Do you love big bluegill?

Richmond Mill Bluegills

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Comment by Josh Milczski (Omaha) on June 26, 2013 at 5:22pm: Good call Jim! Caught nearly all of ours with live crickets.

Comment by Jim Gronaw on June 26, 2013 at 4:47pm: Josh...the last two trips I had to RM I caught most and the largest gills on my grass shrimp jigs. Bob Lusk told me they were a major player in the lakes natural forage for gills so I tied em up accordingly.

Great fish!

Comment by Josh Milczski (Omaha) on June 26, 2013 at 10:59am: Leo, I believe they said it was likely grass shrimp they were feeding on in the weeds.

Tony, you nailed it. We had to make very precise casts or else these fish wouldn't even bother. They had to be exactly where the fish would think it was too good to pass up.

Comment by Tony Livingston on June 26, 2013 at 9:55am: I have always been pretty vocal with my opinion that you haven't tested yourself as a BG angler until you've fished a BOW where the fish are fed, fat and happy, and where CPR is the order of the day....That scenario can make you throw out everything you thought you knew as a BG angler.

To catch big BG consistently requires skill, but that's only part of the equation. I believe it oftentimes requires cooperative, un-pressured fish.....in my experience those are much easier to catch, and make things a little smoother for the angler.

Perhaps a BG will hit when it's hungry, or out of a triggered reflex? A well fed fish may eliminate one of those situations, requiring the angler to have to work harder to trigger the strike....with very little cooperation from the fish themselves.

Comment by Leo Nguyen on June 26, 2013 at 9:27am: LOL! Now that's lazy. They've been spoiled with abundance of foods. Which invertebrates did the crew manage to surveyed from the past evaluation? I'm curious to know the Mill's natural forage resources. That lake is a massive hotspot for migratory species, and a major potential of interesting contributions from far and wide.

Comment by Josh Milczski (Omaha) on June 26, 2013 at 9:21am: Most were eating pellets and invertebrates. Most of the bluegill we caught were in a tight window suggesting they were very selective and extremely lazy. You basically had to bounce the lure on their heads to get a strike.

Comment by Leo Nguyen on June 26, 2013 at 9:17am: Terrific looking pair. One may wonder, "How many bass do these swallowed."

Comment by Josh Milczski (Omaha) on June 26, 2013 at 8:25am: Solid observation Tony.

Comment by Tony Livingston on June 26, 2013 at 8:22am: Hmmm......those guys look familiar.....

Amazing how one BOW can display fish with such different body dynamics. All big fish, just shaped differently.