Bluegill On A Flyrod

My Dad taught me how to use a flyrod early in my life. We used them to fish live bait for Crappie and Largemouth Bass. Then as I improved my casting ability, I was able to start using flies for Bluegill. I haven't found any thing that compares to the fun of catching big Bluegills on a flyrod! The lake, we lived at, had become over populated with small Bluegill under 5 inches in length. Dad and I used to take 5 gallon buckets, along with our fly rods, when we fished for Bluegill. Any gill under 5 inches would get tossed in the buckets. When the buckets were full, we'd carry them home and bury them in our garden area for fertilizer. We did this for three or four years. The average length of the existing Bluegill grew from 5-6 inches to 8, 9 and 10 inches. Very few people took the time to fish for gills because they were so small. Dad and I received a bunch of criticism from the neighbors about taking out all the fish. They did not understand that too many fish caused stunting and the fish would remain small. Once they saw the size increase of the Bluegill, everyone started fishing for them. To this day the Bluegill have maintained their large size and are a blast to catch! Try to keep in mind, there is only so much food in any pond or lake to support so many fish. It never hurts to remove fish for the health of the others!
Do your duty and take some kids to an area pond and let them have some fun catching Bluegill. Bluegill are good to eat as well so, catch a bunch and help the pond then cook them up and help yourself to a very tasty meal!