Bluegill: America’s Most Favorite Fish


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Bluegill: America’s Most Favorite Fish
By Al Denninger © 2006

Odds are the first fish you ever caught was a bluegill. Most kids and adults, for that matter, started their love for fishing with the help of the scrappy fighting little bluegill.

The bluegill could it be the most popular sport fish in Wisconsin; it is certainly the most abundant, and many anglers say it’s the best tasting fish that swims.

How could you not like a fish that bites well on most every fishing trip and takes little more than a hook, line, and cane pole to catch?

Finding a batch of bluegill begging to bite is an easy as 123:

Locate weeds in 2 to 10ft. of water.

Find brush or downed trees .

Check out shoreline connected docks, or anchored pontoons or swimming rafts that offer shaded cover.

These attract forage and bluegills. If you do not make contact with fish on the first spot, just keep moving. It won’t be long before you’ll be into a mess of hungry fish.

Dock fishing is one of the easiest ways to fish but most fishermen make the mistake of fishing only a few docks. They catch nothing or only a few small gills and stop fishing the Docks too soon. It takes time to determine which docks are attracting the most and largest fish.

Tackle

Cane Poles are very effective for pan fishing, but it’s a dying a method. Most anglers prefer to cast. Almost any spinning combo will work, although to make long casts, use a long rod.

Most any ultra-light closed face reel and rod combination or open face reel and rod combination will be effective. These ultra-light rigs also make catching the scrappy bluegill one heck of a lot of fun.

When it comes to line, stick to 4lb. test. Even these unusually cooperative little fish can become finicky. That’s when 4lb. test will out fish 6lb. test 10:1.

Bait Choice

When you think of pan fish you’ll automatically think of worms, and worms do work well. A small red or garden worm threaded on a number 8 look is very effective at putting a dent in the bluegill population.

Also, a ½ chunk of night crawler added to a 1/64 oz. painted lead head jig with a ½ split tail grub is a sure fish getter.

A fun way of catching bluegills is with a fly rod, either during spawning when they are on their beds or late June and early July as the May flies and other insects are emerging on the lake surface. The bluegills will be feeding on them both morning and evening. You’ll hear that popping sound as bluegills slurp them off the surface. Matching the hatch with an artificial dry fly or using a proper to draw their attention is another good method.

On many area lakes, wading, using a float tube or just casting off of the shoreline, can make an enjoyable couple of hours fishing and the makings of a truly delicious fish fry to boot.

One bait no one seems to use during the summer is waxworms. It’s a favorite of ice fishermen, but on open water it becomes the forgotten bait. Make no mistake about it, they catch bluegills even better in summer than they do through the ice. One waxworm threaded onto the hook is all you need to tempt a bluegill into biting.

Using The Correct Hook

Hooks can make or break the day for you. I have found that a number 8 Eagle Claw style 38 beak hook with its "bait holder barbs" is just the ticket to keep those pesky smaller fish from nipping off your bait. Gold color hooks usually catch more fish.

Bluegills love warm water; 85 to 88° is what they prefer.

As the water warms into the mid 60’s males start moving into the shallows to fan out a nest in the sand or gravel bottom. To the angler, these nests or beds are easily spotted from boat or shoreline and look like saucer shaped light spots on the dark bottom.

Spawning is a time of vulnerability for these fish, and very large bluegills are just as scarce as very large Muskie or Walleye...So it’s just as important to release these large pan fish. If you want to fill your 48 quart cooler, take the little guys. You will have plenty of meat and be doing the lake and yourself a favor in the process.

Enjoy a little no frills bluegills this season. They’ll make a fish fry you won’t soon forget.

Good fishing and tight lines.