2021 Fly Fishing Contest - Biggest Bluegill / Sunfish on the Fly

[DanMarino]

Hi Guys,

I would like to have a fly fishing biggest bluegill contest for 2021. Here is my first entry. I will say it is 8.25 inches.



I will post any larger bluegills / sunfish that I catch here to see how it goes in 2021.

I'm really excited to see how big of a bluegill / sunfish we can catch on the fly.

Tom

[J. Rentch]

Count me inTom.

[DanMarino]

Count me inTom.

Great John. I'm looking forward to seeing what you / we catch.

What's your guess for how big we will come up with?

[Mark]

Tom,

You're not dealing with an amateur when it comes to bluegills on the fly. John has finished among the trophy winners the past two years in FSFF's annual bluegill contest.

We had two entries last year top 9 inches with the winner reaching a whopping 10.75 inches. That fish was caught at Unicorn Lake.

Our 2021 contest for members just started. No entries yet.

Me -- I'm good at catching clones. On one outing last May at Smithville Lake, I caught 30 bluegills on the fly, each one between 8 and 8.5 inches. I never surpassed 8.5 inches all year. Catching a big one is not easy.

I'll send you some photos this year. I can already predict they will be 8 inches.

By the way, our pickerel on the fly tournament has 17 days left. John is leading that with a 23 incher.

[DanMarino]

Wow! 10.75 inches is a very big bluegill!

[Mark]

Wow! 10.75 inches is a very big bluegill!

A beast of a bluegill.

It hit a bluegill bully fly as a dropper.

[J. Rentch]

Tom,
Here is my first entry. It is only 8", but wanted to show that I am working on them. Was at a Delaware Pond with some FSFF guys. I caught 8 of these buggers, but none greater than 8". All were caught on a Hopper Dropper Rig on my 4wt. Very effective fly. Hopefully I can find some larger fish soon!
DSCF0016 (1).jpg DSCF0017 (1).jpg

[DanMarino]

Nice! That one looks pretty thick! I like your set-up.

[J. Rentch]

Hea, my second best fly is a Wooly Bugger.

[Mark]

Excellent John.

Wish I could have joined you guys yesterday.

I don't like casting a dropper but it is an effective technique. Supposedly the bigger bluegills are deeper -- just like a school of breaking stripers is supposed to have larger fish under them.

You added a little flash to the bluegill bully with the Estaz body. That's a nice touch.

Did any hit the hopper?

[J. Rentch]

I actually got a LM on the hopper. I want to start varying my flies and approach to find the larger BG.

[Mark]

John,

I think that's usually the case.

On my outings, bluegills have overwhelmingly chosen the dropper fly over the topwater fly. I could probably catch more if I went entirely subsurface. But they're so much fun to catch on top.

On the other hand, I've caught some nice bass on small bluegill poppers.

[DanMarino]

I catch a mess of bluegills/sunfish on pink or lime green floating foam spiders. I also catch a lot on small foam cylinder poppers. Largemouth seem to hit the foam cylinder poppers more than the spiders for me. I think I've only caught 1 bluegill on top so far this year. I'm headed back to the OBX for 2 weeks in May and I also think on the Mother's Day weekend, so I'll get some more bluegill fishing in then.

[Mark]

Tom,

Bluegills will offer more surface hits as the water warms.

Your trip to OBX will provide a lot of surface action, I'm certain.

Last June I was fishing a gurgler at Smithville Lake:

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I caught a lot of 8-inch bluegills with it that day basically just casting it out and letting it sit still:

P1050110 (3).jpg

And then this guy decided to entertain me:

P1050130 (1).jpg P1050132 (1).jpg

Surprise catches while bluegill fishing are part of the fun. It made me wonder why that pickerel would choose a small bug for a meal when plenty of bluegill protein was nearby. I guess for a pickerel an easy meal is hard to pass up even if it is only a tiny one.

[DanMarino]

That looks like loads of fun Mark. My foam spiders look similar to your gurgler there, but without a tail. Catching bluegills and tiny bass mixed in is lots of fun. Having a pickerel on the line would make it even better. Very cool.