For a long time, I have touted the Triangle Bugs' effectiveness as a topwater panfish fly. Over the years, I have caught a variety of fish species on this little bug while fishing for panfish. This list included many largemouth bass, including one six-pound fish that sipped that tiny size eight fly from the surface like a trout taking a mayfly. So it was a logical decision to tie these bugs a little larger and target bass with them.
Read moreThe Panfish Devil Bug
I was first introduced to this pattern through a musty old pamphlet entitled How to Catch a Fish with O. C. Tuttle's Devil Bugs. I found the molding 22-page booklet in a box of donated fly tying materials that I was sorting for my local Trout Unlimited chapter. I took the yellowing pages home with me and read them cover to cover. Inside were drawings and descriptions of scores of devil bugs tied to catch everything from bluegills to tarpon.
Read moreFly Tying Friday - The Triangle Bug 2.0
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you are probably familiar with my most well-known fly, the Triangle Bug. I developed Triangle Bug many years ago to solve a problem which plaques fly fishers who target panfish.
Read moreFly Tying Friday - The Cooper Bug
Since the Cooper Bug turned out to be such an effective fly in both cold and warm water I decided to learn a little more about it. When I researched the pattern, I discovered a fly of the same name and a very different design. As it turns out, there was a fly called the Cooper Bug that predates the version I was tying. Interestingly enough it had its roots planted in warmwater, not a trout stream.
Read moreFly Tying Friday: The Panfish Polecat
Flies for Bass and Panfish is a book written by Dick Stewart and Farrow Allen. My dog-eared copy has sat on my bookshelf since its printing in 1992. Although most of its pages are dedicated to bass flies, a small section of the book has a selection of classic panfish patterns. One of the first patterns I gleaned off the pages of this book was the Panfish Polecat.
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