fishing for trout. It seems I catch the smaller fish on top. But there is a certain thrill to watching your fly being taken in the surface film. 

I'm going to try the dry/dropper method for the bluegills this year.

Nice stringer of fish.

i also use a dropper on a popping bug;; either a red ant;; or a really small jig ( Allan Morgan made some up just for me; then they were shown last year on a mid west fishing tv show!!)  both are extremly deadly on gills.  quite often- i catch two gills at a time.  a bream killer- is another excellent dropper type to use.

and actually;; i just have to many favorites to say; its my favorite one to use!!  Dick Tabberet sent me several black crickets that are awsome to use;; as well as several others he gave me.  then there;s Allan Morgan;s muddler minnows that were outstanding as well !!  tooty;s silent stinger;s work extremly well;;  then my rascal bugs!! i generally keep 3 to 5 rods rigged up- with different types; and colors;;  let the fish decide what they want!!  at that time-- that one is my favorite to use

I've found bluegill in general are partial to black.

Black, brown, various shades of green, etc.  "Natural" colors.  Make it small and buggy looking, and yes, the 'gills will hammer it.

the orange foam spider with white legs... its been on my fly rod for two years after catching a personal best 9.8" male bull gill on my first day of fly fishing on a setup that was hours old. 

These are my top three producers. L to R,  Jitterbees for ponds/lakes, Briminators in streams and Teeny nymphs for ponds/lakes.  

The Teeny nymph is a killer when the gills get that mode where they are just nipping at the tails of the flies.

RSS

Latest Activity

Jeffrey D. Abney commented on Troy Dorman's photo
Thumbnail

1000003891

"Pretty Northern strain bluegill Troy!"
yesterday
Jeffrey D. Abney commented on Troy Dorman's photo
Thumbnail

1000003887

"Great fish….this is the right kind!"
yesterday
Troy Dorman posted photos
yesterday
Jeffrey D. Abney commented on Jeffrey D. Abney's photo
Thumbnail

Picked up Several Nice Yellow Perch Shallow…..4/29/2025

"Thanks John….never get tired of quality perch bites…"
Wednesday
John Sheehan posted photos
Wednesday
John Sheehan commented on Jeffrey D. Abney's photo
Wednesday
John Sheehan commented on John Sheehan's photo
Thumbnail

493726391_10238746707466370_4942384414329687790_n

"Good job ,Jeff! The ones I caught were probably in 5-6 ' but long cast from shore. These…"
Wednesday
Jeffrey D. Abney posted a photo

Picked up Several Nice Yellow Perch Shallow…..4/29/2025

Also caught two nice white perch shallow also…
Tuesday
Jeffrey D. Abney posted photos
Tuesday
Jeffrey D. Abney posted photos
Tuesday
Jeffrey D. Abney posted a photo

Dock Crappie…..4/29/2025

We had blue skies with 81 degrees…strong southwest wind but our water was still blown out from the…
Tuesday
Jeffrey D. Abney posted photos
Tuesday
Jeffrey D. Abney posted a status
"It was still windy but a friend and I splashed this afternoon, nice mixed bag ….low water at 70 degree surface temperatures…good times…"
Tuesday
Jeffrey D. Abney commented on John Sheehan's photo
Thumbnail

493726391_10238746707466370_4942384414329687790_n

"Nice John….I caught several white perch this afternoon very shallow…"
Tuesday
Jeffrey D. Abney commented on Troy Dorman's photo
Thumbnail

1000003851

"Pretty specimen Troy!"
Monday
John Sheehan commented on Troy Dorman's photo
Thumbnail

1000003857

"Posting some nice Fish, Troy!"
Sunday
John Sheehan commented on John Sheehan's photo
Thumbnail

492222666_10238698533862060_5336729201480880262_n

"Fish are flopping around like its July up here and we haven't seen May yet! Very weird year!"
Sunday
Bruce Tomaselli commented on Troy Dorman's photo
Thumbnail

1000003857

"I can just taste the fillets!"
Sunday
Troy Dorman posted photos
Sunday
John Sheehan commented on John Sheehan's photo
Apr 26

© 2025   Created by Bluegill.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service