Author Topic: Bluegill Help  (Read 13487 times)

Offline ckfish

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Bluegill Help
« on: Dec 20, 2011, 07:40 PM »
I fish in upstate ny mostly in small lakes or ponds generally 10 feet of depth. I catch tons of big and small perch on jigs tipped with mousies, spikes, or meal worms. I've never had any luck catching bluegill out of the ice, although I do catch them in the summer. There aren't a ton but there's a good amount. I see people with pictures of 100s of bluegill, what's the trick?

Offline icejunky

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #1 on: Dec 20, 2011, 09:14 PM »
the trick is to find them, look for some weededges ( i like to fish the edge of a large bed) and downsize your jigs. I dont know what you use for perch, but for gills I like to use smaller jigs or tiny spoons tipped with waxies.

If you have a camera it is your best friend in finding gills under the ice

Offline addicted to ice fishing

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #2 on: Dec 21, 2011, 12:16 AM »
As Icejunky said, yany different ou can't catch them if you can't find them.  I have had good luck catching gills on many different lures, including slender spoons, little cecils, and marmooskas..

Offline ckfish

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #3 on: Dec 21, 2011, 03:09 PM »
So just drill as many holes as i can mostly on weedbeds until i find them? and I use pretty small jigs for perch so that shouldn't be a problem

Offline slipperybob

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #4 on: Dec 22, 2011, 05:09 AM »
Some lakes are just perch infested lakes.  Some lakes are panfish infested lakes.  During summer time, walk around and look for the panfish beds.  If you see an abundance of panfish beds, you can probably expect a lot of panfish in that body of water.  If they are only a few here and there, then the panfish population may be rather low.
For more information read my MN nice journal

Offline masoneddie

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #5 on: Dec 25, 2011, 07:35 AM »
Downsize your line will help enormously...2lb. Test works really well

Offline CT-iceguy.

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #6 on: Dec 27, 2011, 08:59 PM »
Downsize your line will help enormously...2lb. Test works really well

I agree, I noticed a HUGE difference when I switched to 2lb a few years ago, it really helps. In the lakes around me I usually look for 5-10FOW with weeds, and I use very small jigs, usually size 12 or 14 tipped with 1 or 2 spikes. I usually use my vex to find them..
Christian Genarelli

Offline wefishandflop

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #7 on: Dec 31, 2011, 06:43 PM »
I'm having the same problem on a basin shaped lake that is about thirty feet at the deepest with mostly sand and scattered very low weed cover. Should we be looking in shallow (10 ft) flats or deeper sand covered ground? Makes no sense to me, drilling holes all day finding nothing.
We'll take any nibbles we get.  Jigging mostly.

Offline icemantwo

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #8 on: Jan 05, 2012, 05:19 PM »
Fish are almost always located deeper in winter than in the summer months.  Locate some deep cover such as brush, rocks, isolated weebeds, etc and you should find some gills.  Also remember to downsize your tackle and fish finesse. Don't jig as aggressively as you would for perch.
A day without fishing is a day wasted.

Offline Townie

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #9 on: Jan 05, 2012, 09:00 PM »
If you have a camera it is your best friend in finding gills under the ice


So true! It's a real treat when you come upon pods of quality gills thru the murky depths...
Bulls, Jumbos & Slabs Oh My!

Offline RIVERRAT2

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #10 on: Jan 13, 2012, 03:00 PM »
move,move,small size under 12 hooks for me NO SPIN will school in winter,LOVES bugs,for me black jig in size 16#[NO SPIN]
hope this helps
 ;D ;D ;D ;D
RAT
I LOVE FISHING.IT IS A FULLTIME JOB

Offline oldbuck

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #11 on: Jan 14, 2012, 07:19 AM »
I have my best luck late in the afternoon in about 25 feet on a sand flat off a big weed bed. I catch smaller ones during the day but the bigger ones seem to turn on about 3:30 till dark.

Offline perch md

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #12 on: Jan 15, 2012, 01:46 PM »
Sight fishing them is the way to go if the water is clear enough and you have a shanty!!!

Offline prospector

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #13 on: Jan 24, 2012, 09:50 PM »
Do gills ever feed at night? Thanks in advance for info. ;)

Offline Swift

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #14 on: Jan 24, 2012, 10:39 PM »
Do gills ever feed at night? Thanks in advance for info. ;)
Hush......................Big ones do on many lakes in the same areas the dinks inhabit during the day. Catch plenty of flak on the subject which leaves even more for me. Hush........So do Perch on some lakes

Offline prospector

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #15 on: Jan 24, 2012, 10:57 PM »
Didn't hear a thing.... thanks ;)

Offline pipeboy98

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #16 on: Jan 24, 2012, 11:25 PM »
i've found a lot of the bigger ones around here school with the crappies at night.  there have been times that on a good crappie bite we could be catching 2 crappie to every 1 of gills.  usually fires up at dusk till around 11 or as late as 1 am.  biggest one i ever caught was at midnight!

Offline prospector

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #17 on: Jan 25, 2012, 12:39 AM »
Sweet, that helps me figure out where to go this weekend. O.T. How about LM bass at night? I would guess no, but you guys would know better than I. :bow:

Offline Gills-only

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #18 on: Feb 08, 2012, 07:03 PM »
Shallow water early ice, deep water mid winter, shallow last ice works for me.  They can be @ all the above @ any time.

Offline bassandbucks1

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #19 on: Feb 09, 2012, 09:55 AM »
I have caught bluegills after dark while crappie fishing but they've been all sizes, small to large. I often wonder when I'm marking fish and their not hitting if it's stubborn crappies or bluegills. It was one of the main reasons i bought a Aqua-vu camera. unfortunatly the lights on the camera don't work well enough to allow me to see what's actually going on down there after dark. I have done well on large gills real early in the morning though, just as the sky starts to get a little glow and you still need a lantern to see.

Offline Otto

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #20 on: Feb 09, 2012, 10:13 AM »
One thing I noticed last weekend was some guys would hold their pole with the tip pointed down at the ice and vigorously shake the tip of the pole side to side (not up and down) then stop and check for a bite.    When I copied that motion it seemed to help me catch bigger fish. For me, they would hit it when it was still, just after shaking it. I also switched to a St Croix pole with a very light spring bite detector on it and that helped me see the bite.  Any other pole in my box and I wouldn't have seen it. 
Besides what has already been posted here, about smaller line and smaller jigs.....make sure you try different colors.  2 weeks ago they wanted red, last week gold was the ticket.  Took a few changes to zero in, but it finally worked.
Good Luck, the buggers are fun to catch and very tasty too.

Offline gillyman

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #21 on: Feb 09, 2012, 10:22 PM »
jigging is good to get them to look but often they won't hit unless lure is dead still.  Other times a falling lure trips their trigger.  When the sun hits the top of the trees to the west it is 'gill time.

Offline prospector

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #22 on: Feb 10, 2012, 07:42 AM »
Keep it coming guys! I am all ears. Gonna try for some very soon! Thanks again, Joe :icefish:

Offline gillyman

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #23 on: Feb 23, 2012, 03:03 PM »
Prospector,
Sounds like you did very well.

Offline prospector

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #24 on: Feb 23, 2012, 06:08 PM »
Prospector,
Sounds like you did very well.
Thanks, can't complain so far. Gills have been fun to catch this year. Last time out, I tried a bunch of different jigs just to see how the fish reacted. With most jigs they went for the body of the jig and missed the hook completely. Did my best on tungsten 3mm and a forage minnow. Those gills remind me of a bunch of gang bangers cruising the lake looking for trouble, unlike porch monkey perch that hang out all day. Gills seem to come and go about every 5-10 minutes for me. Now to figure out crappie! :%$#!:  You up for TRR?

Offline gillyman

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #25 on: Feb 23, 2012, 08:25 PM »
I may be up for trr.  I have never fished it through the ice. 
What kind of Tungsten jigs did you use for the gillies?

Long ago and far away in the land of corn,  we used to fish for gills in relatively shallow water with reeless rods.  We used real cork for bobbers.  They would slowly become waterlogged and at some point they would slowly sink under the weight of the ice jig.  That slow descent of the lure and bait was often deadly on gills.  It was  hard to duplicate without the bobber.  But bouncing the bobber in the surface film and then allowing it to slowly sink worked well.
the rods often were had pegs to wrap the line on, and we used black braided line(absorbs sun and keeps ice from forming as quickly) with a 2 foot mono leader.  Braided line was easy to handle on the ice and even in the dark.
Cheerio!

Offline perch md

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #26 on: Feb 25, 2012, 02:04 PM »
I generally will use fiskas tungsten jigs good variety of color and size

Offline gillyman

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #27 on: Feb 28, 2012, 08:45 AM »
ckfish,
I fished a lake yesterday that I am very familiar with.  I have caught 'gill summer and winter in good numbers.  Another guy fished it last week or so and clobbered them.  I drilled over 50 holes and marked 5 fish.  I caught two of them-bass, hooked another that broke my 2 lb line in a flash, and I missed one bite.
Never caught a single bluegill.  I know they are there.  I know I have caught them in the places I fished, and i tried a lot of other spots on the lake. 
Such is fishing.  Good Luck

Offline Bluegilljunkie

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #28 on: Jan 02, 2013, 04:50 PM »



Personally that is about my favorite jig to use for panfish, with a spike or wax warm on it

You'll have a bass or pickerel hit it every once in a while also

Offline Bluegilljunkie

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Re: Bluegill Help
« Reply #29 on: Jan 02, 2013, 04:51 PM »
Hmm picture didn't work ill try again in a second.. Trying to use my iPhone and photo bucket

 



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