.JPG)
Last week I spent the better part of my time fishing for bluegills. I fished a couple of days by myself and on the weekend I fished with my son-in-law. The fish was hitting better on a couple of days but the latter part of the week was tricky to say the least. Poppers and nymphs were the flies of the day. They were working well at times, but at times there was a lapse in the action. During those slow times one has to be a little innovative to entice the fish to hit. I notice especially with the popper that if the presentation wasn't landing natural on the water you would not get the hit. Of course this is not the case when the fish are on the beds, because at that time they are very aggressive and will attack anything that comes near the bed. I think one could let the popper splash on the water and the fish would attack it. To improve the hit catch ratio I starting experimenting with the poppers and notice the fish would take the popper much better if the rubber legs were trim which would give it a smaller profile. Switching to a smaller popper really enhanced the hits too. The poppers with the long legs was creating too much motion on the water, therefore spooking the fish on the slow days. I am glad I did a little experimenting to make a slow day a more productive day. This is what makes fishing so fascinating to me.
.JPG)
Bill... Do you ever fish a popper trailing a small nymph? I have a buddy who does that all the time and kills the gills! Darn guy also fishes a bass popper trailing a Gizit about four feet down. He throws the bass rig with a spin rod, goes to a real slow retrieve (about one inch/long pause at a time) and he really nails some nice bass!
ReplyDeleteMidgeman
ReplyDeleteYes I have used small nymphs as a dropper off of poppers. I usually use them after the bream leaves the beds. I decided not to use one because of the wind. I really had a lot of trouble just casting the popper. False casting was just about out of the question. I was really in close quarters most of the time causing me to constantly watch my back cast. I have caught some nice bream and bass off the dropper the past couple of years. I like the little Hares Ear size 14 or 16, Pheasant Tail size 12, 14, and my favorite is the San Juan Worm size 12.The worm is deadly. I am going to do a post in the coming weeks on droppers in warm waters situations. I want to do a little more experimenting before I do the post. I have never heard of the popper off the Gitiz. I use to fish the Gitiz when I did a lot of bass fishing but I am more into the fly rod and micro light fishing now. I have acquired new group of fishing buddies since I retired and none of them bass fish. All of them are into crappie, bream and one of the guy’s trout fishes. So needless to say I just about got away from the bass scene.