The days are getting shorter, the water getting colder and the bluegill / sunfish are ignoring my Betts topwater poppers. That means "Briminator Season" has began. The Briminator is by far my favorite pattern to use in the Winter and Early Spring. I not only catch big sunfish and bluegill on the fly; I've also caught trout, catfish, crappie, buffalo, gaspergou and lots of 18 to 19 inch bass.

There are several techniques and presentations I've found to be very effective when pond fishing.

First, I usually start with a size 8 or 10 unweighted fly in olive, black or crawfish orange. I throw it out in deep water and let it sink slowly. If the fish are active I'll see a twitch in the line and I set the hook.

If they aren't taking it on the fall, I will let it sink to the bottom and start stripping it in with 3 small pulls then pausing. If that doesn't work I will let it fall then swim it back to me as slowly as possible. I tie one pattern with dark crawfish colored rabbit fur. I have great luck with crawfish patterns in the winter. But I found that large rabbit fur bass patterns get extremely heavy once wet. I use that to my advantage. The rabbit hair Briminator bridges that gap in sink rate between an unweighted marabou Briminator and a weighted one.

If none of these techniques are working I will try a weighted Briminator. I let it sink deep into the weeds and swim it slowly back to me. The Briminator rides hook up and moves extremely well through weeds as compared to a woolly bugger.

I posted a thread on the Briminator in the Fly Fishing section last year and the inventor of the fly, Tony Guzman chimed in on the thread. It is an interesting read with several pictures and links to other people's Briminator ties. The Briminator was originally tied with a single pheasant church window feather but I've experimented with lots of different materials.

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/10670395/1

Below are a few of the fish I caught in the last few days on Briminators.

The Crawfish Briminator, tied with Crawfish colored rabbit fur has been one of my favorite patterns. Me and a friend were fishing on Friday. I was using a crawfish briminator and he was using a chartreuse colored fly. I caught 5 Green sunfish and he only had one. He switched over to a crawfish colored fly and immediately caught 5. It's definitely one of my confidence baits.

I also tie weighted Briminators. I usually wrap the shank with .015 lead. I add flash to all my weighted Briminators so I can easily distinguish them in my cluttered fly box.

Great post !

Makes dig my fly stuff out and try it for some bluegill. Been a long time for me. I used
to fly fish with my grandfather on the Llano river when I was a kid.

Those are some beautiful bluegill you caught !

Awesome Post Jamie! Watching you last year using your fly rod on the Comal was like watching a surgeon in action. You covered that whole part of the river! You need to bring those flies down here!

Good story. If you dig out that fly gear you may not pickup the conventional gear for a while. Especially on the Llano.

Thanks

Thanks Chuck, That was an awesome day on the Comal. I appreciate all your help and support, as always.

Super post J-Moe and some very nice flies! Good job Sir!

Thanks

Excellent post, thank you very much.

later...don

Nice post Jamie, I'd like to throw some flies with you next spring.

Do you have a kayak?

Thanks Don

Thanks Fitz, that sounds awesome!!

Yes, I have a Kayak.

Then we are in business

Nothing like a Spring day in Winter!!! Temperatures got up to 88 degrees yesterday and the bite was on fire

I went out pond fishing around 4 PM. I ran into a friend. He said the bass weren't biting, but the bluegill sure were. He said they were pecking at his plastic worm the entire time he was fishing. Man was he right. I was getting a bite on almost every cast. I ended up catching 28 green sunfish and 8 small bass.

By far, the most productive fly pattern was the Crawfish Briminator. I caught 24 of the 28 Greenies on it.