Do you love big bluegill?

Chicagoans

Any Chicagoland fisherman lurking around here? Where y'all been fishing?

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Permalink Reply by peepaw on July 24, 2011 at 2:54pm

lake geneva and the twin lakes for big gills!

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Permalink Reply by Alexander Krehe on August 3, 2011 at 12:39pm

NICE GILLS!!!!!

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Permalink Reply by peepaw on August 4, 2011 at 5:02am

We found the biggin's at 22-25 feet in Geneva. Waxies on a plain hook.

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Permalink Reply by glenn spruille on August 4, 2011 at 9:16am

I fish at Rasmussen Lake in lake county(Antioch) It's a decent honeyhole if you enjoy catching bullheads,channel cats,striper bass,pearch,bluegills,bass and northerns. it's located on route 173 and route 45. go to your browser and type in the name and the rest is history. I have not found a good place in chicago, but I have been told to check out wolf lake on the Ind. and Illinois border.

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Permalink Reply by Ryan on August 11, 2011 at 6:51pm

sorry i haven't been able to get back to the thread. was enjoying the north woods doing some wonderful panfishing on big lake chetac in Wisconsin near hayward. Although the town claims to be the bluegill capital of Wisconsin ( and usually produces soo) the crappie fishing has been spectacular!!!

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Permalink Reply by Johnny wilkins on August 15, 2011 at 5:02pm

You are all welcome if you live near Chicago to fish our club- we have a bluegill-based league in the suburbs. Get in touch with me if you are interested in suburban gill fishing...

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Permalink Reply by Peter Jones on August 16, 2011 at 2:26pm

My cousins live across the street from Center Lake, WI. It is absolutely teeming with gills and I often catch baby smallmouths and even some rock bass mixed in with them. I use small hooks and 1/4th or 1/5th of a nightcrawler. I usually go off of a private dock that goes about 10 yards out and use a bobber and splitshot to get about 2-3 ft down into the weeds.

However, I was fishing in the evening and ended up hooking a largemouth, but since I was on panfish gear it threw the hook when it surfaced. I guessed that a largemouth would have to be extremely hungry to take such a small piece of nightcrawler, so I switched to a larger hook with a full-sized nightcrawler and caught it right away.