Winter bream flies

[fishingLa]

Howdy ya'll, beginner to fly fishing here and have hopes of getting some learning to cast/bream fishing in while I'm off work for the Christmas shutdown. I live in NE Louisiana, bought a TFO NXT combo 8'6" 4/5 with a 4x tippet. I have no idea what flies might catch a fish this time of year but was thinking of starting with bully spiders, woolly worm/buggers and san juan worms. Hopefully some of ya'll can give me a better idea of what flies to try and if the one's I've picked out would be a good choice or not.

Thanks,

Jimmie

 

[bigjim5589]

Those are pretty much universal flies for panfish anywhere, so should work. You may want them in some various sizes and colors. Usually it's not so much what you tie on, but where you cast it.

I went to FL one time & I fished from shore during the winter, of one of the lakes near Kissimmee. Just so happens they had a cold front move in, and it was very windy & colder than normal. I had planned to rent a boat, but the wind prevented it, so had to settle for fishing the canal that lead out to the main lake from the marina. I had plenty of flies with me, and tried several things in my box, but couldn't get anything interested. It did finally warm up a little & the wind died down, and I managed some Bluegills on a Hare's Ear type nymph pattern, and a couple of small bass on a little white marabou streamer. I caught some big Bluegills on that streamer too, but had traveled to a different area and fished a different body of water. It never hurts to have some variety with the flies, but no need to get crazy with it.

 

[brownbass]

When I was starting out fly fishing I used black and yellow marabou streamers and wooly worms in the same colors and cleaned up on big ones. Variations of the San Juan and Silly worms will work great as well The problem with the worms as I remember is the fish suck them in so fast and deep that getting them back was next to impossible without killing the fish. Back then that wasn't a problem as we ate a lot of fish then and I would get the flies back when I cleaned the fish.

Bill

 

[Meadowlark]

Bully spiders are good but beadhead nymphs are better. I use BH Prince Nymphs almost exclusively in winter and sometimes use the BH Squirrel tail nymph with rubber legs added.

The key IMO is to work them slow, agonizingly slow...and even deadsticking them if you know there are fish present.

 

[dakotakid]

If you are already a fly tier, two flies that are very dependable in Central Florida are:
1) Sarge's crappie fly
Free State Fly Fishers - A Kansas FFF Fly Fishing Club in Lawrence, KS


>> Sarge’s Crappie Fly
I find a chartreuse or red tail to be the most effective. I use a size 10 hook.

2) John Montana hybrid carp fly
Fly-Carpin: 2014 Fly Swap: John Montana's Hybrid
Though it looks great with pheasant rump yellow hackle, I find that the hackle color doesn't make much difference. So I usually just use a brown hackle feather.

Both are very easy ties. Since you are a beginner, it's possible you aren't yet tying any flies. If that's the case, any streamer with a bright tail, worked slowly should work. As others mentioned, nymphs are also good choices. In fact, there have been days when the larger flies (size 8 & 10 hook) get no action, but small nymphs work fine. But generally, I find that bigger flies like streamers attract bigger gills and crappie and will also catch the attention of large mouth bass.

Sunfish 11 inch Dec. 8, 2018 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/153050346@N08/, on Flickr

Crappie 15 in Jan 2018 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/153050346@N08/, on Flickr

 

[kentuckysteve]

The flies you mentioned should work great.A soft hackle fly is a really good fly in the winter and easy to tie.I have good luck with the prince nymphs also but most any nymph will get their attention. Brassies work good too.The beadhead nymphs work good but the non beadheads will sink slower and i find they will go for them quicker most of the time.I tie most of my panfish flies on hook size 12 or bigger to avoid a lot of those little tiny fish.If the water is still warm where you are you can try small poppers or sneaky pete's around the brush or stick-ups or any type cover in the water.A briminator fly or damsel nymph flies are good in warmer water also.If the water is cooler they will look for that warmer water once the sun pops up but as it gets overhead they will usually go deeper.Just fish a little slower in colder water and you will get them.

I had a great day catching crappie once and a prince nymph was all they wanted.My brother beside me in the boat tried everything and could not get a bite until he tied one on his hook.

 

[fishingLa]

Thanks for all the suggestions. All of my bully spiders are #12s but I have them in chartreuse, white and black, the woolly bugs/worms are in 3 or 4 different colors and from #6 down to #12 I believe. I have a 2 prince nymphs one a #12 and the other a #14 so I'll have to give them a try probably under an indicator. Just bought some #12 mop flies 4 different colors, some with legs and some without. If they get here before the 17th I'll take them with me and see if I can get a bite on one. If I don't catch a fish or get a bite that will be ok too as the time spent on the water right now is more about learning to cast than catching anything. Hopefully I'll be able to get enough time in casting the rod before Spring gets here and the spawn starts.

Jimmie

 

[stinger22]

I always have good luck with Carters Rubber Leg Dragon sometimes under a strike indicator the Bully Spider works well just fish them slow

 

[karstopo]

Shellcrackers seem to like these size 6 black bead head buggers with chartreuse hackle. In the colder months, I like a small tungsten bead to get them down some, but still use floating fly line. Unweighted patterns sink too slow where I fish, but I guess some sink tip line might work with a unweighted fly. Size 6 discourages smaller fish.

 

[tpo]

I always have good luck with Carters Rubber Leg Dragon sometimes under a strike indicator the Bully Spider works well just fish them slow

I've had a lot of luck with Carters Rubber Leg Dragon too. I tie them with black and yellow chenille, sometimes put yellow marabou in the tail (with black), and the use yellow and/ or white rubber legs. I also fish them with a small indicator. That helps me detect a bluegill take before they take the fly deep (which they seem to have a habit of doing) and helps detect the sometimes subtle take of largemouth. This fly takes crappie and plenty of bass, I've had a bunch in the 2-6 lb range which is a blast on the 3 wt rod I usually use.

Tom

 

[stinger22]

Yes the RLD is very effective on LMB also I am always amazed what the size 10 bug will catch I usually seem to do better with a bug that has some type of rubber legs

 

[fishingLa]

I have 2 of the RLD's one black and one olive hopefully I will be able to give them a try. We're headed to the campsite tomorrow so hopefully I'll be able to get some casting/fishing practice done in the next couple of days.

 

[tpo]

Here is a pic of one version of a RLD I use (if this works), and a few of the fish its caught. This one is small and has no hackle. I tie other sizes, some with hackles, and some with black or mixed black/yellow marabou tails. They all have marabou tails, chenille bodies, rubber legs, and bead chain eyes, and they all work. I will say I don't fish for gills/bream much in the winter so I don't have much experience with this fly/method in the winter (the subject of this thread), I usually fish these in the spring summer, so I can't comment on their effectiveness in colder weather.

 

[Joey Bagels]

I have 2 of the RLD's one black and one olive hopefully I will be able to give them a try. We're headed to the campsite tomorrow so hopefully I'll be able to get some casting/fishing practice done in the next couple of days.

So how’d you do? Been getting out any lately?


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