Panfish on the Fly

I'm takin the kid out tonight after some big bluegill I found. We're hopin' to do a little fly fishing for them. As alot of you know, I suck at flyfishing...with no clue what even to use outside of steelhead.

ViolentPike was given a boatload of flies...I don't even know where to start in the box(es). I unfortunately don't even have the vocabulary to know what to use if ya told me the name. PIcs would be helpful (but a pain...I know)

Should we use dries or nymphs...and how do ya tell if a fly floats by looking at it? How do you work a dry? How do you work a nymph? I know it's alot to ask about a few hours b4.

We'll be in the Bay...The fish are on beds...and are pretty agressive.

Thanks in advance.

Hopefully VP will have a post to put up

Anything with a beadhead is a nymph...or at least an underwater fly. I sent him along a few beadhead pheasant tails (small brown, with a copper bead, and a few beadhead prince nymphs (gold bead, greenish fuzzy body, 2 thin white wings on the back and 2 brown tails). Both of those would be a great choice for bluegill.

At the pond where I do most of my gill fishing, I just cast out a few feet and let the fly sink at its own speed, watching the point where the line enters the water. If it starts moving away from you or to either side, lift the rod (dont have to do a bassmasters hookset), and the gill will, 90% of the time, be on the line.

James, you can tie woolly buggers. They're awesome for bluegills too.

As far as dries, I'm convinced that anything that looks like a bug will take any surface feeding bluegill. Cast it out, if it floats, leave it sit. If nothing hits within 45 seconds or so, cast it out to another spot.

foam spiders and cork poppers also work great they are twitched on the surface and a blast to use and you never know what is going to eat them such as nice sized large and smallmouth bass and it is a blast catching large gills on a flyrod. 

I just got back from hitting some bedding gills with my flyrod.I'm no expert at it i try and have fun.I like foam spiders and a couple other foam bugs I tie.i also us something like a wooly worm I tie(chenille body with hackle wrapped around it),nothing fancy.We catch quite a few on them whether on a fly rod or spinning rod with a float.It's amazing how fast a gill will suck a fly in then spit it out before you can set the hook.Have fun and post some pics if you take any.

I was out yesterday and took over 30 (catch and release) on a lighting bug , i found this fly on tri-county fly fishers ,its a fly club out of central florida and there flies work great up here

Caddis dry flies or smaller FOAM flies have worked well for me..........I usually drop a small nymph or midge off of that........
 
Another killer pattern is a wooly worm  --  tied with yellow chenille, wrapped with grizzly hackle and something RED for the butt---hackle or a small loop of chenille--pinch of red CDC 
 
Green weenies work and you can see them underwater...........
 
If they are big and aggressive gills, use smaller POPPER flies........you'll get some really neat takes and those poppers take a beating and keep on floating............they don't have to be the expensive ones either.....the cheap K-mart or wal-mart value packs work just great for bluegill---drop a small nymph off the popper
 
post some pics!!!........