FISHING THE BLUEGILL POST SPAWN PRE SUMMER PERIODS

[Slip Sinker]

Here in mid Michigan at my latitude it is post-spawn and pre-summer periods for bluegill… one of my toughest periods or times of year to post numbers and quality sizes of fish. i’m wondering how everyone else does during this time…. What’s your favorite fishing pattern at this time? Share some of your success stories for this calendar period.

[Bruce Tomaselli]

In PA during the Spring and Fall   one can find the bigger gills in close and you can reach them by wading. In the Summer, the bigger ones hang deep near shelves or drop offs in the deep part of the lakes I guess, and you generally need a boat to find them. In the Winter it's a crap shoot through a hole in the ice.

[Slip Sinker]

that's what im finding typical this time of year Bruce is gills hanging off the first or second break extending into deeper water.

do you fish mainly from shore?

whats your favorite tactic once they are out deeper?

[Slip Sinker]

Thanks for sharing Frank… we ended up throwing 1/32 oz swim jigs into schools of B.Crappie that we marked in 15-20 FOW the other day… on sonar they looked like it could of either been b.gills or the b.crappie. without that sonar it would have been a wasted night of casting. Seems like back in the day you could drop a line anywhere along a weed bed and catch a panfish. Schools and quantities are smaller it seems and harder to locate nowadays. Sonar is worth its weight in gold.

 

The b.gills seemed to have left the flats and the shoreline edges I had so much success with last year. That success lasted thru September. Hopefully it’ll pick up again it was a fun way to catch fish.

 

The way im reading you is that your using the 1/16 oz jigs on “Weed lanes, lines and pockets” to tag the bulk of your fish during this period and at times you find the suspended fish over deeper water feeding on insects.

I havnt really spotted the suspended fish as of yet but many times later in the season… insect hatches happen all the time through out the year. A fly rod would be a great technique to pick up on these fish. Since I no longer carry a fly rod with me any more I have recently lowered myself to the casting bubble and floating popper. But havnt picked up on many fish on it to call it to call it yet a solid pattern.

 

Do you use a fly rod at all in your arsenal ?

[Bruce Tomaselli]

To tell you the truth, Slip, if I can't find them from shore i'm out of luck as I don't have a water craft. But I'm seriously considering buy a kayak of some kind to get me to the deeper water.

[Slip Sinker]

Bruce yeah it could be so competitive especially nowadays sharing a good shore fishing spot.

the kayak has changed my sport significantly in the positive... i take it as some physical therapy that seems to be working for me and it puts me at times on some significant fish... i caught my PB B.Gill from my Yak

[Slip Sinker]

i agree  mostly on what you have to say about the braid... years ago BB (before braid) teaching the art of free swimming a jig with mono on a light crappie bite... with mono the hook set was almost intuitive because of the very gently bite. hard thing for a beginner to learn and recognize ... braid took care of that issue. i can set any beginner behind the pole and he or she will detect that bite.

bluegill hitting that drop shot rig drop shotting is another example of a lite bite better detected with braid.

[Slip Sinker]

Just recently i have progressed slowly to the dropshotting along the deep weed edges and into the weeds themselves. I tagged a couple mid niners out of the deep weeds and felt very rewarded.

A tough thing for me to do is give up a techniques that has overwhelmingly produced throughout the recent days or weeks. For those that know me I will stick with what works and I try to master that technique. I will start out the fishing trip with that technique that has recently worked and has historically worked for me in the past at similar times of the year. When a BOW screams to me “enough is enough” I move on to the next area and proven technique till I find some positive production. I have beaten a dead horse with a stick out on the water adhereing with a technique that just doesn’t work anymore due to a seasonal change or fish temperament. thats how skunkings happen ...I regretted doing it and try not to make the same mistakes again.

Basically we have to be versatile as fisherman recognize the seasonal patterns of fishing… pick up on tips and techniques from other fisherman… etc… etc. to be productive ill try to use the technique that will work in a given situation.

I have always found some production with deep jigging a weed line or drop shot at this time of year. Even though I was greatly rewarded with the slip float in the slop last year at this period… this year at this time the numbers just aren’t ringing up for me… so im moving on.

Of course if the day for some reason responds positively for the slip float shallow I’ll switch. I generally start shallow anyways with lite jigs or slip/float then work my way deeper