Cricket Pattern??

I was fishing this past weekend for bluegill. My wife was useing her
Ultralight set up and live brown crickets. She was catching them with
almost everycast. Me...fishing a few feet from her with my flyrod was
catching just a few. I tried every pattern I had that resembled a cricket
or something similiar. The fish would always go to the live cricket. I
tried different presentation techniques. Different methods of
retrievals....etc..etc.... To no avail. Is there pattern for a brown
cricket that anyone has had success with??? Thanks Mike

wrote:

I was fishing this past weekend for bluegill. My wife was useing her
Ultralight set up and live brown crickets. She was catching them with
almost everycast. Me...fishing a few feet from her with my flyrod was
catching just a few. I tried every pattern I had that resembled a cricket
or something similiar. The fish would always go to the live cricket. I
tried different presentation techniques. Different methods of
retrievals....etc..etc.... To no avail. Is there pattern for a brown
cricket that anyone has had success with??? Thanks Mike

There was an article incl a pattern on flyfisherman.com the other day.

Svend Tang-Petersen wrote:

wrote:

I was fishing this past weekend for bluegill. My wife was useing her
Ultralight set up and live brown crickets. She was catching them with
almost everycast. Me...fishing a few feet from her with my flyrod was
catching just a few. I tried every pattern I had that resembled a cricket
or something similiar. The fish would always go to the live cricket. I
tried different presentation techniques. Different methods of
retrievals....etc..etc.... To no avail. Is there pattern for a brown
cricket that anyone has had success with??? Thanks Mike

There was an article incl a pattern on flyfisherman.com the other day.

Sorry, make that a cicada pattern.

wrote...
I was fishing this past weekend for bluegill. My wife was useing her
Ultralight set up and live brown crickets. She was catching them with
almost everycast. Me...fishing a few feet from her with my flyrod was
catching just a few. I tried every pattern I had that resembled a cricket
or something similiar. The fish would always go to the live cricket. I
tried different presentation techniques. Different methods of
retrievals....etc..etc.... To no avail. Is there pattern for a brown
cricket that anyone has had success with??? Thanks Mike

Here's one that Warren contributed to a roff swap: http://tinyurl.com/27a2m
He wouldn't give up the recipe, so you're on your own. ;-)

If you *really* want to catch bluegill on just about every cast, Here's the
bluegill swap Stan hosted last year: http://tinyurl.com/24zqp
I can honestly say I've tried all of these and caught bluegill with each.
--
TL,
Tim
BTW, don't tell Warren, but I used that hopper for bluegill myownself and it
worked great.
------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj

----- Original Message -----
From:
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.fishing.fly
Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 2:37 PM
Subject: Cricket Pattern??


I was fishing this past weekend for bluegill. My wife was useing her
Ultralight set up and live brown crickets. She was catching them with
almost everycast. Me...fishing a few feet from her with my flyrod was
catching just a few. I tried every pattern I had that resembled a cricket
or something similiar. The fish would always go to the live cricket. I
tried different presentation techniques. Different methods of
retrievals....etc..etc.... To no avail. Is there pattern for a brown
cricket that anyone has had success with??? Thanks Mike

I've noticed (both outdoors and in a native fish aquarium) that bluegills
have two modes of attack: immediate or checking things out first. If they're
hungry and used to eating a certain thing, they'll hit it with little or no
hesitation. If they're feeling picky or aren't sure something's edible,
they'll slide up but stop dead several times to eyeball (and I'm sure sniff)
it. With real crickets, everything's go at these inspections, whereas
something with hook, foam, and feathers is likely to be rejected a certain
fraction of the time.

wrote...
Is there pattern for a brown
cricket that anyone has had success with??? Thanks Mike

"TimJ wrote:
If you *really* want to catch bluegill on just about every cast, Here's
the
bluegill swap Stan hosted last year: http://tinyurl.com/24zqp
I can honestly say I've tried all of these and caught bluegill with each.

Note that Mike Bernardoni (mikeb) tied a Jitterbee for that swap.

Mike: did you think to try casting live crickets with your fly gear? I
would think any dark rectangular foam block with rubber legs would work,

Thanks for the response. I had never thought about it but where I was
fishing the water is crystal clear. I could spy a group of gills and would
cast into or near them. They would immediatly start swimming to the fly.
Mouth it and go (or spit out) or just turn away when they got a good look
at it, 9 times out of 10 they would look and turn away. but with the live
crickets...BOOM.....no hesitation. MIKE

"Flying Squirrel" wrote in message
...
----- Original Message -----
From:
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.fishing.fly
Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 2:37 PM
Subject: Cricket Pattern??


I was fishing this past weekend for bluegill. My wife was useing her
Ultralight set up and live brown crickets. She was catching them with
almost everycast. Me...fishing a few feet from her with my flyrod was
catching just a few. I tried every pattern I had that resembled a
cricket
or something similiar. The fish would always go to the live cricket. I
tried different presentation techniques. Different methods of
retrievals....etc..etc.... To no avail. Is there pattern for a brown
cricket that anyone has had success with??? Thanks Mike

I've noticed (both outdoors and in a native fish aquarium) that bluegills
have two modes of attack: immediate or checking things out first. If
they're
hungry and used to eating a certain thing, they'll hit it with little or
no
hesitation. If they're feeling picky or aren't sure something's edible,
they'll slide up but stop dead several times to eyeball (and I'm sure
sniff)
it. With real crickets, everything's go at these inspections, whereas
something with hook, foam, and feathers is likely to be rejected a certain
fraction of the time.

wrote in message ...
I was fishing this past weekend for bluegill. My wife was useing her
Ultralight set up and live brown crickets. She was catching them with
almost everycast. Me...fishing a few feet from her with my flyrod was
catching just a few. I tried every pattern I had that resembled a cricket
or something similiar. The fish would always go to the live cricket. I
tried different presentation techniques. Different methods of
retrievals....etc..etc.... To no avail. Is there pattern for a brown
cricket that anyone has had success with??? Thanks Mike

Several other thoughts:

(1) Try attaching a second fly, either on a dropper or by tying tippet to
the bend of the hook of the first fly. The gang effect often seems to
inspire strikes when a single fly wouldn't.

(2) Try a fluorocarbon tippet instead of mono. I'm not entirely sure this
improves the strike rate (it certainly doesn't dramatically), but I haven't
tried it that often.

(3) Try varying your retrieve instead of the fly. (I'm sure you've already
thought of that.)

Lastly, I always crimp down the barbs of my hooks when fishing for sunfish.
Their jaws are much more delicate than trout mouths. I've done some serious
damage trying to free even tiny fly hooks. Not that bluegills are endangered
or anything, but it's a bit depressing to catch fish with crippled parts.

wrote in message ...
Thanks for the response. I had never thought about it but where I was
fishing the water is crystal clear. I could spy a group of gills and
would
cast into or near them. They would immediatly start swimming to the fly.
Mouth it and go (or spit out) or just turn away when they got a good look
at it, 9 times out of 10 they would look and turn away. but with the live
crickets...BOOM.....no hesitation. MIKE

Another thing to consider:

On any given day (as all experienced fly fishers know), and for no apparent
reason, just about any pattern may be THE magic bullet.....it needn't even
be a normally very productive fly. Hell, sometimes it's a particular
individual specimen of a certain pattern, as has been proved many, many
times. On the face of it, there is no good reason to doubt that a live
cricket might be THE magic bullet on some fine day. On that day you fish
live crickets.......or you critique (loudly) someone else's casting......or
wardrobe.....or whatever.

Wolfgang
who knows that there is a fine and sometimes (though not often) delicate art
to castigating a too successful fishing partner.

Can't site the source as I read it sometime ago. The artical said that some
things "smell" better to fish than others. it did say crickets were on of
the things that smelt good. The artical also metioned toads whick bass may
strike but quickly spit out and the terestial stage of salamanders as
examples of things fish won't bite.
Maby the best thing to do is squeeze cricket juice on one of the sponge
cricket patterns.


"Flying Squirrel" wrote in message
...
----- Original Message -----
From:
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.fishing.fly
Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 2:37 PM
Subject: Cricket Pattern??


I was fishing this past weekend for bluegill. My wife was useing her
Ultralight set up and live brown crickets. She was catching them with
almost everycast. Me...fishing a few feet from her with my flyrod was
catching just a few. I tried every pattern I had that resembled a
cricket
or something similiar. The fish would always go to the live cricket. I
tried different presentation techniques. Different methods of
retrievals....etc..etc.... To no avail. Is there pattern for a brown
cricket that anyone has had success with??? Thanks Mike

I've noticed (both outdoors and in a native fish aquarium) that bluegills
have two modes of attack: immediate or checking things out first. If
they're
hungry and used to eating a certain thing, they'll hit it with little or
no
hesitation. If they're feeling picky or aren't sure something's edible,
they'll slide up but stop dead several times to eyeball (and I'm sure
sniff)
it. With real crickets, everything's go at these inspections, whereas
something with hook, foam, and feathers is likely to be rejected a certain
fraction of the time.