Dale Fortin's Comments

Southwest of Houston, Texas about an hour near El Campo, Texas. My intentions is to maintain a sustainable bluegill population that will reach respectable size.

Have you fished any of the finger lakes?

It truly depends on the type of water your fishing and when....I almost exclusively use spoons when fishing for gills, however there are times when small jigs and live bait reign supreme....especially when surface temps are below 45 deg, which will be soon in my area.....spoons will catch you good fish from the upper 40's thru the summer and into the fall....see my blogs and videos for more info on spoon fishing.

Yes Dale, I do tie my own flies. It is almost as fun as fishing. Being able to create a fly (or duplicate somebody else's fly) and catch a fish with that fly is one of the greatest things about this hobby of ours. I thought myself to tie flies over twenty years ago. Some of those flies (and some today) were not pretty, but they do catch fish. If you don't tie your own flies Dale, look into starting. It's great fun and you
do not have to invest alot of money in it to get started.

Hey Dale,
Depends on the day, the kind of weather ,winds, time of year, depth of water, etc .....in regard to what my "best" lure is...if I'm after gills toward the beginning of the gill season I love to hook em on the flyrod using poppers(many varieties and colors work well no favorites here)...later in the season it's Swedish pimples with or without bait attached...or a plain hook with a chunk of crawler...and light jigs of different types alone with no bait attached.....guess my favorite would be the spring gill fishing with the flyrod if I had to make a choice.....

Hi Dale.
I'm not much of a fly fisherman. I'm more into my old habits of live bait, crickets mostly. I do carry a fly rod for trying though. I've caught quite a few on white rubber spiders. I joined the Fly Rod group to pick up tips mostly. AIN'T gonna start tying them fly thingys though. No sir, no way. Un uh. Fell in that trap with wood carving. Got 10 million dollars worth of every kind of cutting, gouging and sharpening tool I could find. Hardly ever use more than 3 or 4 of them. AIN"T starting no more black hole habits. Not me. Them little vise things are kinda cute though. I might could.... Nah. AIN'T gonna do it.

Boogieman

fly fisher

Everybody has their own way to catch bluegill. Are you a fly fisher, live bait fisher, hardware fisher? Each way has it's own special way of catching fish. I am a fly fisher and nothing beats catching a bluegill on a top water popper that I tied myself. Buy any way you catch a bluegill is fun. Wish you the best in your fishing for bluegill and always remember it is about having fun.

Water temp here in okla homa are running mid 60, last week the B. G. were sufaceing, my favorite fly then was wine maribou tail, with a purple estax body. Brite colors of chartruse, purple and pink have been productive this fall. I fly fish only. There are some of the flies I use on my page. Usually I fish with a sinking line and weighted flies. I catch blue gill year round as long as my water is not iced over.

Fish alot, and learn the body of water.
I believe that haveing a good selection of flies is definatly a plus.
I think alot of the time we don't let our fly go deep enough.
Count it down and when tying, don't be afraid to add weight.
Make sure your leader and tippet do not have any kinks in them. The kinks slow down the feel and the look of the strike. I have missed MANY fish before I figured this out.
Tight Lines.

Dale, I don't think there is 'one' best method. It depends on the lake, location, weather, water temperature, etc. The key to success is to have many effective techniques that you can match to any situation.

Hey Dale...I find good panfish water by doing alot of different things...I ask around in tackle shops, I ask around at church, I follow up on any leads I get that people claim have good fishing, I look at the latest fishing reports from MD, PA, VA and DEL to see where the hot bite is and I also check out the internet for any info in my area. I think research and searching efforts are the prime ingredients for high-end panfishing experiences. I also check out the results of local contests and fish citation listings.

Hi Dale,

Actually I don't fish for bluegills much at all. I joined because I had seen a thread someone started on fly rod spinners and I wanted to ask him some questions about them. I later saw he said they're really better for UL spinning rods, so I just let it drop.