flyfshing on Bayou Corne | SouthernPaddler.com

flyfshing on Bayou Corne

J

jdupre'

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2007
2,327
40
South Louisiana
I left at daylight to do some flyfishing for bluegills on Bayou Corne. I had my favorite fishing tool----- a 7' 3 wt. outfit. I slid the new pirogue through the sawgrass on the edge and paddled under the bridge and had action almost immediately.





More later..........when &^%":* Photobucket starts working right. :x





I brought home 24 and threw back half that many after I had caught all I wanted to clean. All of them were taken on a bead head black spider with rubber legs. Almost all of them inhaled the whole fly. The largest one was 8 3/8 ". I thought about trying a topwater popping bug, but I'm not one to change horses in midstream.......especially if that horse is doing a great job. :mrgreen:

95 % of the fish were taken in 3 spots less than 15' in diameter. Cast outside the circle and catch nothing.



Joey
 
J

jdupre'

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2007
2,327
40
South Louisiana
Well, Jack, we had catfish for supper last night, so these will go in the freezer. The beer sounds good, though. :)

This trip has to be in the top 2 or 3 all time best fishing trips I've had in 50 years of flyfishing. Catching them on a fly I tied myself added another whole layer of satisfaction.

Most people think of topwater popping bugs when they think of flyfishing for bluegills. Experts guess that 80-90 % of a bluegill's diet comes from prey under the surface. I like those odds and plan on sticking with the sinking flies for most of my fishing. Popping bugs have their place and I'll definitely use them too from time to time.


Joey
 
O

oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
For bluegills I like a tan spider with the rubber legs , for some reason they tear it up. Back a few years ago I could get them at a sporting goods store and they were called Bream Killers , came in assorted colors , tan , brown , black or white. Cast one out and let it sit for a minute and then just give it a really small twitch to make the legs move and hang on.

For Bass it is a Bumblebee popper with yellow and black stripes and a red mouth , black and yellow feathers for a tail and tan rubber legs. Fish it about the same way as the spider with small twitches to move the legs and watch out , any Bass around it is going to swallow it. A small bumblebee popper is good for the Bream or a medium size one for bigger bream and bass.
 
J

jdupre'

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2007
2,327
40
South Louisiana
The bluegills around here seem to like a weighted fly a little better. I know one thing.....the big gills usually run deeper than the dinks. Almost all of today's catch were above average in size and caught 3 or more feet deep. I tied up a couple of olive spiders today to try in case they don't want the black.

Joey
 
J

jdupre'

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2007
2,327
40
South Louisiana
Bob, that is great video. What bruisers! I'm not a purist when it comes to fishing. I'd much rather catch a couple dozen "trash" fish than fish all day for one big bass. I have some major fun when a 10 lb gar takes me for a ride for a minute or two. They mostly get off when they realize that they just have to let go. :roll:
 
W

Wannabe

Well-Known Member
Apr 5, 2007
2,645
2
on the bank of Trinity Bay
I know what you mean Joey. I had a costumer come in one time and told my that he had just caught a 30 lb. Catfish out of ;the river. I told him that that had to be a lot of fun . I said "actually I had rather catch 15 2lb.ers. Much more fun and better eating.
That video is just plesant to watch,
Bob
 
F

FlaMike

Well-Known Member
Jun 20, 2007
624
2
Spring Hill, FL
www.ptponds.com
That fly sounds like one I've had great luck with, found it on a Louisiana web site by the way. I was called a Cap Spider, because they guy who posted it fashioned it after a fly he saw on someone's fishing cap. The brass bead not only took down to where they feed, but it made it easy to spot even in murky water. Second favorite is the old Wooly Bugger, from down-right tiny, to maybe an inch or more long for bass. Top water is generally more exciting though. But mostly early AM or just about sun set. Underwater flies more productive 'round the clock.

I've got a nice, 9wt, 9ft Lefty Kreh signature rod for salt water, and just a Wally World Shakespear 5/6wt, 8ft rod for fresh water. Would like to get a better 3 or 4wt rod one of these days, but that el cheapo does pretty good.

There's quite a few good freshwater fly fishing webs sites in LA, but I figure you probably know that.

Mike S.
Spring Hill, FL
 
C

catfish

Well-Known Member
Feb 7, 2007
996
3
jesup, ga.
nice catch JD , I know you had fun cathing those babes, :D only thing wrong it wasn,t me :lol: :mrgreen: . do me a favor though when you invite KJ over for the fish fry be sure to have some gritz too. :wink: nice pics JD even if you had to work at that too.
 
J

jdupre'

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2007
2,327
40
South Louisiana
Mike, the fly is very similar to the cap spider, which is normally tied on a 1/124 to 1/80 oz. jig head. I use a fairly short #10 hook with a 5/32 " brass bead. Just chenille and rubber legs. It just ocurred to me that I've caught my 4-5 biggest fish and my daily catch record with this pattern. It's the one I start with on almost every trip. I usually try it for a half hour or so at different depths and even with a tiny strike indicator for a while before I think of using anything else.

Catfish, there's a big slab of catfish left from Friday's fish fry that will be supper with a side of creamy grits and butter. Good thing Jack wouldn't eat that, cuz he couldn't have any anyway. :mrgreen:

Hey, any of you flyfishermen tried furled leaders? How did you like them? Makeandmend mentioned them at the Rendezvous and got me curious.......and that's a dangerous situation. :) I made a quicky, simple version and it seemed to work well for the few casts I tried. More experimentation is in order.

Joey
 
M

mike

Well-Known Member
Jun 29, 2009
694
9
TEXAS!
I've seen folks using leaders and tippets, but all I've ever used is about a 6'-8' piece of monofilament tied to the end of my fly line. It has worked well for me for somewhere around 50 years. What are the advantages of using the leader and tippet method as opposed to my method?

Mike
 
O

oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
mike said:
I've seen folks using leaders and tippets, but all I've ever used is about a 6'-8' piece of monofilament tied to the end of my fly line. It has worked well for me for somewhere around 50 years. What are the advantages of using the leader and tippet method as opposed to my method?

Mike
Click to expand...

Same here ,works really well , 6 to 8 feet of leader tied to the fly line. If it ain't broke then why fix it ? :lol:

Chuck.
PS. It has been 50 plus some more years for me.
 
W

Wannabe

Well-Known Member
Apr 5, 2007
2,645
2
on the bank of Trinity Bay
oldsparkey said:
mike said:
I've seen folks using leaders and tippets, but all I've ever used is about a 6'-8' piece of monofilament tied to the end of my fly line. It has worked well for me for somewhere around 50 years. What are the advantages of using the leader and tippet method as opposed to my method?

Mike
Click to expand...

Same here ,works really well , 6 to 8 feet of leader tied to the fly line. If it ain't broke then why fix it ? :lol:

Chuck.
PS. It has been 50 plus some more years for me.
Click to expand...
The answer to Ya'lls question is probably pretty close to the answer to the question of Why does one drink only Single Malt Scotch and will only cool it down with freezer cooled steel ball bearings? There are purist in almost every endeavor where the whole process is as important as the end result. In these two cases, catching fish and getting drunk. :mrgreen: (just kidding about the drunk part) :roll: When a man is hoeing his own row of peas, I'm not about to tell his how to do it.
Bob
 
W

Wannabe

Well-Known Member
Apr 5, 2007
2,645
2
on the bank of Trinity Bay
oldsparkey said:
mike said:
I've seen folks using leaders and tippets, but all I've ever used is about a 6'-8' piece of monofilament tied to the end of my fly line. It has worked well for me for somewhere around 50 years. What are the advantages of using the leader and tippet method as opposed to my method?

Mike
Click to expand...

Same here ,works really well , 6 to 8 feet of leader tied to the fly line. If it ain't broke then why fix it ? :lol:

Chuck.
PS. It has been 50 plus some more years for me.
Click to expand...
The answer to Ya'lls question is probably pretty close to the answer to the question of Why does one drink only Single Malt Scotch and will only cool it down with freezer cooled steel ball bearings? There are purist in almost every endeavor where the whole process is as important as the end result. In these two cases, catching fish and getting drunk. :mrgreen: (just kidding about the drunk part) :roll: When a man is hoeing his own row of peas, I'm not about to tell his how to do it.
Bob
 
F

FlaMike

Well-Known Member
Jun 20, 2007
624
2
Spring Hill, FL
www.ptponds.com
"If is ain't broke, why fix it" Pretty much says it best! :D

But different methods of making leaders do make sense, and they mostly depend upon the water you fish. Mostly a leader is used because it's nearly impossible to tie a fly right on to the fly line, and you really don't want to keep shortening your fly line every time you cut off one fly to tie on another one. And, the leader puts the fly into (or on) the water, some distance from where the heavy fly line hits the water. Fishing flies, particularly the little tiny ones, should NOT hit the water with much of a splash down. (Fish notice this and tend to leave town when something like this happens.)

As a rule, the more clear the water is, the spookier the fish tend to be. Muddy or stained water, you can use shorter leaders. Crystal clear water, especially when it's also very shallow, you have much better luck with really long leaders. Problem is, the longer the leader, the better your casting has to be, so you can make that leader "turn over" at the end of the cast. Otherwise, you wind up with a pile of leader sitting on top of your fly, and a fish swimming off into the distance chuckling to himself. (Don't ask me how I know this. . . )

You can go crazy making long, tapered leaders, (or buying them,) and for many, that's part of the fun. I've learned to keep it simple and at the most, use a two part leader and a tippet for salt water. The two parts can be something like 6ft of 40lb test hard mono, tied with a perfection loop on one end, tied to a 3 or 4ft section of hard mono, with a pair of Duncan uni-knots, and another perfection loop on the end. Then whatever tippet I think I need, like two feet of fluorocarbon 20lb test for "toothy" fish, or 10lb fluorocarbon for the less toothy ones. Then I use that tippet until it gets down to about a foot long, then replace it with another. (That's why I like the perfection loops, I love the loop-to-loop connections.)

For fresh water, I usually just buy a tapered leader about 9ft or so, the the end being close to whatever lb test I'd like the tippet to be, then cut off a couple of inches, tie in another perfection loop, them make up some two foot leader of the tippet I want and tie either a perfection loop on one end, or sometimes with a light tippet like 6lbs or less, use a Bimini Twist. Easy to make up a bunch of tippets ahead of time, coil them in to about 3 or 4 inch coils, and put each one inside an inch or two of cut-off drinking straws for storage.

OK, maybe more than anyone really wanted to hear from me, but I was feeling a little talkie! :shock:

Mike S.
Spring Hill, FL
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom