Bluegill Fishings

I have always been a bass fisherman until here lately. This year I decided I wanted to try some different stuff so I am thinking of trying to catch a "trophy" size bluegill. My problem is I don't know how to do it... :lol:

When is the best time to fish for them?
What types of bait, LIve or Artificail?
When do they spawn?

If anyone can help or has links I would be really thankful.

They spawn in the early summer around these parts.. the water has to be pretty warm for them.

I've had the best luck catching high quantities using the smalled hook I can find, and a kernel of soft corn on the end. The bright color gets them interested, and apparently they like the taste.

I caught my biggest on a shallow running bass crank bait, but they make smaller 1/8oz cranks for pan fish. I'd look into those if you're going to the bigger ones.

As for time, I always do well on warm summer mornings. Once the sun gets high in the sky, it seems to slow down. You'll still catch them, but not as many and likely not as big either.

most people around here use small crankbaits or roostertails over the shallow bream beds in the summer when fishing artificial... if youre gonna go live bait crickets are a common standby due to their movement on the hook and usually youll be fishing near the bank where theyre a natural food source. good luck and post pictures of the catch!

My dad took up trophy bluegill fishing a few years ago. He uses live crickets and small minnows, rigged with as little weight as possible, no bobber, and bumps bottom. He fishes with a Shimano Symetre 500fj with 4#test line on a loomis rod that is about 7', lite with an extra fast tip, rated for 4-10# test line. He uses the extra fast tip so he just has to pop his wrist to set the hook. The symetre has one of the smoothest drags on a small reel Ive ever felt, which is very important fishing with light line. He likes to make a long cast versus getting right up on the beds. The bigger bream/bluegill will spawn in deeper water.

Thats pretty much all I know from fishing with him, but Ill talk to him tonight and get a few more pointers. He took my son out last week and my son caught a 15oz bream. Thats his 12' crappie pole in the background, which can also ber effective in catching big panfish. The problem with trying to catch a big one is you gotta catch hundreds of small ones first. What do you consider a trophy? My dad has been trying to catch a 1.5#+ for a couple years now to put on the wall. No luck yet, just a few over the 1# mark.

On a good note, you do get the occasional bass, crappie, or catfish on crickets and minnows. And man are the a blast on light tackle.

Dyeguy said most of what I know about bluegill fishing. Here they spawn throughout the summer so there are almost always fish on beds.

My favorite bait is half a crawler with a small hook right in the middle . I just pinch the worms in half -which causes them to squirm ALOT. If you find fish, I like to use a tiny weight to get it a few feet from the bottom. Minnows work good too.

This guy took a 5 inch senko on a big hook. Very ambitious!

wasilvers said:

Dyeguy said most of what I know about bluegill fishing. Here they spawn throughout the summer so there are almost always fish on beds.

My favorite bait is half a crawler with a small hook right in the middle . I just pinch the worms in half -which causes them to squirm ALOT. If you find fish, I like to use a tiny weight to get it a few feet from the bottom. Minnows work good too.

This guy took a 5 inch senko on a big hook. Very ambitious!

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I always feel gills nipping at my senkos.. I just don't set the hook so I dont catch them :lol:

Ebcdave, makes the neatest ultra light spinning rod for bluegill fishing that makes you feel like you're catching monsters......the front (tip end) of the rod is actually an ice fishing rod blank, it is epoxied onto a graphite blank with a tennessee handle. You can bend the tip of the rod and touch the butt of the rod!!!!!! Put on 4 lb. test line, throw the lightest of baits......hook a bull bluegill and the fight is on! It is a blast.

on lay lake in alabama i use a fly rod set to play in and around the beds near shore, easy sight fishing, a whole lot of fun i might add.... :lol:

All good advice given. What ever lures you use just be sure they have small hooks.

Thanks for all the advice. I 'm not sure what a "trophy" is but we have a local lake that says it has trophy size gills in it.

we always used crickets or little red worms. Crickets caught more.

How do you hook a cricket?

I tried crikets once. They were a great bait - every bluegill wanted them, but I couldn't keep them on the hook!

The only place I could think to get them was the pet store. They sell them for feeding snakes and such. When I told them I was going fishing with them, they looked at me funny. Don't know why, they feed them to snakes, I feed them to fish...

You hook a cricket by taking the hook and insert it between the head and the collar(youll see it) on its back, and run the hook through the body of the cricket where it almost comes out of its butt. Bluegill cant suck the cricket off the hook this way. Its really simple. Im taking my son out this weekend and Ill try to get some pics. If you hook em right sometimes you can catch 2 or 3 gills off one cricket.

wasilvers said:

I tried crikets once. They were a great bait - every bluegill wanted them, but I couldn't keep them on the hook!

The only place I could think to get them was the pet store. They sell them for feeding snakes and such. When I told them I was going fishing with them, they looked at me funny. Don't know why, they feed them to snakes, I feed them to fish...

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thats crazy! down here every bait shop, walmart, and gas station that carries bait has 1. crickets and 2. nightcrawlers... in my town theres only one gas station that sells minnows!

to help a little more with the original post, my girlfriend caught a 1lb+ bluegill on a roadrunner jig this past weekend. one of the biggest id ever seen in person

My dad moved to Birchwood Wisconsin and has a bait shop next to his house that he owns. He has crickets shipped to him for all of the out of town people who are used to fishing with crickets (can't get them anywhere in town). Now they call him the cricket man :LOL2:

Me and my buddy back home used to fish Tunica cutoff in Tunica, Ms. We used to stop at a bait store there and the woman who ran it had a print off of an article of a guy who caught a 5 lb. bluegill (bream). it was unreal.

Hmmmmm..... I'm from Michigan and its as standard bait as worms around here..... kinda weird how being a lake apart changes things so much :shock:

We always had good luck with earth worms, grubs, or grass hoppers. All of which worked great. We would catch or dig up our own.

A couple wax worms on a small ice fishing jig suspended under a slip bobber works great around here.

nathanielrthomas said:

On a good note, you do get the occasional bass, crappie, or catfish on crickets and minnows. And man are the a blast on light tackle.

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The fish in your photo is a redear, aka shellcracker. They are a slightly different beast than your run of the mill bluegill and get substantially bigger.

The bluegill around here will start spawning in April but really kick into gear in May and June. They go on the bed around the full moon so your best bet of finding them on the bed is going to be a few days before and after that.

We use 3/16 oz bell sinkers with a 3" drop loop tied about 12" -18" above it. Place a 1/32 oz to 1/16 oz jig head on the loop with a grub body that resembles a spider. It is a curl tail grub body without the tail but has 4 rubber band legs. They go by various names depending on the manufacturer. The small fish don't bother them too much and you don't have to rebait your hook every 30 seconds.

Cast that into likely bedding areas and drag it along the bottom with a steady retrieve.

We can catch big bluegill and redear on Ky Lake with that method until we get tired of catching them. I tried to find some early spawners yesterday with no luck. I should have stuck to the crappie.