Salomone: Bluegills, bass and big smiles

A recent visit home for my mother’s birthday gave me a chance to exercise my inner child while fly fishing in a variety of waters for bluegills and largemouth bass. For visitors to Vail, an introduction to fly fishing on a guided trip can easily spark an obsession that carries back to home waters. I’ve fished for warmwater species for a long time with a fly rod. There is something about fly fishing for panfish and bass that keeps you connected by its simplicity.

Guests who visit Vail often choose to take a guided fly-fishing trip with an outfitter such as Vail Valley Anglers. For many, the event is a “first-time” type of experience. They learn how to cast with a fly rod and learn the dynamics behind all that line whipping around in the air. They understand why after a day on the water with a knowledgeable guide who is willing to take the time to teach.

Even if they are avid anglers at home, fly fishing is often a foreign approach. But it shouldn’t be. Don’t let it stop here. Take it home. Allowing yourself to believe that fly fishing is a trout-only tactic is a mistake.

There is no better way to catch a bluegill than by fly fishing.

By matching your gear to your quarry and the type of fly fishing you enjoy, a fly rod can suddenly go anywhere. I fly fish everywhere — freshwater, saltwater, warmwater, coldwater, stillwaters, bluewater … the only place I can’t is the ocean’s deep floor. But I don’t take a five-weight fly rod offshore or cast it to tarpon. I select a fly rod that matches my intended species.

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Fly fishers for bluegill and bass do the same. Luckily, the common five weight is a wonderful crossover tool for casting deer hair poppers or wooly buggers to largemouth bass. A five weight is even acceptable for throwing dry flies, rubberlegged spiders and small surface poppers to feisty bluegills. But if you lower the weight class of your fly rod the bluegill becomes a hard-fighting beast that makes anyone, young kids and old men, crack a smile.

A two, three, or four-weight fly rod is going to give the fly fisher a sporting fight, present challenging casting scenarios and make you a better fly fisher. Lightweight fly rods in the two-four weight category are pure pleasure rods. They are not designed to wreak havoc across the water but to give the fly fisher a soft feeling that translates from every pulse the fish makes.

Stop into Vail Valley Anglers fly shop and give a lightweight fly rod a casting try out. Feel the flex. Notice the subtlety in the tip. And in many cases, experience the learning curve from lawn casting to a guide’s boat. Where all that information culminates in a sense of understanding the fly-fishing cast. It is addictive and something anglers want to take home. Take home a lightweight bluegill and bass fly rod. You will be glad you did.

The intimidation some fly fishers feel comes from a lack of understanding which bugs to fish on their home waters. A tremendous amount of trout flies will catch bluegills and bass with ease. Small dry flies like elk hair caddis and mayfly patterns like the generic parachute Adams will entice a staredown from a bluegill who will come up to within inches of the bug and watch. The anticipation fly fishers experience watching a bluegill stare down your fly will make you feel like a kid. And when the slurp from the bluegill eating your fly happens a lightweight fly rod is going to feel perfect.

Small poppers are my personal favorite fly for bluegills and bass. Rubber-legged Chubby Chernobyls are great patterns. Thin leech flies with and without a beadhead swim enticingly and always perform. Small baitfish streamers work too. Deer hair poppers are strictly for bass and an old-school type of fly.

Just because you don’t have trout doesn’t mean you can’t fly fish. Bluegills and largemouth bass can be found in every state but Alaska. There are bound to be some in your homewaters. Give fly fishing a try during your visit to Vail. Guests who enjoy the feeling when fly fishing in Vail will love to take that same feeling home. A lightweight fly rod, small popper and a city park lake can bring it all back again — bluegills, bass and big smiles.

Michael Salomone has lived in the Eagle River valley since 1992. He started his professional guiding career in 2002 and currently guides for Vail Valley Anglers. He lives on the bank of the Eagle River with his wife, Lori, his youngest daughter, Ella and a yellow Labrador named Poppy. His published writing has appeared in Southwest Fly Fishing, Fly Rod & Reel, Eastern Fly Fishing, On the Fly, FlyLords, the Pointing Dog Journal, Upland Almanac, TROUT, American Fly Fishing, USA Today Hunt & Fish and Fly Fisherman magazines.