best live bait for big gills

[Eric Jacocks]

anyone have any good suggestions ive been using crickets but i fish them like i use a fly let them crawl on the surface ive had some pretty nice size ones smash it but i wanna hook into even bigger ones

[JWinpisinger]

I've had pretty good luck with small minnows. Also the last time out I bought a panfish "kit" which had some very small plastics and spinners. The Gills attacked them. The down side is that I was spending money on something that kept getting hung up in all of the brush. I can tell you that I have noticed that when fishing small minnows VERY close to the bank I tend to catch the smallest Bluegills and sometimes when I go a bit deeper I get some bigger ones.

[Nick Holt]

Hey Eric, I use crickets myself. I have thrown a cricket with no weight so they lie on top of the water. I use a bobber for weight to get away from the bank. I do this early in the morning or towards evening when the bream are feeding on the surface. Use a piece of split shot and a slip bobber to get down to them, or tightline that cricket on the bottom if you know where the beds are. Nick.

[Gerald Lauderback]

I have caught some hogs using leaches on a bobber

[Walt Foreman]

You'll catch more, and bigger, fish by using a single BB, or B, split shot to sink the cricket. Fish it about a foot or so above the bottom with a small, sensitive float on 4- or 6-pound test.