How to Catch Trophy Bluegills, with Kip Vieth

The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast

James Hathaway

Bass, Fishing, Bonefish, Wilderness, Flyfishing, Trout, How To, Steelhead, Bluegill, Fly, Orvis, Sports, Salmon, Panfish, Education, Rosenbauer

4.8 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2020

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

[Interview @ 38:40]

There are few things more fun in fly fishing than catching bluegills with a popper or nymph. For the most part, once you find them it's easy and un-challenging fishing. But if you want to up your game and chase trophy bluegills, the kind that will put a big bend in a 3-weight rod, you need special techniques. This week Orvis-endorsed guide Kip Vieth shares his passion for big bluegills, and his special techniques for catching them--even in summer heat.
In the Fly Box this week, we answer the following questions from listeners:

I had a big brown trout chase my fly right after a big tumble of branches rolled down the river on top of him. Is this common?

What can I do with some grouse feathers I obtained?

Does a 7 1/2-foot knotless leader have the same level tippet length as a 9- or 12-footer, or is the tippet length proportional?

I started tying my own leaders but had a blood knot break. Should I go back to knotless leaders?

Would it be a good idea to tie smaller streamers with a shank and a trailing stinger as opposed to using a longer-shank hook? I have heard that long-shank hooks don't hold fish as well.

What are some good rules for keeping your distance on crowded trout streams?

I always hook my fly onto one of my guides but recently I had a guide break when I was pulling the rod apart. Is that a bad practice and am I weakening the guides by doing this?

When someone says they are fishing a 9-foot or 12-foot leader, does that length include the tippet?

I had a Davey Knot break on heavy tippet. Is the Davey Knot weaker in heavier materials?

How do I keep the fly line from pulling my leader back inside the guides when making short casts?

Transcript

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0:00.0	And the Hi and welcome to the Orbis Fly Fishing Podcast this is your host Tom Rosebower and a little
0:21.9	bit later in the day we're going to be talking to my buddy Kipp B from Minnesota.
0:30.0	And although Kip is a guide who specializes in trophy small moths, the Mississippi drainage and beautiful wild trout in the driftless region and also
0:47.8	muskies in the Minnesota area. Kip is a fanatic bluegill angler and not only that but he's a fanatic
0:59.0	fanatic trophy bluegill angler catching bluegills as large as a foot long, which is a huge, huge
1:08.2	Bluegill and a real trophy on a fly around. So Kip's going to share his tips and his passion for
1:15.8	trophy bluegill fishing with us and I think you'll enjoy it. Most of us have
1:20.3	bluegills fairly close to home and we may not catch trophies but I think you'll
1:24.6	pick up some good tips in today's interview. But first let's do the flybox and if you have a flybox question you can send your
1:36.8	question to podcast at orvus.com send an email enclose your question in the body of the email, or if you want you can attach a voice
1:46.4	file and if it's a question I can answer, I'll play it on the air.
1:51.6	So let's start this week with an email from Britain from
1:57.7	West Virginia. And Britain also shared some recent fishing experiences with me and thanks for sharing those and now we'll get into his questions.
2:11.0	I had a strange moment that I was wondering if you also experienced or ever heard of.
2:15.9	There was a big tangle of branches rolling down the stretch of river.
2:19.6	I was all set up to stealthily fish and at first I was bummed. Then I remembered a flash of a National
2:26.3	Geographic documentary about ocean fish that hover under random clusters oflp or even garbage.
2:33.0	For its cover, I guess.
2:35.0	So on this instinct, I cast a small woolly bugger with an inf dropper and swung it right in front of the
2:39.9	tumbling mess.
2:40.9	I did not catch anything, but I got what was probably a refusal
2:45.2	from one of the biggest brown trout I have ever seen in my local waters,
	...

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