Thursday, June 5, 2014

The Bar Nun Popper Wins Again


Today I got to try out my newly purchased Bar Nun poppers I purchased from BreamBugs last week. What precipitated the purchase of the poppers was my fishing trip last Tuesday when I found out that color really does matter when fishing for bluegills. 

The bluegill on Smith Lake doesn’t spawn your traditional style, meaning the water clarity can afford them the luxury of spawning in depths of 10 to 12 feet.  In most other waters bluegill spawns in depths 6 feet or less. Once a popper is thrown their way in deeper water it may take a few seconds before there is a hit. In other words one has to have a little patience to get their attention, using the light scale chartreuse popper.

I had my 3 and 4 weight 8 ½ ft. Redington rods rigged today with a Muddler Minnow and of course my new Bar Nun popper. The objective for the two rigs was to see if color and pattern still really mattered to the bluegill after a week. Long story short it did, no hits on the Muddler at all and killer hits on the Bar Nun popper. In fact I would place the Muddler right in the same place I cast the popper and the bluegill would come up and nail the popper and totally ignore the Muddler. I ordered 6 poppers last week and now I am down to 4 as a result of losing one in a tree and one in a break off with a nice gill taking it with him in a brush pile.  
This bluegill along with numerous small bass and other bluegills continued to nail the popper until the sun over took the banks. Sun is not a friend of the fly fisherman especially on Smith Lake. I want bore you with images of more bluegills, but this one and two others were worthy of the quest. I am now 31 away from my goal.
I manage to land this nice spot using the size 6 yellow Boogle Bug right at daylight. This was my only bass of the morning. This fish took the Boggle while it was sitting still. I had to change my retrieve action to get this fish to hit the bug. The jerk and stop motion didn’t work for this bass this morning. A very slow motion and letting it sit still got the hit. The retrieve could be different on my next outing. That's what makes fishing so exciting for me, one never knows how the fish will react from day to day.


 
 




 

20 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing your "On the Water" studies with us, Bill. I would say that when a fish won't take a Muddler, they are either full and not eating, or definitely keyed in on something else. Good to see you are getting closer to your goal. Nice Bass, too!

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  2. Nothing in my popper box looks like that. Might have to get me some. Then again, I might have to get out and fish warm water one of these day. Seems my fishing time has been severely chopped into.

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  3. I'm pretty impressed with this post Bill. I'm sure that if I paid as much attention as you do, I'd probably catch more fish...or not.

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  4. Those gills have some beautiful color to them. I need to flyfish more.

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  5. that popper looks top notch! I need more poppers in different colors for bass!

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  6. Selective bluegills.....I like that.

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  7. Mel
    I felt the same way when the Muddler wouldn't attract a hit--I did manage to land small bluegill with the it. Thanks for the comment

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  8. Mark
    I don't know what these fish think this popper is but whatever it is it works. Thanks for the comment

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  9. Howard
    I love to experiment with different poppers when things are tough for top action, and this popper helps to break the code. Thanks for the comment

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  10. Daniel
    They are really colorful when they first come out of the water. Thanks for the comment

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  11. Juan
    After using the Bar Nun series I have come to the conclusion, that one could go through the entire season with this one pattern. thanks for the comment

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  12. Alan
    Only keep the quest gills---thanks for the comment

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  13. Outstanding, Bill! It's a great feeling knowing exactly what the fish are going to hit at a certain body of water. Attention to detail is all it takes to figuring patterns out.

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  14. Justin
    Poppers seem to be the norm on Smith, especially the Bar Nun. Thanks for the comment

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  15. Nice report, Bill. Looks like a lot of fun.

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  16. Dwayne
    Nothing like landing bluegill on the fly when they are bedding. Thanks for the comment

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  17. Clearly you made a wise purchase..congrats!

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  18. Pen
    A simple popper that will land fish. thanks for sharing

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  19. No, we never know how fish will react from day to day. You might call this fun. I call it their way of driving me crazy!! j/k Glad you had a good popper of a day. = )

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  20. RD
    I will find out Thursday if the magic popper is still the attractor. Thanks for the comment

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