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Earliest Bluegill Spawn Ever! Anybody else?

Well, if you don't already know, the East Coast and Mid Atlantic states have had record high temperatures the past 4 days with many areas seeing hot, low 90's F which has shot the water temps well into the low 70's. As a result, in many small ponds and lakes the bluegills have actually gone on bed and the fishing has been big time!

I have kept records over the years and in most seasons, Mason Dixon area lakes will see gills spawn some where around the last week of May to the first week of June. This is only the second time I have observed spawning gills in April in my region, and this is the earliest...April 25...that I have recorded.

With all that, we hit a couple of our favorite ponds and caught a heap of fish, almost all males, and in good, robust condition that ran from 7 to almost 9 inches. After viewing Bill' Musky Mods' fried fish on a platter, I just had to keep some, and that's exactly what we did Sunday after church in the 90 degree heat. We caught some on jigs but most on bobber and worm rigs as we let the wind blow the offering over the bedding areas.

In the mix were several nice largemouths that ran up to a little over 4 pounds...nice bonus on the ul gear. Colder, more seasonal weather is predicted by midweek with temps in the 60's w/ rain. I anticipate that spawning fish will drop back and then resume when the weather heats up again.

No hawgs over 10 in yet...but great eating fish.

Is anybody else out there catching spawning fish, and where, and on what?

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Comment by Bill "Musky" Modica on April 27, 2009 at 4:21pm: Ok...I'll bite, yes show me the pictures

Comment by Bruce Condello on April 27, 2009 at 4:16pm: I was in Phoenix all weekend assisting Big Bluegill co-creator Aaron Matos' with his pond and he had beds all over the place...

...but then again, I guess it was Phoenix. :-)

Anybody want to see some pictures!?

Comment by Jeremy R. Mayo on April 27, 2009 at 4:06pm: I found fish bedding in march rite after the full moon but couldnt get them to hit anything I offered them. I just watched them for a few days and eventually the dissapeared. Ive located over 80 beds with in the past couple weeks and have there locations locked away in the back of my brain for safe keeping until mays full moon gets here. Im hoping that these fish will come back to spawn again. We had a fantastic trip sunday and caught 40 nice fish. Prolly over half of the fish we caught were spawning. There were some deffinate fresh battle scars on a few of the fish we caught from the areas that they were spawning in.