Fly Fishing for Bass and Bluegill

A first day on a warmwater pond: a small popper for bluegill, a bigger bug or a streamer for bass, and a 6-weight instead of the trout rod.

From the book Fly Fishing for Nerds — $9.74 →

A pond or a small lake with bass and bluegill is still water. There is no riffle to read and no seam delivering food. The fish sit on cover, and they move when something shows up. This page is where to look, which fly to tie on first, and how to change one thing when the first fly is ignored.

None of this promises a fish. It gives you one setup you can test on the next pond, and a note that says what you changed.

1. A pond is still water

Missouri Department of Conservation says largemouth bass do best in warm, moderately clear water with little or no current, and that they are the predator stocked in farm ponds. They are most active at dawn and dusk. They eat fish, crayfish, and large insects, and sometimes a frog, a mouse, a snake, or another small animal that falls in.

The same department's bluegill page says bluegill do best in warm, clear water with aquatic plants or other cover. They feed by sight. At midday they move to deeper water or shade. In the morning and the evening they feed in the shallows. A bright noon start on an open bank is a weak test. Fish the edge while the light is low, or fish the shade if you got there late.

If the water in front of you is a trout stream, this is the wrong page. The first-rod guide is the 9-foot 5-weight for that water. The temperature guide is when to stop fishing trout. It is not a bass rule. Bass live in the warm water that page tells you to leave.

2. Start with bluegill

Bluegill are the fish that will teach you the cast. Missouri's pond stocking note says the adults eat mostly aquatic insects, and terrestrial insects when those are on the water. Their fly-fishing page says bluegill take a floating popping bug, and that they are especially willing to eat a black, slow-sinking fly.

The mouth is small. The field guide says it limits what a bluegill can eat. The bluegill fishing tips say to keep the hook small, and that sizes 6 to 10 catch more of them. The same page says small flies and poppers work, and that the best flies are usually small and black. Start there. A bass on the same bank is a bonus, not the first goal.

A private pond is someone's land. That tips page says to ask before you fish it.

3. Where to look

Walk the bank before you cast. You are looking for the edge of the plants, the shade, and anything that breaks a bare shoreline: a laydown, a dock, a point. Plants are the cover both pages describe. Cast to the edge. Do not wade through the middle of a weed bed to reach a spot you could have reached from the side.

The bluegill field guide says nesting in Missouri starts in late May and runs into August, in water 1 to 2 feet deep, on gravel. That calendar is Missouri's. Other states move it. If you can see pale, round nests, you have found a bed. Fish the edge of it. Do not stand in it.

Give one edge a handful of casts before you walk to the next. A pond looks like it has a hundred spots. Most of them are the same bare bank. The one with cover is the test.

4. Fish the popper

Missouri's fly-fishing page wants a heavier rod than a trout 5-weight: a 6- or 7-weight with a fast tip. The reason they give is the hook set. A largemouth mouth is bony, so the set has to be firm, and the flies are larger than a trout dry. The outfit in the box is a 9-foot 6-weight. The listing calls the action medium, not fast. It will throw a bass bug. It is not the stiffest 6-weight in the catalog, and you do not need a second rod to learn that.

The reel in that kit is already spooled with a weight-forward line, backing, and a 9-foot leader. Tie a fresh piece of tippet to the leader, the way the knots guide ties tippet on, so you are not cutting the taper back at every fly change. The tippet guide divides hook size by 3. A size 6 is 2X. A size 2 lands between 0X and 1X, so either of those spools will fish. The 0X, 1X, and 2X spools are the ones for this page. Leave the trout 5X in the other pocket.

Start with the size 6 bug for bluegill. Cast to the weed edge or the shade, and stop. Let the rings die. Then one short strip, so the bug pushes a little water, and stop again. A bluegill often takes it on the pause. A bass often takes it when the bug moves. If the bug is dragging a wake because you left line on the water in a breeze, that cast did not count. Pick it up and cast shorter.

Set by lifting. On a bluegill, a short lift is enough. On a bass, Missouri says the set needs to be aggressive, because the mouth is bony. You will not know which fish it is until the line comes tight. A firm, smooth lift covers both. A violent sweep still breaks a knot you tied dry. Wet the turns, the way the knots guide says, and nip the tag.

5. Switch to a streamer

If a handful of clean casts to a good edge gets no look, the fish may be under the bug. Missouri names two different flies for that. A bluegill will eat a black, slow-sinking fly. A bass will eat a streamer that looks like a small baitfish, or a large popping bug. Those are different sizes. Do not treat them as one fly.

The olive Woolly Buggers in the box are sizes 6, 8, 10, and 12, three of each. A size 8 or 10 is a bluegill streamer. Missouri names black, not olive. If the olive is refused on retrieves that actually moved, black is the next color. Do not change the size in the same cast. Cast it along the edge, strip a few inches, and pause. The streamer guide is that strip, written for trout. The fish and the leader here are not the trout version.

The Clouser assortment is hook size 1/0, nine flies. That is a bass fly. It is too big for the bluegill you started with. Fish it on 0X, along the same kind of edge, with a short strip and a pause, only after the size 6 bug and the smaller streamer have had a real chance. A chance is several casts that landed where you meant, with the fly moving the way you meant.

Get the hook out with the forceps. A bluegill's mouth is small, and a popper hook is not a tiny dry-fly hook. Keep the fish in the water. Pinch it less.

6. Change one thing

Give one spot a handful of casts with one fly.

• If the casts were sloppy, fix the cast and repeat the same fly.
• If they were clean and empty, change the fly or move to the next edge. Not both.
• If you move, fish the same fly for the first handful of casts, so the new spot is the thing that changed.

One line in your phone: the spot, the fly, the size, and whether anything looked. After a few ponds you can see whether you only ever fish the size 2.

Before you keep a fish, read the rules for that state. Missouri's fishing regulations are the permit, the length, and the limit for Missouri water. The state you are actually standing in has its own page. A sign on a city pond beats this guide.

The same loop, written for trout water, is in Fly Fishing for Nerds. Readers can take 25% off ($9.74) with code NERDS25 at Leanpub.

The Riverbank Checklist is the one-page version of one hypothesis and a short test. It names riffles. Skip that line on a pond. Keep the line that says what you will test, and for how many casts.