The reputation Bluegills have for pickiness in what they stick in their mouths ranks right up there with what, for example, Rosie O'Donnell might be willing stuff in her face. In other words, they're not known for being too selective when it comes to food choices. Well, uh....yes and no.
Anyway, the morning started out with us heading out to the Uintah Basin for some early season bass and bluegill fishing. The fishing was a little slow for us as we made our way from the boat ramp towards the north side of the lake where the water would be a little warmer. I kept thinking maybe it was too cold and the fish would not be coming out to play today.
Arriving at the north side of the lake, Herb and his crew were at least getting into fish pretty good. A couple of nice bass and a number of Bluegills. That's a relief. But to my dismay these little fish weren't too interested in my bluegill flies (crud I tied up to be gaudy, buggy and irresistible to the "stupid" bluegills).
Long story short, after some trial and error and honing in on Herb's fishing mojo, we cracked the code. These little fish weren't after my Bully Spider or my rubber legged crazy flies, they were eating tasty chironomids (they also liked smallish leech patterns and other similar food imitating bugs). They also didn't like their food if it was just sitting there, so imparting a little action to the flies was almost a must -- but not too slow and not too fast. And for the most part, you had better give it to them close to their hiding spots in the reeds. I found that out, again by trial and error, after Herb's friend Harry was catching fish after fish right next to our boat, while I was catching only the bottom of the lake.
The rest of the day was incredible. Using mostly chironomid patterns suspended from strike indicators, we caught large numbers of bluegills and even a few nice Bass (note the big bass fly, er, I mean chironomid in his large mouth).
I also ended up betting Cheech dinner he couldn't catch a bass on a buzz bait (some sort of "toy" lure bass fishermen use to piss off fish) using a bait casting rod. I'll let him tell the story, but he didn't have to pay for his dinner and the lure isn't a toy.
So the moral to the Bluegill story is this:
- Match the hatch
- Bluegills aren't dumb
- Fish it close to home
- Bluegills aren't dumb
- Presentation is very important
- You can catch them early in the season in big numbers.
- They fight like demons.
- Bluegills aren't dumb
2 comments:
Nice write up. Very entertaining.
Glad to hear you guys did well. I plan on hitting that in the next couple of weeks. Curtis sorry about your bet though:)
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