Bigger Bluegills?

[fishslayer37]

I fish a small lake, i can find bluegills but rarely bigger ones.  Although i catch  i bigger ones in the summer, but cant get into them when icefishing.  Anyone got any ideas?

[Auger]

In a similar situation last year I tried something on a whim with great success.  I have one of those crappy little plastic baitcaster style ice reels, from Shakespear, I think.  I bought it before I knew what I was doing and it had always been the black sheep of my arsenal.  I guess I had just read an article about drop speed because I had it in my head that I might get the bigger gills if I slowed the drop way down.  I tried to hand line out with a spinning reel with no results.  I tried to back reel with the spinning reel, but that was a nightmare.  It would just start winding the line on backwards after a foot or two of drop.  So I switched to a heavier jig like a marmooska on the baitcaster combo.  I back reeled the jig down as slow as I could stand it.  It would've taken well more than a minute to get to the bottom in 6-7 feet of water.  Painstakingly slow.  But I didn't have to worry about getting all the way down because the bigger gills will coming up and killing it.  I don't know what it was or if it will ever work again, but it was all about the super slow drop that day.

[{RPF}Rapala Pike Fisherman]

I yould say try to use a bigger bait, that way there might be a big school of bluegills down there, and the little ones wont be interested in it, bug the giffins will.

[{RPF}Rapala Pike Fisherman]

I would say try to use a bigger bait, that way there might be a big school of bluegills down there, and the little ones wont be interested in it, but the biggins will.

[fishuhalik]

I would go the opposite and recommend going smaller than you would normally go, and also try fishing different structure.  Sometimes bull gills will relate to things like deep points and humps, while the young uns will stay in the weeds.

[iceintheveins]

I have a lake in Colorado where the bluegills average 10" and 2 pound gills are fairly common. Alas you aren't allowed to ice fish it because of some dumb rules.
But it all seems to depend on the lake. For big panfish you need lakes that have lots of shallow weeds and a large plankton base, along with very abundant predators such as largemouth bass and pike.
I still have two other lakes that I can ice fish where the average gill runs 6" and 10 inchers aren't uncommon. The bigger gills seem to like rock or gravel bars more than shallow weed flats though.

[bigredonice]

If the lake has a small basin, most likely those bigger gills will be suspended over it...If it has deep weeds, they might be suspended either in or off the edge of the deepest weeds.  The only way I have found those bigger fish is to drill lots of holes and cover water.

[Reel Wet Ride]

The lake I lived on up until the last year is full of big gills. Super easy to catch in the spring/summer/fall. I mean, any given day you can catch 20+ big gills. By big I mean 9"+. You know what happens in the winter? They disappear. Seriously. You can sit out there and hope to catch 3 or 4. If you were to catch 10 that would be an un-heard of day on the ice. On the other hand, I also would fish another lake that would be poor at best during the summer for gills, but for what ever reason when it had ice on it, it was a fantastic fishery. So what I'm trying to say it this; if you know the body of water your on has big fish, but you can't catch them, go to a lake where you can. If its the challenge your after, keep on trying different things. I'd suggest fishing deeper water than you normally do and down size your baits. Try one, try the other, try them both. I know in my summer lake to catch big fish in the winter I have to fish a huge empty flat about 15' deep and fish 7' down. Even then, 6-7 fish is my max per trip.

[reelbigfish]

Hey Reel Wet Ride,
  Most guys relate big gills to the deeper dropoffs and spend alot of time waiting
them out.  I like to hit the pockets in the weeds and first find bluegills.  Catch
a few little potlickers and see if the bigger fish are swimming with them.  If not
I'll gradually move toward deeper water and the dropoffs but i like to still be catching fish the whole time.  Sometimes you just got to do a little sorting to get into the
larger fish.




Ted

[Preacher_man]

 I agree with ya Ted! Thats exactly what I've been doing and it seems to have working!

[baboiler]

  We always seem to weed thru smaller ones before you catch the bigger ones. Keep moving and sometimes you'll find the bigger ones (sometimes you won't.)