Photo AlbumPond and Lake Fishing - 2008 My first largemouth bass of the season taken on taken on a foam spider.  Another largemouth bass taken on an orange foam spider.  My first bluegill of the season taken on a the same foam spider.  Another nice bluegill taken on a Tom Lentz Brim Special. Chartreuse bugs were working great the day this fish was taken.  This bluegill also took the Brim Special. I caught about fifteen gills, all this size, on the Brim Special that day.  Another nicely colored gill taken on a Brim Special.  Several of the gills taken on the Brim Special were taken out of this little cove on a farm pond that's about thirty-five acres in size.  The other gills caught on the Brim Special on that day were taken out of this area. The water was about four-feet deep and the male bluegills were in that area making nests in preparation for the spawn that took place the following week.  Another brightly colored male taken on the Brim Special.  This bass even liked the Brim Special. It's a great bluegill and small bass fly.  The crappie have been late this year. This crappie was taken on a Brim Special the third week of May. We normally take lots of crappie in late April and Early May but because of the cold, wet, weather they didn't become active until much later.  Another nice gill taken on a Brim Special.  This crappie was taken on a white crappie jig with a red body. The crappie jig is my favorite crappie lure.  I was fishing for crappie with a white Beaner's Baitfish with a red belly when this largemouth smacked it. I caught several about this size on the little streamer that day.  Another small bass taken on Beaner's Streamer. Twelve to fourteen-inch bass are great fun on a bluegill rod.  My fishing buddy Larry Wallace with an eleven-inch gill. We take a lot of ten to twelve-inch gills on our favorite fishing hole which has an abundance of bluegill, crappie, and bass.  Another nice black crappie taken on a red and white crappie jig. Our favorite crappie pond has both black and white crappies.  Another bluegill taken on a jig. My hand is seven-inches long so you can get some idea of the size of the bluegills that we take regularly.  A couple of days after we did so well on bluegills with the Brim Special we returned to the same pond and couldn't take one fish on it. We changed to the Black Laced McGinty and took fish all afternoon. Who says that gills can't be as selective as trout.  We even caught a few bass on the McGinty.  This bass took an all black Beaner's Baitfish. The bass seemed to like black on this day that was overcast with thunderstorms in the forcast.  Ten-inch bluegill taken on the McGinty.  Ten-inch bluegill taken on a chartreuse crappie jig.  Another nice black crappie. This is the only fish that we occasionally keep because they can over-populate a pond.  This gill was almost eleven-inches long. When they are that big they are great fun.  A nice black crappie taken on a crappie jig. If you don't fish with them, you should. Check out the Bottom Fly and Jig Page for the pattern. It's a great lure.  The next eight photos show a few of the gills that my buddy Larry Wallace and I caught one day during the last week of may. We took well over a hundred gills, all this size, on a McGinty and a fly that closley resembles Tom Lenze's Brim Fly.  I also caught a few fish on The Gimp, but the Mcginty worked much better. If you don't use this fly check out the Wet Fly and Nymph page for tying instructions.  The length of my hand from the tip of the longest finger to the rear of the hand is exactly seven-inches. You can easily see in the photos that these fish all ranged from nine to eleven-inches.  They also were beautifully marked and colored.  Another nice bluegill.  What else can I say. We are blessed to have fishing like this in Southwestern Iowa.  There is nothing more fun than a big bluegill on a light fly rod.  We occasionally pick up a crappie when we're fishing for gills. This crappie liked the McGinty even though it didn't look like a minnow.
Warmwater Fly Tyer - by Ward Bean
© Copyright 2024 Ward Bean, Council Bluffs, IA, All rights reserved. © Copyright 2024 Ward Bean, Council Bluffs, IA, All rights reserved.
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