fly fishing for panfish

[forrest r]

Haven't did any fly fishing for years and wanted to target crappie and bluegill this year. So I put new line of a fly reel and went to a local club that has a 1/3 acre pond that's all catch and release. Trout fishing is winding down up where I'm at and I have a bunch on maggots (spikes) to use up.

Typical setup for trout.
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For fly fishing I use a single maggot to tip the fly.
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Crappie and gills are hard on the fly's, what a fly looks like after 20+ fish.
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Was fishing from the bank laying the line out and letting the fly sit top water for +/- 10 seconds looking for strikes. If nothing hit I'd give the line a flick and that would break the surface tension of the fly and it would slowly sink. I'd let it sink for 20/30 seconds and then give the line a twitch. Doing this raises the fly back up then let it slowly sink again. Caught 100+ fish in two days doing +/- 3 hours of fishing each day. This happens at an extremely slow pace but is very effective for catching different kinds of fish.

Crappie
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tons of bluegill
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Bass get in on the action
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There's a bunch of different ways to catch panfish & fly fishing is 1 of then. Just something a little different

[deathb4disco]

We have a fly fishing forum that gets almost zero traffic.

https://www.crappie.com/crappie/fly-fishing/

[Tracker12]

Check out the Bully Bluegill fly (for sale online). I either use a Foam Elk hair caddis or small popper as my top fly and set the Bully Bluegill fly as my dropper. Fish beds with this and hang on.

Olive
Black
Yellow

my best colors

[StantheMan2567]

Great catch, my father would let me run the trolling motor when i was young so he could get in the back of the boat and fly fish for Panfish or just what ever would bite his offerings. Some days he would smoke me good on size, and I was using live bait. It is a fun way to catch said critters. Welcome to the boards, we like pics so keep them coming!

[BobC]

We have a fly fishing forum that gets almost zero traffic.

https://www.crappie.com/crappie/fly-fishing/

You're right about that. This site leans in other directions, and that's OK. I'll tell you though, when you hook a pan on a 3 wgt flyrod with a popper you will not believe how much fun that is. It's all good.
Bob

[deathb4disco]

You're right about that. This site leans in other directions, and that's OK. I'll tell you though, when you hook a pan on a 3 wgt flyrod with a popper you will not believe how much fun that is. It's all good.
Bob

I hear ya. I take a couple of trips to Florida every year -- fly fishing in the mangrove swamps. Can't beat it.

[ET Fish]

Lots of fun!

[D10]

Sounds like a great day. Unfortunately I can’t see the pictures for some reason.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

[skeetbum]

I try to fly fish for pans but my inexperience shows and I don’t get much. The only maggots I use come in a jar from Berkeley. Have done some fly fishing in years past with junk tackle and landed some nice fish like LMB up to 5.5 lbs. I have the love, just built a nice 4wt to replace one I broke, just find it hard to put down the 2lb stuff. Welcome from Central Florida, looking forward to your posts for inspiration.

[forrest r]

BobC nailed it, I use a 3/4 wt fly rod. Ton's of fun working the fish in!!! Same thing with trout fishing I use an 8' ul dough rod with 4# leaders in the fall and winter. I step up to 6# test leaders (fire line/4# diameter) in the spring. Most of the trout in the fall/winter are 1 to 3 yeas old and in the 2# to 7# range. This time of year a lot of bigger 4/5 year olds come in and are in the 8# to 10# range. Caught this 29" 9 1/2# trout using the jig with maggots in post #1 using 6# test leader and the 8' ul rod. Fantastic fishing took over 10 minutes to land that trout
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I don't use maggots all the time, just happen to have extra this year so I was tipping the fly's with them. Red worms work just as well. Tipping the fly's is really nothing more than a band aid. Any fly will pretty much work when tipped with maggots/worms on panfish and bass. I'm up in NE Ohio right on lake Erie, the 1st day I went out with the fly rod there was frost on the windows of the jeep. There's no bugs flying around to be able to choose the correct fly this time of year so it's tipping any fly with maggots or red worms.

Anyway thanks to everyone for the replies. I've spent a lot of time on this website reading/studying/learning. I know there's not a lot of fly fishing traffic & that's too bad. Fly fishing with light tackle is a blast, it can take several minutes to land big crappie or gills let alone bass.