New to fly fishing and loving it

[kitsinni]

Hi everyone, I stumbled upon this forum. Seems like a great place with a lot of valuable info!

I have been fishing all my life, but just got in to fly fishing. I had a good night last night, caught about 40 gills/sunfish on flies. A lot of them were eating size too! I have noticed a significant increase in the size of bluegill I am catching using poppers.

I was wondering about bass though. If I am fishing a place with a lot of bluegill, will there be bass in the same area? So far I havn't caught any bass, but would love to. The areas I was trying yesterday seemed like they would hold some bass, but everytime I threw in the fly a bluegill would grab it. Any info is appreciated.

Thanks
Niko

 

[dickensheets]

Gills will bite a bare hook - they are not bright fish. Some suggest catch and release of gills (release them to the bushes) to preserve the other fisheries. I do not have the heart to do this but instead I use a larger fly for bass. Gills have a small mouth, bass, well...

rd

 

[BigCliff]

The relationship between bluegill and bass population is a tricky one. There needs to be lots of sunfish or other fish bass eat for the bass population to thrive, but too large of a sunfish population can result in all the baby bass being gobbled up. If the sunfish you were catching were especially eager biters, they're likely either hungry due to lack of food, or protecting a spawning bed. (spawning not likely after june/july though)

You'll usually find bass at the outer edge of where the bluegill are, and often down deeper.

 

[kitsinni]

I headed out to the lake last night and thought I would try my luck. I caught a bunch of red belly bluegill that put up a lot of fight. I even managed to catch a smallmouth bass about 10" or so. I know it is nothing to write home about, but it was my first smallmouth on a fly pole. I caught him right next to some weeds, which he headed for instantly. I had the line pretty tight though and managed to yank him from the weeds, then it was just pure fun. In all honesty some of these larger red bellies might put up an equal fight. I can't wait to get out again and get the big one!

 

[BigCliff]

Nice work! Even the small smallies pull mighty hard.