flies for gills

[steelheadtaz]

does anybody tie flies for gills thrtt the ice.? And if so what ones and how well do they work and how

[slabgill]

I know a couple people but u will have to pm me and i'll tell u.

[captain54]

I've tied a small dropper above my jig on a short 3 inch piece of mono,brown and black nymph seem to work best.Also fish a nymph,a different way,using a longer rod,about 3 1/2 or 4 foot,use golden stern 4lb and a 2 foot floury carbon leader,2 lb,work the water column,slowly jig up and slowly jig down or free fall fly down,set the hook at slightest movement of the line(line watching) if that line twitches set the hook,if it won't go down set the hook,not my favorite way to put gills on the ice but it has work really great some days.I fish it clean no bait,it's always a surprise to have a huge crappie or mid size LM bass grab that little fly.

[Dull Hooks]

Pheasant tails in size 12 or smaller. Use them as a dropper off a jig or alone with a small piece of shot just above them. Beadheaded version of it seems to work best for me, also a prince nymph in the same size.

[5galbucket]

I tie a lot of flies and fish them through the ice for 'gills.   I keep a fly box with dual foam liners , one side is weighted, the other is unweighted.  Most are sizes 12 -18.

I use everything from mysis shrimp and midge larvae patterns to generic scud/sowbug, hares-ears with aftershafts for motion, hexes, and the aforementioned BHPT.   I also tie some ultra generic ultra buggy stuff patterns that work really well at times.  When they are slow to bite, the flies often save the day. 

Sometimes I'll fish them alone (weighted with respect to buoyancy/size/profile), but usually I'll tie a blood knot with a 10" tag on the rod side and then just hang an unweighted pattern as a dropper about 4" off the main line.

[steelheadtaz]

thanks for the info it helped a lot

[KTapper]

Yes today I used one of my trout flies for some finicky gills tipped with just a waxie head and that got them to bite.