New to flyfishing, want to catch 'gills

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Originally Posted by croppy1

If you want to catch a lot of fish, and I mean good fish, don't limit yourself to just a flyrod. It's a fun, but specialty item for bluegill. And is probably the least effective of all methods, under most normal conditions, that I've experienced.

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I agree and do not limit myself to the fly rod and neither should other anglers, but I do catch far more bream (and good sized keeper bream) on a fly rod than I ever do or have on conventional tackle and that includes live bait (worms, crickets, etc.), not always the biggest, but the most bream. Fifty to 100 bream in one day's fishing on the fly rod is normal for me under normal conditions. Maybe that's due to the fact that 90% of what bream (like trout) eat are insects and the other 10% are baitfish, aquatic worms, and so on which can also be imitated with a fly. Shellcrackers may be the exception feeding on scuds, snails, worms, and other crustaceans, but I can still catch a lot of Shellcrackers on the fly rod by using insect flies, scud flies, and worm flies. The fly rod is my most effective method for catching bream and is by no means a "specialty" item soley for Bluegill or used in a rare special case as far as I'm concerned. Both kinds of tackle have their place but conventional tackle takes a back seat to the fly rod for me when it comes to bream.

But don't take my word for it that insects and their larvae are the dominate food item for bream, look at this FWC link and pay close attention to the headings of "Feeding Habits" for each fish:

http://www.floridafisheries.com/Fishes/panfish.html

I don't think that Wal-Mart still offers that SA combo. I think all they offer nowdays is a Shakespeare combo for like $20. I really want to do this and just want to figure out what the best combo would be. Oh well, I will stop by Dick's tomorrow evening and see what they have to offer as far as ready to fish (-flies of course) combos go. Thanks for all the help, and to the gentleman who said fly rods are specialty items, umm...I think live bait is a specialty item for bream. I catch A LOT more on even a small Rooster Tail and they are typically bigger.

Drew,
All of the Wal-marts here carry the SA combos and this is why I threw it out there. They also carry Shakespeare, Cortland, and two other brands as well.
I know each Wal-mart is different, but was just letting you know what I have seen in our local stores.

I would much rather have SA or Cortland than Shakespeare, but you know how that goes.

Andy,

Don't know if you have one near you but K-Mart has some Scientific Anglers combos and other fly gear here. I've seen the shoddy Shakespeare combo at Wal-Mart and I really would not even consider it. No Cortlands here where I live.

I was in Wal-mart tonight and they also have a nice Eagle Claw combo in a four piece with rod, reel, lines and rod tube.

I agree on the Shakespeare. I wouldn't want to own one either.

Just throwing this one out there. I got a 6' 4wt from BPS. It is kind of expensive but also was ready to step up some. I have a Cortland 8'6" 5-6wt that I started with. This new one is also going to be used to trout fish on some of the smaller mountain streams around here. Got to find a good 9' 4wt rod for the larger streams around here to trout fish. Like the feel of the 3-4wt rod just my preference.

Will check KMart!

These SA combo pages might help. They also have a dealer locator.

http://www.3m.com/us/home_leisure/sc...s_system.jhtml

http://www.3m.com/us/home_leisure/sc...ts_ultra.jhtml

If you have a Sports Authority near you, check out the Reddington Crosswater rods. I've heard good things about them, and they're on sale now.