According to my son these are the three keys to successful fishing. Based on his success it’s hard to argue. Now granted, he tends to have different criteria for what constitutes a “catch” but he still does better than I do on the fly. Yesterday’s competition ended up at 28-17 in his favor. If I were counting his score might have been a bit lower.

The name of the game is match the hatch. Ok, so you don’t really have a hatch to worry about with bluegill but you get the point. Normally the grasshopper is the go-to fly for the pond. Last night I tried in vain for thirty minutes and didn’t get so much as a nibble. I finally gave up and swapped the grasshopper out for a rainbow warrior. Almost instantly they started hitting it like crazy. They weren’t necessarily scary beasts but they were fun.

Don’t worry, they got bigger then this guy. I swear! I just didn’t take pics of all of them. I do have to question his logic to a degree. If he isn’t catching fish he’s not very patient. When he drops a line in and immediately gets a bite he doesn’t demonstrate a lot of skill. But the hot dogs are difficult to disagree with. I’m not sure if they’re picky or not but they seem to love Ball Park 100% beef franks. Bun-length provides a good amount of bait. I slice lengthwise, flip, and slice again. Each crosscut then yields four pieces and two hot dogs almost fill a Ziploc snack-size bag.

I didn’t have any luck chasing reds on the flood tide last weekend so this was a good alternative. So now that I’ve (well, he’s) equipped you with the proper knowledge for a good day on the water, get out there and wet those lines!