Bluegill Fun

[Mark]

Five FSFF kayakers had an enjoyable, if windblown, day on an Eastern Shore pond yesterday.

Our quest was bluegills. We did well, each of us boating a good number of prespawn fish.

We also tangled with small picks that just love bluegill flies but also have the annoying habit of biting through our lightweight tippets.

I had success with the same flies I used for hickory shad last week. The bluegills and small picks loved them:

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It's a simple bead head crystal bugger tied on a #6 Mustad 3366 hook. It takes about 90 seconds to tie, if that.

I also had a lot of topwater hits on foam flies. This female bluegill hit a small gurgler:

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This one, a male, hit a bass popper:

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Oddly, I caught no bass. But I got over 30 bluegills into my kayak and at least 10 hammer handle picks.

It was a good day.

[clm]

Fantastic post....I couldn't get any top water bites here locally (Waldorf)...gotta find some.more aggressive waters. Thank you for sharing.

[Mark]

Chip,

Yesterday it was a chilly 41 degrees in the morning as I drove to the pond. The topwater bite started in mid afternoon after air temps reached 60. I think the water temperature had to rise only a degree or two to entice the fish to look up. Next month topwater will reign for bluegills.

By the way, I know you prefer fly rods with a slower action. One of the rods I used on this outing was a new 8 foot 5 weight Moonlit fiberglass rod. I've been wanting to try an S-Glass rod. The rod itself is much lighter in weight than old fiberglass rods. It's also slower than my graphite rods but I adjusted easily to its softer action. It worked well. I caught my first fish on it yesterday and used it to catch many more as I alternated among three rods throughout the day.