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Keeping up with the upcoming content on this website is always in a state of flux and I have a Gmail folder where I stow emails that are everything from ideas emails to full-on cut and paste over to here to publish. If I'm not careful, I can get a overwhelmed with what's in there or already in draft on the website.

Yesterday, I started out this email folder and it quickly went from over two hundred emails to less than 50. Now I have the makings of several dozen posts and uncovered a few gems, including this one of favorite warmwater flies from Bart Lombardo of Panfish on the Fly.

Here are Bart's seven "must-have" patterns to round out your summertime warmwater fly fox...

By a large margin, my most popular pattern is the Triangle Bug. I developed this pattern to address a particular problem. Bluegills and other members of the sunfish family have tiny mouths but are notorious for taking flies very deeply. This usually requires the use of a tool like a pair of forceps and some tricky maneuvering to extract the fly. The unique shape of the Triangle Bug is by design.

The wide profile at the front of the fly prevents it from being swallowed by hungry bluegill, but the narrow end at the rear allows it to easily sipped off the surface of the water. I use a very unique hook to tie this fly. It is similar to a popper hook only the kink in the shank is on a horizontal plane, not a vertical one. This hook prevents the flat foam body from roasting on the hook shank. The body is created out of standard 2mm foam. The tricky part is getting the dimensions of the diamond shape correct and keeping that consistent fly after fly. The rubber legs on this pattern entice fish to grab it even while it is lying motionless on the surface. The tail is made of sturdy calf tail fibers and will stand up to dozens of fish. I tie the fly in a wide range of colors, but my favorite is chartreuse.

Want to tie your own? Complete kits, pre-cut bodies in a wide range of colors and the Triangle Bug hooks are available on my website.
The Creature is tied with dust mop/bath mat material. Mop flies, as they are generally called are loved by some anglers and shunned by others. This love-hate relationship has a lot to do with its effectiveness. The purist, dry fly anglers turn their noses up to this ugly easy to tie style of fly because it can be nothing more than a piece of your bath mat lashed to a hook shank. But the thing they hate the most about the fly is that it will likely catch more fish than their exquisitely tied Catskill style dry fly! Love them or hate them mop flies are here to stay!

The Creature takes a few different fish catching elements like rubber legs, soft hackle feathers, and the ubiquitous mop material and combines them to make a fish catching machine. Will, a single strand of mop material, lashed to a hook catch as many fish? Maybe, but I feel better using something that at least looks like a fly. Am I a purist? Not by any means. I may, however, have a slight amount of fly tying snobbery flowing through my veins.

The Creature can be tied in a variety of colors from natural earth tones to bright and flashy. They all drive panfish wild!

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