There is a small creek that I drive over from time to time. Years ago, before the drought I would see people fishing in the creek. I decided to check it out with my fly rod. What I found were a bunch of 5.5 inch Native Bluegill. Surprisingly, there was also some other bigger fish in the creek that I couldn't identify.

I never thought I would enjoy catching fish this small but I had a blast. Those little suckers were very aggressive and fun to catch on my 4 weight. I caught them on several flies but they were really attracted to the little yellow top water popper. Only problem is their mouths weren't big enough for the popper so I had more missed bites than hookups. If anyone has a suggestion for a very small top water fly, please let me know. I tried several of the Ms. Prissy poppers and they were all to big.

Try a #12 yellow foam spider. Gills like those, too.

Bob

Thanks Bob, I will do that. They love the legs so that should be perfect.

Glad you got onto some hungry Gills. Any fight is a good fight on the fly! Nice post Jamie.

Thanks Chuck

You are 100 percent right. Love catching em on fly! They are a blast.

Foam spiders for the win! In addition to yellow, I like them in brown, black and white too. You can get a big pack of craft foam at walmart in all sorts of colors and use some old spinner bait skirts and tie enough spiders for a life time in all sorts of colors.

Thanks, I have a bag full of every color and thickness of foam and plenty of silly legs. I have a couple I've tied in the past in my fly box as well. I'll experiment with a few patterns I find on Youtube.

Nice gills on the fly "J-Moe". Bet they were fun to catch.

That looks like a really nice spot. Got to love those out of the way nooks!

Thanks Gitter Done & Jagg

The rains have all the creeks out of the banks so I haven't been able to get back and fish this spot again yet. But I did tie up some spiders. I took one of the size 8 fancy spiders I tied up to the ponds and it worked great on bass and sunfish.

The fancy spider looks great and it looks like it works very well too! Maybe I need to get the old fly rod out again and give it another try. Sure looks like fun!

Great looking bait. How long does it take to make a fly?

Takes me about 20 minutes. I've only been tying for about 8 months. Good tiers could probably do it in 5 to 10 minutes. Very simple, easy tie.

Be careful, why conventional gear is very neglected, LOL !!!