Bluegill fishing with artificials only

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Comment by David Dillman on December 16, 2013 at 1:25am

My confidence bait would have to be 1/32 oz jig with a 2 inch curly tail grub.  I usually tip it a crappie nibble, night crawler, or a small peice of shrimp.  I also use a 1 and 1/2 swim bait or a charlie brewer 1inch and 1/2 vibra tail grub.  I also use tubes, but I put them on backwards.  I have tail at the front of the jig, so when I reel them in it looks like a insect, because tails pulsate back and forth.  It is called Iowa tube jig.  It works.

Comment by John Sheehan on December 9, 2013 at 11:13am

Thanks for that post Adam. Do you fish small creeks too and do you have Red Breasted Sunfish in your area? What you just described works very well on those small aggressive RBS and much  of the year those small twister tails work great on them .

Comment by Adam Rink on February 28, 2013 at 4:58pm

One of my favorite ways to catch panfish on artificials is on really light tackle going weightless with tiny soft plastics like 1-1 1/2" grubs and tubes. I like using a size 8 Gamakatsu octopus hook. I fish them pretty quickly almost in a walk the dog style, but so that they're just barely subsurface. A little tough to cast at first being weightless, but with a good limber rod on light line you can cast it well enough. The fish usually hit hard so hooking them is almost never a problem.  This method works great on bluegills and hybrids especially, but I've also caught pumpkinseeds, green sunfish, and every once in a while a redear. It's a great and fun way to catch them once the water warms up a bit.

Comment by dick tabbert on February 3, 2013 at 5:30pm

Hi josh a little short summery of what I use for gill and crappies. It will most always be a 1/32 or a 1/16 oz jig. Colors will be Chart,red or white and I always mix colors. For my tails I like a 1 1/2" and my most dominant color I use is white pearl a light chart pearl or white or different shade of chart. I will most often be using a very soft twister tail something with lots of action.but also kinda like the bobby garland twister tails. Get me next to a weed bed and turn me loose. On occasion I will throw a small mepps spinner black on black or copper on black found the gills tear them up with a few Crappies to boot.

Comment by David Wester on February 3, 2013 at 5:01pm

I caught a lot of gills on 1/32 single hook rooster tails- silver spinner only-orange/yellow.
I also couldn't help but tip the hook with a wax worm, they found it irresistible.

Comment by John Sheehan on November 17, 2012 at 7:56am

The Mepps Comet Red Blade #0 works great on good sized Gills .It use to be my October bait for Gills .It's been neglected so thanks for the reminder Allen!

Comment by Allen Morgan on May 5, 2012 at 10:29am

Well, the XR-4 got a few bumps, but no solid hookups.  One of my go-to lures, a Mepps Aglia, size 0, chartreuse dressed hook, produced lots of fish, as I reported last night.

Today, I went ahead and sorted through the baits that I bought over the past few days.

I did get a Bitsy Minnow, Chartreuse w/ orange belly and Green back.  Found out I already had one, yellow w/ black back.  I just bought a third, in Sexy Shad.  That ought to be a fairly good color combination.  I actually did catch a fish on the Chartreuse w/ green back, a little Warmouth.

Comment by Allen Morgan on May 3, 2012 at 4:35pm

Ok, I went ahead and dropped the money for that XR-4 in Baby Bass.  Once I get a chance to use it (hopefully tomorrow), I'll report back.

I also dropped the $ on a XR-6 in Clown.  I figure it will be a good color for murky water, although it's a little big for BG's.  Green Sunnies, maybe.  White Bass, definitely!

Comment by Allen Morgan on May 1, 2012 at 8:43pm

The Bitsy Minnow made my "must buy" list a couple days ago.  I'm hoping to pick up a couple here soon.

Comment by Jim Gronaw on May 1, 2012 at 8:36pm

Wow, that does seem a little steep. We have done well on a number of the smaller Rapala's , both surface and diving models. You could certainly try one, and see how it does.

Have you tried the Strike King Bitsy Minnow in baby bass or other patterns? It has been a standard of ours for a few years now...much cheaper, too.

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