i tie a lot of flies for bluegill,and redear(chinks) ,the most productive flies for me have been the ones with rubber legs.
why these fish like the legie flies is a mistery to me ,just a simple sinking spider with lots of legs or a dragon nymph with rubber legs will out produce almost any file i tie.
although both blue gill and redear can be picky at times the legs have it.
i have often wondered why ?

Those rubber legs just have an awesome action in the water. Next time you tie you should look up a pattern called the Madam X. It's a surface deer hair fly that has rubber legs tied in an X right behind the pulled-back head. 'gills tear it up. and like other flies you can fish it right under the surface as the body takes on water. I like it best with a body of olive floss or chenille. I mean if I was a bluegill I would definitely eat something that had rubber legs.

Ever see a bug without legs. Panfish, especially gills which have small mouths often times attack a bug by trying disable it by yanking off its legs, then come back for more. Thats why you can tell when a bluegill hits your line, he doesn't thump it, he thump,thump,thumps it trying to tear it apart.
"gene"

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From the bayou,
PawPaw "gene"



Which way did they go, which way did they go!

Good info Gene. Never thought about the "thump, thump, thump" before. Makes sense to me. Trying to tear it apart.

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I make a spider out of floating materiel in black, orange, and white. I use a size 14 hook. I lay the body on hook and leave a head, and tie on a hackle to make legs just behind head make three wraps and tie off. Head cement, hackle on body and on belly of spider. It never sinks it always floats. Bluegill go craxy. Twitch on top of water. Have a blast. You can buy bodies in most fly shops.

I bought a 100 poppers off Ebay for $17. Some came without legs. I got a tip from another forum that just was wonderful. Find an old small bungie cord. Check the end of it and see what kind of rubber it is made of. Chances are that it is small round rubber strands!! I found one in my stash and now have a lifetimes worth of rubber legs to add to poppers. Easy to do with a wire size drill bit and some super glue.

on some of these spiders i am using one and one half inch legs find they produce better thean the shorter legs.