Bluegill on my Local Lake

 I finally made it out to our local lake today. The lake is only 165 areas, and for the most part it was busy all day. At one time I counted 33 boats at various places on the lake. This was not counting the people sitting on the banks and pier. So either someone was skipping work or there was a lot of retires----either way it was good to be on the water with all the home folks. I finally started fishing around 1:00 under bright clear blue skies. I spent 2 hours trying to catch some of the nice crappie the lake possesses. Needless to say I struck out in that area. I decided to switch to my trusted fly rod around 3. With the water temps in the middle 60’s I thought I would try the nymph in deep water off the edge of dead weed beds, which proved successful. I was using the black gnat size 12. Everyone has their favorite go to fly; well this is my go to fly in early spring for bluegill in deep water. The hits were slow and not aggressive. I had to move it ever so slow to get the hit. I ended the day with a good meal of fillet bluegills.   

   Find the dead weed beds in water 7 to 8 ft deep and you would find a number of bream on the front side close to deep water.

Compact, lightweight, and durable, my little Raider pontoon boat.

A great catch with my Temple Fork 3 Wt. 7 ½ ft. rod and G-Loomis Reel
Caught 12 and kept this group for a meal