Fly Tying Friday - Floating Dragon Fly Nymphs

September 3, 2021 Panfish On The Fly

During the dog days of summer fish often hold in deeper water. To be successful you need to able to put a fly in front of them. This can be a challenging situation for the fly fisher.

Early in the season, to reach fish holding deep, weighted nymphs and streamers usually get the job done. However, as the season progresses, many of the watersheds I fish become choked with aquatic vegetation. As a result, fishing standard subsurface patterns are an exercise in futility as these flies become hopelessly mired in weeds and muck on every cast. What's needed in this situation is a fly that gets below the surface but stays above the weeds.

Fly Tying Friday - The Panfish Pazooka

August 20, 2021 Panfish On The Fly

A chunky little bluegill caught on the wet fly version of the Panfish Pazooka.

I often get inspiration from other fly tiers. There are so many remarkable fly tiers in the world that the inspiration I speak of seems endless. I particularly enjoy adapting flies designed for other fish species for use in targeting panfish.

Fly Tying Friday: The Foam Beetle - Panfish Candy!

August 6, 2021 Panfish On The Fly

While foam may not be the ideal material to tie a delicate mayfly or caddisfly, it does a fine job on many terrestrial patterns, particularly beetles. There are somewhere around 400,000 species of beetles crawling around on this planet. In addition, beetles constitute almost 40% of known insect life and 25% of all animal life! So chances are pretty good that a few are going to end up in the water and ultimately in a belly of a fish.

Fishing The Big Bug - The Brood X Cicada

June 9, 2021 Panfish On The Fly

Everywhere you look, you are likely to see hundreds of giant insects flying in the air and crawling or clinging to every available surface. As the hatch progresses, the bugs start dying, and their corpses begin to litter the ground.

Fly Tying Friday - The Pumpkinseed James Wood Bucktail

June 4, 2021 Panfish On The Fly

On a recent trip, I decided to tie on a fresh Pumpkinseed JWB and keep an accurate record of its performance. The fly pictured above caught thirty-six bluegills, nine crappies, four bass (ranging from 12 -16 inches), and one small pickerel before being inhaled and promptly bitten off by a second larger one.