Fall Bluegill Flies

[Collin W]

Does anyone have any favorite flies for bluegill in the fall?

[Looking for the big one]

Wooly buggers, black ants, panfish poppers, the works. Pretty much the same as usual, but you might have to fish spots more to get a bite as they become less aggressive the colder it gets. 

[Bluebasser86]

Hoppers and small poppers are the most fun, but a small woolly bugger is tough to beat. 

[Dorado]

I like using hoppers or foam black ants to get their attention to the surface. Then, I'll tie on 7-10" tippet on the shank of the lead fly with a trailer fly, usually a small prince nymph or pheasant tail. 

[Gundog]

I like poppers or black ants. Also black ants work pretty good for trout on a nearby stream. 

[Further North]

On 9/7/2017 at 10:48 AM, Dorado said:

I like using hoppers or foam black ants to get their attention to the surface. Then, I'll tie on 7-10" tippet on the shank of the lead fly with a trailer fly, usually a small prince nymph or pheasant tail. 

Good rig.

 

Around here, I'd go similar: Foam spider at the top, some kind of bead head nymph (I don't think it really matters) about 18" down.

 

Foam based hoppers work well too, cast relatively tight to the bank/shore.

 

I had bunches of panfish trying to eat this:

 

Monday and Tuesday...and that fly is 3" long.

 

There's a smaller, similar fly called a gurgler that would have worked had I wanted to catch panfish.  Here is one example of a variation:

 

[flyfisher]

slow sinking spider for me.  I am not a fan of topwater for sunnies.  You can catch a lot of fish but seems like i get bigger ones by going sub surface.