New guy looking for advice

[Andrew]

hey guys im new to this site but have been fly fishing for about 11 years.  When i was first starting out with the fly rod i started out on a pond catching bluegills but never had any of the kind of luck you all have had.  Im on here looking for advice on how to find the size and quality of bluegills you guys catch.  Im living in north carolina right now so if anyone knows any good places to try around the fayetteville area i would appreciate the help.  If not any tips you guys can give me to get started in chasing the trophy bluegills will be put well to work.  Thanks guys,

Andy

[Greg McWilliams]

Welcome to BBG, Andrew. I don't know about North Carolina, but here small city lakes are what I like to fish. I fish a lot with an intermediate sinking line and work nymphs, small minnow patterns, along weed lines, structure, but in my favorite lake I catch them in the middle and suspended. Right now poppers are working great and the same places are where to target. Stay tuned to this site and check often, ask questions everyone here is happy to share!!!!! You have to check often because it changes hourly and you never want to miss a thing!!!!

[Andrew]

when you work your nymphs how do you work them. growing up fly fishing a lot of my fly fishing was done for trout where you just drift nymphs in the current. all i ever really did for bluegill was use dry flies. what do you to work your nymphs?

[Andrew]

hey thanks a lot greg i'll keep all those things in mind for the next trip.

[Greg McWilliams]

Andrew, I use a hand twist retreive, and a strip and pause, with both sinking and floating lines. I will start retriving as soon as the fly hits the water at first , then start counting down a little deeper til I find the depth they are at. With the floating line I am limited by the lenght of the leader and tippet. The sinking line I can keep going deeper.
Most of my flies are are weighted with lead wire ( I use lead free), or bead chain eyes.
Do you tie your own flies? There are alot of good flies on BBG, On my page are some that I am useing.

[Andrew]

i most absolutely do tie my own. i think its so much more fun to catch fish on something i tied myself. i tie my own leaders too. if i had the time and know how i would build my own rod too. im a big fan of using bead heads but also on occasion using the barbell eyes like you would find on a clouser pattern. ive seen the bead chain eyes and thought about using them just havent gotten around to tying any with them. for the longest time i never really thought about nymphing too much for bluegill. when i was younger and catching them i used mostly dry flies cause it was easier for me to see the hit and i never considered swimming them since i was used to fishing nymphs in moving water. i'll have to check out your page and see some of your favorites and give them a try. thanks for the help.

[Andrew]

hey greg one more question. what is the hand twist retreive i havent heard of that

[geoffrey f.simons]

OOH that's a tough one to explain,I think Mel krieger showed on one of those "essence of fly casting tapes "also availeble on dvd .Do try the bead chain for eyes there are a great variety not just at fly shop look see what your local hardware has in stock,somewhere i picked up 2ft of chrome-green chain tiny in size but make really cool eye color really slow sink rate welcome and enjoy any time on the water Geoff

[Andrew]

hey thanks for the advice. like i said im looking for any advice anyone has cause i dont think ive even seen a 10 inch bluegill and most of you guys seem to find them with regularity. looking forward to trying all these tips though. wont be for another month and a half though. cant hit the water til some time in august.

[geoffrey f.simons]

Andrew,look on you tube :the new fly fisher-tip#8 watch the brian's right hand in clip if you can slow it down you should get an idea of what Greg is talking about Geoff

[JBplusThuy]

It's demonstrated in this video: http://www.ehow.com/video_2357906_understand-line-retrieving-anglin...

If I see any better one, I'll post it here.

[Jen Nayfly]

Andrew....check this out for a description of hand twist retrieve.
http://www.faqs.org/fly-fishing/Du-Le/Hand-Twist.html

[Andrew]

hey jen thanks for the site that is a pretty good description helps out a lot. now i just need to get on the water and give it a try. little battles at a time lol.