Rubber legs on this popper are the author's "must-have" ingredient for a bluegill fly.

Fly rodding for bluegills doesn’t get a lot of ink in Florida, what with all of the big-time saltwater gamesters to choose from. It might get more attention if more fly fishers would give it a try, if only for a refreshing, laid-back change of pace. And if more dedicated bait-fishing panfishers would get over the notion that fly casting is hard to do, they might just trade in their crickets and earthworms for a light fly rod. Flipping a bug to bluegill involves little more than a 20- to 30-foot toss, and even a rank beginner can muster that after 5 minutes of instruction at a local fly shop or under the tutelage of a flyfishing buddy.

The line-in-hand contact, and leverage of a 3- to 5-weight fly rod amplify every tug and surge that these scrappy panfish make. My wife and I have been flicking bluegill flies for over 33 years in Florida, and in Ohio, Michigan and Arkansas before that. With its amazing number of lakes, reservoirs and canals, Florida has by far a more widespread bluegill population than any state I’ve ever fished. And because of Florida’s longer “growing season,” the average size of our bluegills is much larger.

The cost of acquiring the necessary rod, reel and fly line need not set you back a “grand” as it can for top-end saltwater fly gear. “Off-the-rack” rod-and-reel combos can be had for as little as $75 to $100, and you can expect to spend around $40 or so for a weight-forward floating line.

I recommend an 8- to 9-foot fly rod rated for a 5-weight fly line (though anything from a 3- to 6-weight is perfect for bream), a single-action reel with an outgoing clicker (no drag is needed), and a floating fly line. Your leader can be as short as 5 feet, and as long as the rod, max, ending in a tippet testing 4- to 8 pounds or so. A level (one continuous strand of mono) leader can work, though a packaged, tapered knotless leader is ideal, and eliminates the need to tie knots. You’ll find that a tapered leader will turn a popper or fly over much better than a level leader.

Bluegills eat scads of flying and crawling critters. Let me tell you what I know about flies. Just out of high school I worked in a sporting goods store for eight years. And because I loved fishing, it became one of my duties to manage the flyfishing department. We had a special case made to hold thousands of flies and I had to learn all the popular patterns. Dry flies, as the name implies, are made of materials that are buoyant enough to float them. The time-tested trout patterns included the Black Gnat, Light Cahill, Royal Coachman, Black Wulff, White Miller, Mosquito, Pink Lady, Iron Blue Dun, Adams March Brown, and the Goofus Bug. Though tied for trout, they all appeal to bluegills, especially on size 12 hooks and larger. Then, there are the wet flies that sink—Ribbed Hare’s Ear, Parmachene Belle, Woolly Worm and a Weber Brim Fly. Poppers round out the fly selection, and are by far the first thing fly fishers reach for when after bluegills. I recall that we stocked and sold the Creepy Popper, Screwball, Firelure Nitwit, Sizzler, Grasshopper, Mountain Hopper and Waterbug.

Give the popper a twitch, then let it lie still for 20 seconds or so.

These are but a fraction of the thousands we stocked. Why so many? Well, the prevalent theory of fly fishing is, as the familiar phrase goes, you have to match the hatch. There always is some kind of flying or crawling critter coming in a bumper hatch that can emerge several times a year over land or in water. And bluegills, unlike the more fussy stream trout, will gorge on all of them, at any time (though they can be selective on the rare occasion, too).