Panfish Killers
It has been written that bluegills and their ilk are the only fish you can reasonably expect to catch on a poorly tied size-10 Tiawanese McGinty. And, indeed, our own experience tells us that bluegills will bite darn near anything they can get their lips on. I have caught all sorts of sunfish on everything from size 22 Griffiths Gnats to 3/0 bass bugs. (A few years ago, I was fishing a Betts Bullet-head Frog and got a strong strike as the bug floated motionless on the surface. I set the hook and felt weight on the end of the line, but there was no wiggling or struggling coming from the fish. I stripped it in only to discover a bluegill impaled on the hook. The fish was stone dead. The hook point had penetrated straight through his brain, killing him instantly. What the fish thought he would do with that 3/0 bass bug is beyond me.)

There are a few specialty panfish patterns that I've come to like. Most of them are flies I'll turn to for specific situations. None of them are difficult to tie or particularly complex--or even that unique. But they do seem to work well for enticing some of the larger fish.

I tend to be a collector of panfish patterns, and I'm always on the lookout for something new or different. If you have some flies you'd like to recommend, please pass them along. Us panfish afficionados should be sharing our intell, and the Web is one way to get that job done.

Kim's Horsefly


Hook: Dai Riki 074, size 8.
Thread: Black 8/0.
Eyes: Small bead chain.
Tail: A bit of fluff from the base of a black saddle hackle.
Body: Black chenille or dubbing.
Hackle: Small black saddle hackle palmered up the hook and tied off behind the eyes.

This is probably the most productive fly I've found for catching big sunfish. The bigger they get, the more time they spend in deeper water. The biggest bluegills and pumpkinseeds like to hang just beyond the first drop-off, especially if there's a weedbed that defines the edge of that drop-off. The fish noodle around along that edge, poking the bottom and looking for stray nymphs and small crayfish. The Horsefly sinks quickly enough to get past any of the little fish. You can hop this fly along the bottom and pick up plenty of surprisingly large bluegills. (It also works great for bedding bluegills and even for bass in cold water.)

Carter's Wetfly


Hook: Dry- or wet-fly hook, size 8 through 12.
Thread: Olive 6/0.
Weight: Small brass bead.
Tail: Olive craft fur or marabou.
Body: Half-clipped hackle wound up the hook shank.
Hackle: Two or three turns of yellow grizzly hackle.

Carter Nelson is probably one of the great unsung heroes of fly fishing for panfish. Nobody I know has put as much time, effort, imagination and research into developing and perfecting flies for all manner of panfish. As I recall it, Carter developed this particular pattern for shellcrackers. We fished this pattern for shellcrackers off a swimming beach at Calaway Gardens in Georgia, and the fish could not leave this thing alone. To make matters even more interesting, it was the only fly they would eat. Who could have figured shellcrackers to be selective?
Since then, I've fished this pattern for all sorts of bluegills, redbreasts, pumpkinseeds, and even yellow perch with great success. The tiny brass bead head provides just enough weight to make the fly drift down when it's stopped, but not enough so that it acts like a depth-charge. The hardest part about tying this pattern is the clipped hackle body. You can take some of the cheapest, nastiest, most-useless feathers you have and clip the barbs perhaps a 16th of an inch away from the quill. Or you can cheat and use small chenille. We purists insist on the clipped hackle.

Foam Thing


Hook: Mustad 3366, size 4 through 10.
Thread: Chartreuse Flat Wax Nylon.
Legs: Clipped spinnerbait skirt.
Body: Small piece of Darice Foamie foam folded over the hook as shown.

Not everything in fly fishing has to be complex, and this is one bug that's ridiculously easy to tie. Just attach a small clump of rubber legs to the top of the hook using X-wraps, then lash a diamond-shaped bit of foam sheet to the top of the hook at the bend. Fold it over the eye of the hook, then force the eye through the foam. Tie the foam off at the same spot you attached it to the top of the hook. Add a drop of superglue to keep everything secure.
If you haven't played with Darice Foamie sheet foam, you're missing out on a great material. At a mere 69-cents per sheet (at Wal*Mart), you can experiment to your heart's content without going broke. Even better, this stuff comes in a rainbow of colors. It glues reasonably well with something like TiteBond superglue. Buy some and check it out. (It makes fabulous Gartside Gurglers.)

Foam Spider


Hook: Dry- or wet-fly hook, size 8 through 12.
Thread: Red 6/0.
Body: Small bit of foam.
Legs: Two crossed strands of round rubber.

This is another insanely easy pattern that works great. I like to fish these things under overhanging bushes and trees, especially on breezy days. While this is obviously a good fly for bluegills, red breasts and the like, I'm surprised at how often bass, crappies, and perch go after it. I guess even bigger fish like those get the urge to snack on spiders every so often.