Okay I admit it I'm not a great fly fisherman but I love to try. Last night I got schooled by a bunch of top water slurping panfish. They were eating something that I couldn't see so I tried a little grey nat like fly with a scud dropper. No luck, well I got one tiny sunfish that I jerked clear out of the lake as I set the hook. But all around my offering the slurping continued and not a decent hit for me. So I switched to a size 18 renegade and continued my lack of attention. Does anyone know what I should be using to get a hit? I'd really like to catch some of these larger fish but I guess I need to learn how to fish a new pattern. Thanks J
[signature]
For pan fish there are some great flys that look like water skippers. They have rubber legs and foam bodys.
Where you fishing at Mantua? I have been waiting for the water to get warm enough for the gills.
Good luck hope you get into em.[cool]
[signature]
Thanks for that tip I'll have to pick up some of those flies. I don't think that is what they were snacking on since I couldn't see anything on the water surface. I wondered if it was some sort of emerger but I'm not that technical of a fly fisherman yet. I was actually fishing in Benson and it was the first time I've seen them feeding the surface this year so I'm hoping that is a good sign for things picking up. Look for areas away from the current where the water has had a chance to warm up. I had frost last night so I hope that didn't shut them down again but I'm sure it didn't help.
[signature]
I had some luck with bluegills on the fly last Wednesday right before it got dark. They were eating mayflies with white wings, white twin tails, and beige bodies... very small.
[signature]
Hmm...didn't know Benson had bluegills in it. Maybe I'll give it a try sometime.
I would recommend a Yellow foam spider as your main fly with a small nymph tied in white or grey 2 feet behind. Fling that spider in the area you see surface action and give it little twitches. That spider will catch Bass and larger bluegill while the dropper will catch anything from small perch, sunfish, crappie, bass, trout, walleye to 20 lb carp.In warmer months this simple getup will surprise you on a fly rod. A 40 lb grass Carp was the biggest surprise I got while fishing for 6 inch sunfish with this method....
[signature]
Oops... I forgot to say I was at Mantua. Sorry for the confusion...
[signature]
Thanks for the tip. I'll bet that was fun if you had what they were looking for. J
[signature]
Wasn't aware of bluegill in the Bear/Cutler. Heard there's Crappie, and lots of the slurping I've seen is carp for sure.
But hear tell there be bass out there too. Have heard rumor of perch even, but don't know them to be surface feeders. Plenty of bugs for sure. Seems the cottonwoods are cottoning, and that's supposed to tie into some fish 'seasons'.
Been tossing some surface poppers to see what I might tempt. No luck so far, but I ain't giving up.
Seems we should be in for a good warming trend - about TIME!
Got this from bearriverinfo.org: "Walleyes, Black Crappies, Channel Catfish, Common Carp, and Black Bullheads are common. Green Sunfish, Bluegill Sunfish, Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Rainbow Trout, and Brown Trout are also found, but not in high numbers. The Utah Sucker is the only native fish found in Cutler."
Very interesting, can anyone verify the presence of all these species?
Very few bluegill but I have caught a couple. Mostly crappie and green sunfish. J
[signature]
I grew up on Cutler and fished it a lot over the years and I have caught most of them including a whitefish but the trout and whitefish don't do very well out there. I've never caught a small mouth on Cutler but I hear stories of them being caught off the rock walls down by the dam. The large mouth bass used to get pretty big but since the old cars were pulled out and the channels and walleye have grown up I don't catch the 5+ lbers anymore. It's still fun to fish not knowing what you might catch.
[signature]
[quote CoyoteSpinner]Wasn't aware of bluegill in the Bear/Cutler. [/quote]
Spent time off Benson Marina, just under the bridge. Me and my boys were ripping out largemouths, bluegill, and smallmouths as fast as we could wet our lines.
Not as many smallmouths, but they handful we caught were all good sized. Never caught so much as a single crappie, though.
[signature]
I agree, the dry dropper is a great way to catch panfish. I had my rod rigged up with a Turk's and a nymph dropper from trout fishing and was too lazy to tie something else on when I stumbled across it's effectiveness. I like the Turk's quite a bit for bluegill, and the bass like it too.
[signature]
Nice! I've only found those pesky mudcats by that bridge, but have met others who tell of crappie and walleye along there.
So if you don't mind sharing - what where the gills and bass hitting? PM if you'd prefer.
Seems the white curly tails are a good fall-back. I just end up reeling in green gooey curly tails with no fish attached! lol.
Hey Pharti - just stopped by "the swamp" yesterday for a look see. MAN they need to dredge that scum-bucket! I did see a couple of Skylor's Monsters - carp for sure. Spotted a "freed" goldfish too. Still some trout in there, but good luck getting a line through the muck. Maybe next spring!