I have fly fished a little in AK, but that was thirty years ago.

I am mostly a walleye fisherman these days but was thinking I would be fun to do some fly fishing when I have my grandkids out after bluegills.

What kind of rod size would you recommend and where is a good source? I looked around locally but did not see much.

Cabelas�look at 7.5 to 8 foot rods made to handle 6 weight line.

6 weight for bluegills?

If you're going to use it solely for bluegills you could use a 2wt, but I think you'd find a 4 wt a bit more versatile.

As to a good source and size, I'd see if you have a local fly fishing shop to help outfit you. In general terms longer rods are more foregiving, but if you're fishing in close confines a shorter rod would be beneficial. I'd stay away from the cheapest combo outfits, I think in the $100 range you can get a nice rod, reels are similar and in the smaller flyrod sizes really just a place to hold the line so going cheap on the reel is a better place than on the rod. Don't go cheap on the line.

Much will depend on how you fish and what you intend to fish with. As far as fighting bluegills goes, maybe a six weight rod is a bit overgunned. However, if you are casting bulky poppers on a breezy day or lead-weighted wooly buggers after those same blue gills, a six weight rod may be perfect.

Lots of ideas, but I would think a soft to medium action rod in a 3 weight would be ideal...

Never fly fished for blue gills, but unless they've grown since I fished for them it seemed an u/l spinning rod was almost an unfair advantage. I think of 6 wt rod as something I'd use for salmon or large rainbows.

Then again, I've shot spruce hens with a .480

About the most fun you can have flyfishing for bluegills is to use a cork popper and watch them blast it on the surface. Just my luck and maybe it's just me, but it seems that every time I hit a lake to fish for bluegills from shore, it happens to be windy. Casting popping bugs or large wooly-looking flies with a two or three weight rod into the wind kinda sucks.

In this case, it's not about whether the rod will handle the fish, it's about whether the rod and fly line will handle the fly....

Plus there is the ever present opportunity to have a good sized bass come to the party

Yep.

As for winding up with something bigger than blugill, well it was either two or three years ago that my best bass of the year on a fly rod took a size 16 or 18 Partridge and Olive soft hackle. I was using a 4wt Granger bamboo rod and targeting panfish. It was the closest I've ever been to getting into the backing in the local pond. I did have a decent disc drag reel though.

A much bigger bass did break me off this spring when using a Tenkara rod. It just swarmed up and swallowed the 'gill I had caught, and after it's third "run", the rod was horizontal and the 5X tippet gave it up.