Bluegill - Big Bluegill2024-03-28T21:27:04ZSlip Sinkerhttp://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/SlipSinkerhttp://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3630057995?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://bigbluegill.ning.com/group/livebaitfisherman/forum/topic/listForContributor?user=0ks5tif0pqzgf&feed=yes&xn_auth=noAberdeen Hooks? Am I Too Old Fashioned?tag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2015-04-29:2036984:Topic:6047412015-04-29T22:12:41.591ZSlip Sinkerhttp://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/SlipSinker
<p>Thanks for letting me join.</p>
<p>I am using gold Aberdeen hooks</p>
<p>(mostly) for live bait.</p>
<p>Live bait is mostly all I do.</p>
<p>Am I missing out? </p>
<p>I have tried some circle hooks,</p>
<p>and I thought I could feel the difference,</p>
<p>But I felt better with the "J" hooks.</p>
<p>All my fishing is from the bank,</p>
<p>shallow water, very light shot and float.</p>
<p>Light spin-cast or Tele Pole (Bluegill 101)</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Thanks for letting me join.</p>
<p>I am using gold Aberdeen hooks</p>
<p>(mostly) for live bait.</p>
<p>Live bait is mostly all I do.</p>
<p>Am I missing out? </p>
<p>I have tried some circle hooks,</p>
<p>and I thought I could feel the difference,</p>
<p>But I felt better with the "J" hooks.</p>
<p>All my fishing is from the bank,</p>
<p>shallow water, very light shot and float.</p>
<p>Light spin-cast or Tele Pole (Bluegill 101)</p>
<p>Thanks</p> Gear towards technological advancement, sacrificing lost artstag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2013-06-06:2036984:Topic:3944282013-06-06T22:14:04.795ZSlip Sinkerhttp://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/SlipSinker
<p>My little shared insight while eating my late lunch:</p>
<p></p>
<p>I'm a scientist by trade, and we all area scientists and engineers by hobbies. Even though we may not have PhDs, masters, and BS/BA degrees, we all have capacities to learn, observed, and formulates our approaches. However, with newer advancement and technologies, we're losing the basic/fundamental foundation of what's right and wrong when it comes to fishing.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Think about it for a moment. We went from the…</p>
<p>My little shared insight while eating my late lunch:</p>
<p></p>
<p>I'm a scientist by trade, and we all area scientists and engineers by hobbies. Even though we may not have PhDs, masters, and BS/BA degrees, we all have capacities to learn, observed, and formulates our approaches. However, with newer advancement and technologies, we're losing the basic/fundamental foundation of what's right and wrong when it comes to fishing.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Think about it for a moment. We went from the natural process of walking/running for days, to animal based transports to get to the same destinations within hours, to automotives that only take us minutes. Yet, what's the environmental impacts from our convenient?</p>
<p></p>
<p>Now, take that, and apply to fishing. We went from natural baits, to artificial lures ranging from natural materials to synthetic, now, we're going full synthetic, utilizing artificial enhancement attractants to boost the synthetic material's effectiveness. We are at the top of the food chain. What we use to catch sport fishes and release them back into the wild will create ripple effects from the lower food chains, back to us. Even when we're using synthetic materials to catch the targeted species for food sources, we're still liable in introducing fragments of the synthetic materials into the waters. As results, we're destroying our waters that house so much supporting biota for various living organisms.</p>
<p></p>
<p>An example, where I live, anglers are teaching their kids their poor habits of using more and more synthetic materials. The infamous one is the dissolving dough, which made primarily for trouts, mimicking pellets fed to the stocked trouts by the sport fisheries. Issue arise as glitters, petroleum distillates, and synthetic chemical compounds are being ingested, digested, and assimilated by the creatures that live in and on the waters. Everyone should check out articles of what happen when aquatic and migratory creatures consume synthetic materials over time. Not a pretty picture. Try to search on articles about the worldwide floating trash islands, and their impacts on the aquacultures. Take that, and apply it to your local favorite fishing spots.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Okay, enough rambling on my side. Your question to me probably be, "So? What do you want us to do?" Easy. Time to go back to the old mother nature's provision as live baits. Do you know that synthetic materials and attractants are nothing more then overly enhanced natural chemical compounds that already exist in nature, within your live baits? Here are somethings to think about:</p>
<p></p>
<p>1. Do you know that the chemical they used to preserve "live" worms in a jar is nothing more than extracted components of extracted juice of cooked shellfishes, and rotten fish bodies? The company simply cooked the materials up, distill the juice to make it clear, remove the foul odors, and add food coloring to create attractiveness for anglers to bewildered about as they foolishly purchase the jars of products.</p>
<p></p>
<p>2. Do you know that live baits are much more effective in catching fishes than dead/dried live baits in a jar/can/container? Why? Because the body fluid secreted by the punctured victims release pheromonal enzymes and proteins that's attract the predation species. Imagine a dying live bait like a hot piping 22 toppings pizza being dropped into the room full of hungry mouths.</p>
<p></p>
<p>3. Enhancement sprays in a jar/bottle can be reproduced at costs of pennies, a bit of your time you normally spend in front of the TV, and a bit of brain power we are serious under using.</p>
<p></p>
<p>4. Do you know that by using live baits, you're promoting the preference choices of live baits for future generations of the fishes, as you program the current generations to active pursue the the natural baits of choices without bias? If you're using synthetic, synthetic materials promotes awareness, thus, causing shier bites as you utilize and reutilize the synthetic materials. We end up having to create more realistic synthetic materials to fool the fishes. Why do that? Go with the original approach..use the real thing.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Ever wonder about something like this?</p>
<p></p>
<p>If you take a handful of nightcrawlers, put them in the blender, toss in a bit of flour to make a dough, add a bit of salt and sugar, you make one heck of a multispecies fishing pellet. If you don't like handling the stinky worms, how about Yap Cheese recipe for fishing?</p>
<p></p>
<p>Ever wonder if you raise your crickets to eat cabbage, rather than fruits, they stick to high heaven, yet, the fish prefer the ones eating cabbage over the ones eating fruits 3-to-1? If you eat cabbage, girls will pick the guys that don't eat cabbage over you 3-to-1? Garlic wise, girls will pick other guys that don't eat garlic 10-to-1, yet, fishes will seek after the stinky/foul smelling live baits more so. Hm..off topic there for a moment..</p>
<p></p>
<p>Take home message is, try to teach new generations of anglers, including reintroducing yourself, back to the original recipes of successes: live baits. Raise your own, and experiment with a the renewable resources that will provide you the edges to land you fishes every time.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Now..don't let the spoon master, Bill "Musky" Modica know about your fancy of live baits over his spooning methods. He might be able to reconvert you back to his heavy metal way of thinking. Lunch break over..time to get back to work.</p> worm farmtag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2013-06-05:2036984:Topic:3934662013-06-05T14:22:47.311ZSlip Sinkerhttp://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/SlipSinker
i need help getting a worm farm started. what materials do i need??? can i raise them in a fish tank??? were can i get them at??? what can i feed them???
i need help getting a worm farm started. what materials do i need??? can i raise them in a fish tank??? were can i get them at??? what can i feed them??? Good time to start up vermicompost bins/farmstag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2013-05-22:2036984:Topic:3873922013-05-22T22:32:58.833ZSlip Sinkerhttp://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/SlipSinker
<p>Okay folks, most of you here are fan of live baits. Worms are the way to go. Most folks are into purchasing Canadian/African/Euro nightcrawlers. That's fine. But these nightcrawlers don't stand well when it comes to the battles in the water. African nightcrawler, by far, the best for baits, but horrible when it comes to raising. Worst type to raise for garden/compost piles will be the Canadian or Euro. They're a freaking pain in the butt. I have them all. They are so poor adapters of various…</p>
<p>Okay folks, most of you here are fan of live baits. Worms are the way to go. Most folks are into purchasing Canadian/African/Euro nightcrawlers. That's fine. But these nightcrawlers don't stand well when it comes to the battles in the water. African nightcrawler, by far, the best for baits, but horrible when it comes to raising. Worst type to raise for garden/compost piles will be the Canadian or Euro. They're a freaking pain in the butt. I have them all. They are so poor adapters of various environment.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Now, I'm show you tricks to raise the special kind of worms that, although not native to America, but had been introduced to the US back in the 1800s, they are the titans of worms. Normally, they're found in the southeastern states, primarily in Georgia and Alambama, thus, the name, Georgia/Alambama Jumpers. DO NOT purchase any of these jumpers with the "Amynthas agrestis", which quite a few states deemed them to be prolific invasive species. Look for the "Amynthas gracilis", the larger of the species from Asian. They are indeed prolific, but lower production rate, and more violent in the water, not to mention much more durable. I've taken both the Amynthas agrestis and gracilis, and both produce fishes like there's no tomorrow. The Amynthas agrestis are extremely aggressive in preventing you in putting it onto the hook, due to its shorter size (3" to 4"). The Amynthas gracilis, in the full mature size, which is as long as 9", are more docile when you're hooking them, but once hit the water, HOLY SMOKE! Carps and large mouth bass can't get enough of them. 1.5" segment of this Amynthas gracilis will make the fish fight harder for it than the African nightcrawler, known for its stench. If you want potency of the stench for the Amynthas gracilis, grab enough of the worms you want on the side, put them in a different 5 gallon container with the bedding and food, add enough powdered garlic to layer a good fine white layer, and 3 days later, those worms are one stinky attractive bait.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Bin: A tote, about 50 gallons, costs about $20. These worms love lateral burrowing, which they tend to move sideways, and very little downwards, in an isolated bin. However, if they are in the wild, and soil, they will be up above, eating, throughout the day, as long as there's sufficient shade/lack of light. All worms are photo sensitive. Drill enough holes in one corner to allow water/worm tea to be drained out of. When you place the bin, make sure there's a 2-inch elevation different from each side. This promotes proper drainage. You will need some weed guard mat and rocks to create a drainage basin above these holes, and preventing the worms from crawling out.You can use fabrics if you like. Just cover the holes up with at least 5" in different direction, pile the small 1/4" to 1/2" rocks onto of the fabric, and add a bit of coarse sand over the rocks and fabric to push the fabric down to prevent the worms from crawling through the gaps.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Soil you need: don't use coarse soil (just enough to cover the rocks to act as drainage basin over the holes), like riverbed sand, or multipurpose sand. Loamy sand, clay, or just any good fine sand. Perfect type of soil is your backyard, where it was nice and moist from all the gardening, or at least covered with a bit of top soil.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Soil amendment: you need a good mix of compost. Purchase a bag of compost that has a nice content of large chunky woody materials in them. If you have a nice compost pile already which had been broken down and cured, use that. You can use horse manure or rabbit manure to mix into the sand. The worms will thank you.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Mixture: add 50% of your soil, and 50% of the compost together. Mix it well. Do not fill the bin beyond 1/2 bin height. You need the rest as buffered room for adding composting/scrap materials later. Add a top layer of dried leaves/grass/shredded newspaper without the waxy content. Only recycled black/white newspaper. No waxy or heavy stock colored papers. Pour enough water onto everything, until you have a nice moist (not soaking/dripping wet) mixture. This should be about 40% to 50% moist, which the worms will love.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Let the bin sits under the shaded area for about 2 days before introducing worms into the mix. When you get your worms, place them all into one single pile, and let them burrow when they want, as they adapt to their new environment.</p>
<p></p>
<p>If you're living a frost zone every winter, make sure to position your bin in an area where the temperature will not kill them, which happens to drop below 45°F. Unlike the nightcrawlers, these worms will survive in the harsh cold.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Worms: most of you are lucky enough to live in areas where the Alabama Jumpers are abundant to be harvest from the soil. You cannot miss these things, as they are violently move in a C-shape patter, or literally move like a snake when you try to grab/touch them. However, for us who are not lucky enough to have these beauty easily harvested, I only able to find one reputable source that truly provide these correct worm species, where others are falsely advertise theirs. Do not be tricked. I've fallen into other worm farms' trickery, and spend quite a bit in obtaining the wrong species that they promised to deliver. The site I normally order from on the yearly basis for the past few years is <a href="http://www.organicwormfarm.com" target="_blank">www.organicwormfarm.com</a> (this site went bellied up after AAA complaints about the owner is scamming his clients/customers, including myself..he has many other sites, so be aware of who you're purchasing from). </p> Starting a worm farmtag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2013-03-27:2036984:Topic:3672732013-03-27T18:04:04.698ZSlip Sinkerhttp://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/SlipSinker
<p> I want to get started raising my own this year. Any tips or pointers would be great. Also place to get my worm stock to get started. How long till I can harvest, and on and on.......</p>
<p> I want to get started raising my own this year. Any tips or pointers would be great. Also place to get my worm stock to get started. How long till I can harvest, and on and on.......</p> who all raises their own baittag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2013-02-07:2036984:Topic:3497792013-02-07T01:03:30.140ZSlip Sinkerhttp://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/SlipSinker
<p>How many raise their own bait ?</p>
<p>At work I helped a guy start his cricket raising bin and holy buckets do we have crickets , might have to find a market for the extras . I will be starting red worms come spring so I have a steady supply and won't be buying them at wally world</p>
<p>How many raise their own bait ?</p>
<p>At work I helped a guy start his cricket raising bin and holy buckets do we have crickets , might have to find a market for the extras . I will be starting red worms come spring so I have a steady supply and won't be buying them at wally world</p> Homemade Minnow Traptag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2012-12-07:2036984:Topic:3335982012-12-07T15:10:07.917ZSlip Sinkerhttp://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/SlipSinker
<p> Has anyone here made their own minnow trap? I made one from a plastic 2 litre Coke bottle, but it never worked so well. I baited it with oatmeal. The minnows in the creek swam all around it, but none went in. </p>
<p> Has anyone here made their own minnow trap? I made one from a plastic 2 litre Coke bottle, but it never worked so well. I baited it with oatmeal. The minnows in the creek swam all around it, but none went in. </p> Homemade Minnow Traptag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2012-12-07:2036984:Topic:3334632012-12-07T15:07:43.843ZSlip Sinkerhttp://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/SlipSinker
<p> Has anyone here made their own minnow trap? I made one from a plastic 2 litre Coke bottle, but it never worked so well. I baited it with oatmeal. The minnows in the creek swam all around it, but none went in. </p>
<p> Has anyone here made their own minnow trap? I made one from a plastic 2 litre Coke bottle, but it never worked so well. I baited it with oatmeal. The minnows in the creek swam all around it, but none went in. </p> Revolution 2011tag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2011-03-03:2036984:Topic:1291042011-03-03T06:27:10.964ZSlip Sinkerhttp://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/SlipSinker
<p><a href="http://bigbluegill.com/forum/topics/bobber-fishing-revolution" target="_self">How Do you Fish - fishing study</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>We are collecting "rig" setups and your fishing habits. Mostly I want your float name, the way you rig the shot - the way you fish it - and sometimes outlining your bait, fishing hole etc.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Then if you sign up, log your successes. Do you change rigs going into Summer. Deepwater or shallow. What live bait etc.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Take a look and…</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://bigbluegill.com/forum/topics/bobber-fishing-revolution">How Do you Fish - fishing study</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>We are collecting "rig" setups and your fishing habits. Mostly I want your float name, the way you rig the shot - the way you fish it - and sometimes outlining your bait, fishing hole etc.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Then if you sign up, log your successes. Do you change rigs going into Summer. Deepwater or shallow. What live bait etc.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Take a look and see if you want to be part of the revolution. I will be giving out prizes via drawing. So come on live bait group - WE NEED YOU. <a href="http://bigbluegill.com/forum/topics/bobber-fishing-revolution" target="_self">How Do you Fish - fishing study</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Read the whole thing too - if you participate, you will be sent some gear to try and will get a whole bunch of tackle and bait!</p> Fathead minnowstag:bigbluegill.ning.com,2010-11-18:2036984:Topic:1109302010-11-18T23:25:48.562ZSlip Sinkerhttp://bigbluegill.ning.com/profile/SlipSinker
<p>First time I caught a Bluegill (thick 8 ") on a fathead minnow 11-15-10</p>
<p>I would like to know if others have fished them for Bull Gills or other species and how they present them . I used them with a slip float on a tree stuck on a 8' deep hump coming out of 12-15' nearby .This fish was suspended or came up to 4-5 ' where my bait was . My buddy was using a jig tipped with dead fatheads or worms and caught a few Gills and we caught lots of Yellow Perch.</p>
<p>First time I caught a Bluegill (thick 8 ") on a fathead minnow 11-15-10</p>
<p>I would like to know if others have fished them for Bull Gills or other species and how they present them . I used them with a slip float on a tree stuck on a 8' deep hump coming out of 12-15' nearby .This fish was suspended or came up to 4-5 ' where my bait was . My buddy was using a jig tipped with dead fatheads or worms and caught a few Gills and we caught lots of Yellow Perch.</p>