RvrWader Fly Tying and Fly Fishing: Bluegill Spiders

My wife is having a hard time understanding the concept of catch and release fishing. In her mind, fishing is a way to put food on the table. She wants fish to eat and cannot understand throwing back perfectly tasty fish. I tried to explain how you throw back certain fish for different reasons and keep others to eat. These reasons may include, fish management, growth rates, and spawning behaviors to name a few. To which she always responds, "then why waste time fishing for trout if you are not going to eat them?" "Why not just fish for bluegill, perch and walleye." "That way we have fish to eat." Well to make her happy I better do a little bluegill fishing. It's not the perch and walleye that she loves, but it will do. So I guess I better get busy tying up a few flies for bluegill fishing.

While not the sexiest of fish to catch, bluegill are a lot of fun and very tasty. For those that have fished for bluegills before, you know how much fun they are to catch. For their size these little buggers put up one heck of a fight. When the gills are on their beds in the spring they are very territorial and very aggressive. This is the best time to catch big bluegills and sunfish. They will take just about any fly to defend their nest. Especially big foam spiders. Hopefully I will catch a bucket load so we can have a nice little fish fry.

Here is one foam spider that I have had some good luck with.