Tuesday July 5th, 2005

I went up to Westlake pond at lunchtime, to try out some flies with the 3wt flyrod. This works. Fun. The flies work just as well as bait, really. I landed about 5 bluegill, some as big as my hand, so a pretty nice size. Mostly the fish are so close to shore that the fishing is more like 'dapping', where the only line outside the rodtip is the leader. I put on a 7.5' 5x leader, with a loop-to-loop tippet setup. This is sight fishing, where polarized glasses are a big help to see what is going on.

The fish are beautiful, with very nice colors.

Flies; the softwing ones I tied up about 18 years ago and have sat in that fly- wallet ever since. The other is a krystal flash and peacock herl fly that was suggested in John Gierach's book. Both worked fine. I have to make some floating patterns now to try. Didn't have time to try the hoppers I brought, but I think some foam ants would be fun.

I've learned a few things about bluegill; they breed like bunnies, will overpopulate a lake or pond in the absence of predators, and they taste good cooked in a beer batter. May have to try that soon, catching some up at Loch Lomond.

I'm wondering how sparse a pattern they would go for; some experimentation might be required here. Bare hook with a 6 strand krystal flash wing? Not that I'm that short on time for tying flies, and I like tying nice looking patterns, but I'm curious as to what I could get away with ;).