Mid day Gills

[Van_Cleaver]

Had been under the weather for a bit and needed some therapy. Walked into my favorite spot around 10:30 or so and was shocked there were no bass boats or kayaks out. it was sunny and a little too calm, but as soon as the wind kicked up a little I caught fish; and lots of them. Problem was they were all small, blue gills , golden shiner and a crappie.

Seemed all the better fish were deep so I dropped off my sling pack and waded almost chest deep. Wading wet and it felt pretty good. Now I was covering 50-60 ft out and the extra made a difference. When the breeze and the clouds were working together I had hits almost every cast. When it got flat and sunny it was much slower. No monsters but some solid 8" were ok with me.

The wind died again so I tied on a popper and a bead head ant. Dropped it into the water to see if everything was in order and the popper immediately sank. That's odd I thought as I lifted the rod and a very small crappie that had hit the ant. Predictably the wind kicked up again and I couldn't see the popper but caught a few more on the ant before the sound of thunder made me think walking out might be prudent. That and the fact that I purposely didn't pack lunch knowing it would force me to come home in a somewhat timely fashion. Btw, caught almost everything on an ant sunken. Good time close to home!

 

[Dave_W]

Neat account.

I've had days with sunnies and bass such as you describe - sun then clouds/breeze and the fish often behave this way. The action is fast and furious when the clouds are out and the surface has a bit of a chop. Sunny skies and flat water are often unproductive. Also an interesting observation about the bigger fish in deeper water (although not a surprise).

They really seemed to like that ant and must have been close to the surface or suspended over a weed edge(?). I often find with aggressive 'gills that a hopper dropper system often elicits very aggressive strikes on the big dry fly as soon as it hits the water that often miss. If it takes the fish some time to get to the dry fly and the dropper has time to sink, they usually eat the dropper and the hook-up percentage is much better. Cool.

 

[Van_Cleaver]

Dave, I caught most of the bigger gills on the ant deep, fished behind a flashy jig style fly. It was really too windy for the popper wet ant combo which was a shame because I already know it works. You are also correct in that it is way easier to hook up on the dropper than the dry. I always miss way more on the popper.

The cloud wind relationship is typical of a lot of fishing situations but this lake is notorious for only fishing well in a chop. I was having a great morning in this same spot about a month ago and called a buddy who walked in to meet me (about 1/4 mi.) When he arrived the am clouds had cleared and the lake had gone pretty flat. The bite was gone and I was feeling bad when the wind kicked up , clouds rolled in and it went from sad to epic . The big gills were in close then so the fishing was really easy.

One adjustment I have made is tying my ants larger than my trout flies.
the wet ants are tied with some sort of sparkle (like Krystal dub) on a no. 12 1XL. I usually fish a 16 for trout. For the dropper ant I like smaller, like a 2Xl 16 with a tiny black bead for the head. if you go much bigger you need a really buoyant or large dry. Excited for the hoppers to be happening.

 

[Baron]

I have been using a cicada or Chernobyl ants as the top fly and putting a frenchie, prince or ant under with great results. All small fish.

 

[Van_Cleaver]

Work got called so I went fishing; oh no ;-) ...Wade fishing the local lake for gills with collateral damage of a few bass (biggest was 12") a medium perch and 5 or six Crappie, biggest 9" or so. Fished mid day til around 4pm.

It was windy and mixed sun and clouds; covered a lot of water I hadn't fished this year. Catching gills was pretty easy, the Crappie were a little tougher and I missed several. Rig was a leech/bugger jig fly with a couple of rubber legs and a black ant dropper off the hook bend.

After catching a silly no. of small gills with only a couple nice ones, I lost the ant and then cut the off dropper line knowing it would result in a lot less strikes. That happened but almost every gill was 8", and the Crappie liked it too. Surprising they would hit in the day time but not complaining. The jig fly also accounted for the perch and the largest bass. Back to the bench to make a few more!

 

[Baron]

Leech Bugger Jig Fly. Sounds doable in modest veg. What size? Sounds like you had a blast

 

[Baron]

I’m heading out tomorrow. Been doing well with Pmd And yellow sallies. Okay with Royal wulf.

 

[Van_Cleaver]

The fly was a no.10 Umpqua jig hook, the gap is pretty big but it reduces the no. of small fish. Bugger style tail, flashy black body, and buggy, brushed out head.

Often too windy to fish top water here lately, so usually take two rods; one rigged wet and the other typically a popper/dropper combo. My evening spot is close to my truck so sometimes I switch a couple times.

 

[Baron]

I was out in the stump field. Almost too weedy to fish. Rowing in and out I got one 9" gill on a #8 B_tch Creek fly from BigY flies. Also a very large shiner.

 

[Baron]

I had been primarily a nice weather farm pond, worm fisher until a year ago. The seasonality of fishing never entered into the thought process. Now I primarily fly fish and thanks to this site and people I meet stream-side I'm consistently catching one thing or another.
So In the spring, Pre-spawn, I caught oodles of mid-size Gills as well as Big Perch and Big Crappy. Now, and for the last month, I only seem to catch really big Gils and an occasional large shiner. The Perch and Crappy are gone I assume to cool off in deeper water. But of course there is no really deep water on Gouldsboro Lake but I assume they're still as deep as they can get to avoid direct sunlight. Pickerel are also gone.
That leaves me bluegills and shiners. I fish the stumps, lily pads and milfoil for these fish. I catch very few but they're worth the wait as they're always har-hitting and sizable. I've heard that the late summer Gil fishing picks up in august and Sept. When does that begin and do the Crappy and Perch return as well. Is their return temp related or sun related or just general. I've also heard that there is often some late spawning among some panfish.
The use of a foam terrestrial with dropper seems to be the most effective though at dark foam mini frogs do well. Chernoble Ants or hoppers as floaters with sinking ants, bugs or various mutilations of green weeny and wooly worms seem to work best. A month ago the bites were usually on the bottom fly. Recently, as the water cooled, the top fly seems more popular.
I see allot of talk about Clousers, buggers, sculpin/leech patterns but I can't figure out how to fish them in thes extremely weedy waters.

 

[Van_Cleaver]

When crappie and perch return varies with each body of water. Locally it seems to get good late Sept and November; they definitely react to the temp change and the oncoming winter. I went early today; it was foggy so the kayak crowd wasn't out. As soon as the sun came out they stated flooding the lake and I promptly left a little before 11.

The fishing was slow early and picked up as the day wore on. The lake was too calm early which seemed to negate the overcast condition. The wind picked up as did the bite right as I was supposed to leave and one last cast ended up being several. Besides the 4 small to medium bass, I also caught two medium perch, a giant shiner and a bunch of gills. That said I shore fished well over a 1/4 of mi. of the lake and a good variety of bottom.

Biggest excitement was bringing in a fair sized gill and something huge took a shot at it. I hear murmurings of Musky but have only seen pickerel; some quite large. Left one hell of a boil and made me smile.

 

[Baron]

Van We need an update from any lake near you for Mid-Day Gills.