Do you love big bluegill?

Got Some Nice Ones Today

Well, it was 84 F today so I hit a small pond for about one hour before dark. Caught 16 gills from 8 to 9 inches and 8 small bass. Hooked a couple of 'heavy' fish that I think were very large crappies but never got a look at them as they just came off.

Caught fish on spoons, jigs, but the money winner was a 1/64 oz black crafthair jig that just sank so slow they couldn't resist it.

Lots of insect activity and fish were quite aggressive. Great fun!

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Permalink Reply by Bill "Musky" Modica on October 9, 2009 at 6:33pm

84 F!?.....We didn't get to 50 deg in Chicago today. Jim did you happen to take a surface temp reading??

Crappies are biting here....surface temps are in the mid 50's

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Permalink Reply by Greg McWilliams on October 10, 2009 at 4:48am

Ok Jim, Guess you know, your sending me CRAPPIE fishin, again. We all have our cross to bear,EH. Have a CRAPPIE DAY (SMILIE FACE HERE)

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Permalink Reply by Greg McWilliams on October 10, 2009 at 4:52am

BILL YOU ARE SENDING ME CRAPPIE FISHING, THANK YOU . YOU HAVE A CRAPPIE DAY!!!!!!!! Thought those were Jims fish. Those are nice ones thanks for the inspirations.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Gronaw on October 10, 2009 at 3:55pm

Hey Bill...I did not take a temp today, but at Piney Run, just down the road, the water was at 65 F and was likely similar at this pond. Lots of surface activity at the pond and a fly rod guy could likely have smashed em.

Also, my buddy Tony and his 11 yr old son have been catching bull gills at Piney Run over the tops of sunken brush in 22 ft of water on worms...9 to 10 plus inchers along with a few crappie and perch mixed in. Sounds like a good spoon spot to me, whatcha think?

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Permalink Reply by Bill "Musky" Modica on October 10, 2009 at 6:36pm

Jim, we sometimes fish Big Green in central Wi., where several brush piles have been placed in 20-25 FOW, with great success using spoons....this is the only place I am in fear of loosing spoons....bring extras!

Surface temps were 54 today on Wooster lake in Northeast Il....the Bass bite was slow, but managed 2 17" fish on gill pattern cranks....shifted to jig and pork and caught a 32" Pike!.....ended up drifting the secondary lake basin for Crappies using tandem rigged 1/8 oz jigs tipped with 2" Fin-S minnows in 25 FOW (can you believe I did not use a spoon?).....Hammered them, kept a dozen specks.

We used Hummingbird's side imaging technology today..... we were able to locate large schools of suspended fish that appeared on our sonar that were 75-100 ft away from our location over the deep basin water....using the on-screen cursor function, we charted and marked the schools location, made the lateral adjustment, and pinpointed the perfect drift....My fishing partners have spoiled me by using this technology, and have also warned me that this type of unit will immediately turn a $2000 boat into a $4000 boat!