Bluegill - Big Bluegill

Do you love big bluegill?

The past few seasons it’s been season outdoing the last. Knowledge base on top of knowledge base. Building on some great info from this site and time on the water. I’m anticipating and looking forward to even better results with more citation fish. Anyway that’s the game plan.

Last year was the season of fishing TINY. Thin UL Lines loaded on tiny 50 series reels and light UL rods tossing tiny baits in front of fish targets…quantities of quality panfish and trophy SMB. Tossed the baits into thick cover with reckless abandon. Tiny presentations under slip bobbers thrown next to thick weed slop and weed pockets. Mid day fishing out of the kayak in less than two feet of water and tagging quality fish. Never really had another fishing boat come close to me fishing. it was like i had the lake to myself. looking forward to making some more good memories in the upcoming season.

Looking forward to any hints suggestions or comments from the BBG membership… sharing is the best way to learn and progress!

hope everyone a successful "2016 Open Water Season"

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Had a great time on the water yesterday with a large chunk of time spent exploring back creeks and creek openings. Managed to produce a decent showing on another tough bite. The largest B.Gill and  P’Seed was tagged on my search jigging rod loaded with the Spring Cricket. The remainder on Slip/Float/Pink Waxie... also managed 1 B.Gill on the fly rod with a popper... missed a lot of hits... just rusty i guess

Virtual Live well all cpr'ed

20160529-TOUGH BITE BUT SCRATCHED OUT A SHOWING

20160531- ...----~~<")))))><(---------------------------

20160531--- i took a Micro Lite Jigging and a Slip/float rod down to the bridge earlier this morning and hooked up straight away with cruising panfish. I used the Spring Cricket and Jelly Jigs to make long casts parallel with the rip rap and spot cast to bridge pilings to tag the nice array of pannies. It was a pleasant surprise to tag 90 percent class fish such as the B.Crappie and Rock Bass out of the bunch.

caught many panfish on the Spring Cricket and the Slip/Float/Pink Waxie rig

Nice B.Crappie!

0531161151 12" CLASS B.CRAPPIE

Nice Rock Bass!

0531161303-Rock bass

Virtual Livewell of this a.m.s catch... all CPR'ed!

20160531-PANFISHING AT THE BRIDGE

i waited till later in the afternoon to launch my kayak into a local spot and stayed close to the launch site because of "whole body pain". as i started casting i noticed the "bite" was off as compared earlier to the nice results from the bridge. i use my jigging rod as a search set-up and could not find a b.gill pull anywhere

So i casted the slip/float set-up close to the bank within 18" of water or less and started getting nibbles but no takers on the Pink Waxie. At this point i was ready to try something different. since im not a live bait fisherman generally so none was available on this trip. So i thought i would try an old ice fishing trick by attaching a small fly instead of a bare hook (with a cut segment of Pink Waxie as a tip) under my slip float. this little trick sparked some curiosity from the shallow fish and started tagging them one after another.

now im not saying that my Pink waxie on a bare hook is now a back burner presentation... of Course Not! its just today the fish needed something different today to put them over the gunwales.

a nice 9"+ Bull B.Gill was best fish of the afternoon caught on the pink waxie/fly under the slip/float

BFOTD!! (afternoon)

20160531.GLADWIN BFOTD!!

Virtual live well of some of this afternoons catch... all CPR'ed!

20160531.GLADWIN LATE PM BITE

 

 

 

…slip/float setup

20160601- ...----~~<")))))><(----------------------------

Shore fishing was great today using the long casts with the UL jigs especially when projected along the long stretches of rip-rap. ive really been putting the Spring Cricket through a pace lately and has been producing well.

the Slip/Float/P.Waxie has also been producing as well and topped off the best fish of he afternoon with a 9.1" B.Gill

BFOTD!!

0601162027 BFOTD!! 9.1" B.Gill

Collage of tagged fish

20160601-Gladwin, Mi Shore fishing this afternoon

 

 

20160602- ...----~~<")))))><(----------------------------

Excellent panfish trip on the yak!... checked out some new areas and did quite well throwing the Slip/Float/Pink waxie and the Spring Cricket along the newly formed weed edges.

Some B.Gill on the beds but I believe the bulk of the spawn will be the next full moon coming up.

Many B.Crappie are still cruising the shallow flats along the growing weeds… they are done spawning.

Largest of the B.Gills was caught on the slip/float/waxie set-up. I used the Spring Cricket as a search rig  locating pockets of gills cruising the shallow weeds on the flats.

BFOTD!!

0602161435a - BFOTD!!! 9.3" B.Gill

Collage of some of the fish caught. all CPR'ed

20160602-EXCELLENT PANFISH TRIP! ..all cpr'ed

20160603- ...----~~<")))))><(----------------------------

20160604- ...----~~<")))))><(----------------------------

With neck and arm pain I decided to launch the kayak and stay local to the launch UL jig and do some slip floating. As soon as I reached the launch I noticed a significant algae bloom has just gotten worse. Paddling out to my favorite way points casting and retrieving the jig just was not going to work today. The Nano just loaded up with algae and required much work to prepare for subsequent casts. Slip Floating with pinpoint casts to some openings and weed edges was the only solution and ended up producing about 2 dozen gills half of them notable size topping off at 8+ inches. No niners today. Still though a lot of work to produce... but still worth it!

BFOTD!!!

ss_20160604_BFOTD!!! 8.7" B.Gill

20160606- ...----~~<")))))><(----------------------------

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