#fortheloveofsunfish

  I was crushed this morning as I opened my facebook and read the link for my favorite bloggers daily dose The Fiberglass Manifesto, the snippet read "The Year of the Bluegill is winding down" ! I can honestly say I was saddened by this,  I gotta say I was pretty stoked when Cam announced that this year should be declared the #yearofthebluegill. To me it meant a coming back to roots in fishing, really bringing back that pure unadulterated joy of just catching a fish! I've always loved catching bluegill / sunfish / panfish (grandson you know why we call them "pan"fish) call them what you will (just not perch I hate that) they are always a blast and can break up an otherwise dull day. When I was still naïve and still chunking bait when things slowed down with the bass, crappie, or catfish, I would tie on a small hook and a float  and could normally find some sunnies that wanted to bite, you could hear the other guys talking about not catching when you had a bucket full of dinner.
  So as many others did this year I geared down and hit every park pond, stream, creek, lake, river , and a few golf courses, with a handful of The Dragonfly Anglers twisted damsels and his leaders, a couple J&M Flies poppers and some Llano Bugs I'd tied in a 10. I was feeling like a kid again my 6'6" claw with 4 wt line had morphed back into an old cane pole and a can of worms almost felt like I should've been barefooted in a pair of cut off overalls, going down to the fishing hole. I stopped thinking about the bigger fish I wanted and just focused on the beauty and different colors and markings on the sunfish I would catch, I was really enjoying just... catching fish, it was great!
  I really want to thank everyone that helped us refocus and tagged pictures and post with #yearofthebluegill so we could all enjoy just catching fish, I really want to thank Cameron of The Fiberglass Manifesto for heading up #yearofthebluegill and all of the tiers and backers that helped us get back to just fishing. I am truly saddened to think that 2013 #yearofthebluegill is coming to a close in a month and a half but I think we should keep it alive with #fortheloveofsunfish or I'm open to others, but through out the year rig down and go catch some sunnies and just catch fish and smile more!
Be Blessed, Fish on, See you on the water!,
Gabe