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.
Read moreFishing The Big Bug - The Brood X Cicada
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.
Read moreFly Tying Friday - The Pumpkinseed James Wood Bucktail
The Pumpkinseed James Wood Bucktail
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.
Read moreFly Tying Friday: The Wee Frog
The Wee Frog is a tiny size 12 frog pattern that big panfish can’t resist.
Everyone knows a bass or a pickerel has a hard time ignoring a properly presented frog pattern, but panfish? You can make the argument that most adult frogs are too big of a prey item to be eaten by most panfish. However, there are smaller species of frogs whose habitats mix with that of panfish.
Read moreFly Tying Friday -The Micro Gurgler
The Micro Gurgler, is a buggy looking, easy to tie Gurgler style fly that is a panfish killer.
Topwater fishing has been on my mind of late. We have had a smattering of warm spring days here in the northeast but not a long enough string of them to significantly warm the water. We are in the midst of another cold front which tends to shut down fishing for a few days. The warmer weather is right around the corner, and it will bring the return of consistent, quality topwater fishing. Nothing beats a bluegill or any other fish, for that matter, taking flies off the surface.
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