Warm Water Flies

[DEADhead]

Here's a list of good warmwater flies. You can be creative with most flies, as sunfish, bass and pike tend to eat first ask questions later. You'll have to experiment with colors for each body of water, but generally these are the best rules of thumb. Good colors for baitfish patterns (clousers, deceivers) are white, black, silver, olive, chartreuse, pink/red. Good colors for wooly buggers are white, black, olive, brown/rust, yellow. Popular Zonker/bunny pattern colors are white, pink or red, black and green. Poppers can be in any color since they are mainly there to grab a fish's attention. Usually something with a high visibility color like white, chartreuse or orange makes it easier to see.

Most of the patterns used for warmwater fish are designed to attract and deceive and not necessarily imitate a specific insect or baitfish species. There are a few patterns out there trying to imitate specific baitfish, but any general attractor/deciever pattern will catch fish.

To increase your success catching Smallmouth Bass, use crawfish patterns or crawfish imitations like brown and rust colored wooly buggers. Crappies seem to like white wooly buggers. I’ve seen some Perch imitations out there that Pike supposedly like. I’ve tied a few of these patterns and will have to see if they are successful this upcoming season.

Panfish:

wooly buggers size 10

Poppers sizes 8-12

Terrestrial or Hopper patterns sizes 8-12

any trout dry flies or nymphs sizes 8 or smaller

Bass:

Poppers sizes 2-8

Leech pattern sizes 2-8

Diver sizes 2-4

Bunnies/Zonkers sizes 2-6

Clouser minnows 2-6

deciever patterns 2-8

crawfish imitations 2-8

wooly buggers sizes 2-8

Walleye/Pike/Musky:

Diver sizes 2/0-2

Bunnies/Zonkers sizes 2/0-2

Clouser minnows sizes 2/0-2

deciever patterns sizes 2/0-2

Good luck and Tight Lines!

[ScottND]

Way COOL! Thanks Dead! I'm printing this out and carrying it with to all the fishin shops I hit. I can feel the wallet smokin already

Look out my scalely friends Super FlyFishinMan will be sliding off a rock in a nearby stream to meet you face to face soon!!!

[DEADhead]

Here's some examples of warmwater flies that I tied this afternoon:

Panny Poppers

Wooly Buggers

Spider Bug

Hairwing/Clousers

[Havin' Fun]

Dead,

Thought you would find this interesting.

For the past few years, guys have been fishing walleyes on the Fox River and Lake Winnebago. They run flies like you streamers(clousers) in 1-2" lengths on a Wolf River Rig. Essentially it's a 3 way rig with a 1-2 foot dropper on bell sinker, with a 3-5 foot leader to the fly. Often times they will tie a fly on the leader and than tie another fly directly to your fishing above the three way.

Very interesting and highly productive. I'm going to try that here in the coming weeks.

[DEADhead]

thanks for the tip Hammer. I hope you didn't believe all the BS F-dog was telling you on the phone Saturday night. A guy catches one big slab and now he's 'slaying' them

Let me know how you do with the three way setup. If it works I'll have to get F-dog out with some of the flies I've tied...

[Havin' Fun]

LOL. Sometimes Peter gets a little excited over a crappie. It was funny to hear how much snow and ice you guys still have when I've been in my boat 4 times now this year! Keep hitten them slabs!

I am trying to convince my wife it's a good idea to come for fishing opener in May. So, I will let you guys know. Some walleyes and crappies would be fun.

[DEADhead]

Quote:

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I am trying to convince my wife it's a good idea to come for fishing opener in May. So, I will let you guys know. Some walleyes and crappies would be fun.

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Sounds good hammer, of course I'll be chasing after trout then

my sister, brother-in-law and mom will be up that weekend, so I'll be out with them and my wife as well. Depending on if you get up here or not and for how long, we'll have to have an outing and show Peter how it's done! I'm thinking of taking some time off during the week of the opener to get some fishing in...