Big Bluegill Data

[JP]

Just wondering if anyone is interested in sharing their stories about how they caught there biggest Gills. I thought we might be able to collect some data that might get us all closer to our next big Bulldog!!! (water temps,depth, time of year,bait,ect.) I caught my largest bluegill ( 11 inch 1.4 lb.) on 4th of July weekend. Water temp was in 80's,air temp was probably around 85 and sunny. The lake I was fishing had average depth of around 12 ft. deepest water around 16 ft. Most of the male gills are around 8 1/2 to 9 1/2 inches on average. I had a bobber on set six inches above bottom in 12 ft. of water and found a spot (approx. 10ft. by 15ft.) where it was about 1 ft. shallower. I would drag my bobber until it would lay over to find the spot. I caught somewere around 10 fish in the same spot before I caught my biggest bluegill ever ! I also have caught a redear in the same lake (11 1/5 inches 1lb. 5oz) on the nest and some 11+ inchers in 12ft. of water with a 1/32 popeye jig with a whole jumbo redworm(they like them alive and wiggling best).

[Kiana Fitzpatrick]

since I'm new to the record keeping system..I have no clue....LOL sorry

[Bruce Condello]

Good question. My biggest bluegill that was not caught on my own land was 1 lb. 12 ounces. It was caught in a tiny cattle watering pond that was probably .2 acres at the most. The pond had enough cattle traffic that it supressed the rooted vegetation, so the bluegill that were spawned each year had nowhere to hide. Consequently there were very few adult fish (I'd estimate only about 75) so the remaining fish had tons to eat. The maximum depth of the pond was about 7-8 feet, and the monster was in the deepest water. It was not caught during the spawn...it was actually about July 1st. The lure was a 1/32 ounce Foxee jig, with a chartreuse head and a little black eye. The body was a black Tripple Ripple grub from Bass Pro Shops that had a black body and a green tail. There were several other bluegill caught that day. Five of them were over 1 lb. Four of those were males.

[Bill "Musky" Modica]

My largest gill (12 1/2" male) came last June on a 1/10th oz spoon tipped with 2 waxworms, that was dragged thru a bed in 15 ft of water....30 other gills between 9 and 10" were also caught and released. Although the water was gin clear, the beds were not visible due to wave action....several boats working the same area in search of bedding gills were scratching their heads and glassing us with binocs, trying to figure out how we were contacting so many fish. Because of the 15mph wind, my partner and I hit the lake with a plan to drop a marker bouy on the first large male we caught, and anchor upwind, well...it worked.....sorry no weight on the fish, it was immediately released.