"Must-have" fly fishing patterns in descending order of importance:

When the sun is high, bream and bass will move deeper. Small streamers along weedlines and docks will produce fish. Small wooly buggers and bigger clousers will get the flies near the bottom. Next technique is a floater/dropper tandem rig for panfish. Using foam body poppers or hoppers, attach a dropper underneath-using pheasant tails, hare's ear or a prince nymph-these should hang 3 or 4 feet off the floater. Dragonflies are year round in Florida. Throw blue poppers and/or wooly buggers (dragonfly nymph) to match the hatch. Because the Dragons are year round, every size is appropriate. Proving the irony of fishing-we have two contrasting popper techniques that are recommended. One customer insists on popping vigorously and then waiting till the rings dissipate, then pop again... Another insists that gentle, quick and continuous tugs are what is generating strikes. The diving style flies are working too-using a long quick strip to make them dive, and waiting till the fly resurfaces-seems to be irresistible to larger bass with a personal best reported. Dahlberg divers have been in the mouth of several photos over the last two weeks.

We anticipate bluegills to be shallow, surface bite at sunrise and sunset. Tilapia are a possibility with a dropper rig. Grass carp will be cruising the shallows-let us know if you can get them to eat. Big Bass will be found in shaded cover. Small black and small white minnow patterns will be good. Clear mornings with Summer-pattern, afternoon rain this week. Winds will be moderate except when storms are near. Suprisingly, lake levels fell last week, but we expect lake levels and river levels to rise through the week. At the time of this report: the Peace River is average level, Econ is above level, Myakka River is half of seasonal average, Hillsborough is at above average and the Withlacoochee spillway is flowing heavy when it should be near 0. Kissimmee River gauge below the Hwy 60 dam is currently not reporting. All Florida rivers can double, triple, or higher, during our extreme heavy rains. Use caution this week when on the river with paddle craft.