Success Rates

[chris kowaleski]

Alright, so i see all you guys catchin sunfish past the 1lb/1.5lb+ mark, and i'm curious to know your success rate of catching big ones like that. How many small ones, if any, do you guys catch before reeling in the monsters?

[Lee]

 I think it has more to do with the body of water your fishing more than anything else, it has to be good fertile water without a stunted population of bream. Your not going to catch Big bream where they don't live! I'd recomend first checking the lakes/rivers in the area you live alot of times local fishermen and bait shops can be very helpful as can your state wildlife department. Once you've located a Good bream lake the fun starts :)

[Vince Fusco]

  I have for the most part, caught almost all of the 1lb. plus gills from either a river backwater, or from  super clear sand pits.

  The sand pit fish were super spooky, and micro jigs (1/48 to 1/100 oz ) tipped with red wigglers, hooked once through the nose, and a extremely slow presentation did the trick on them. This involved clear 2-4lb test clear mono, making a cast and letting it fall 20+ feet then reeling a click at a time speed then repeating the process again and again. 

  The river backwater fish were caught in a different way. Fishing for them involved 4lb clear mono, ice fishing floats, and a non weighted red wiggler or pink worm,  Making sidearm casts from my boat within a foot of shore under buck brush worked for these fish. My largest gill ever (1lb. 10 oz.) came this way .

  Now, how many smaller ones have I caught between catching these 1lb.  plus gills, is anyone's guess.  It is probably in the hundreds, if not more over the years. I agree with Lee on fishing those waters capable of producing big gills. Remember taking too many of the largest fish from your favorite body of water will have a long term negative effect on on it. Keep the size fish that your lake has the most of for the table. I hope one day I am able to fish a body of water that is managed for big hybrid gills, as I have never caught one.

[Mark Stine]

probably one in a hundred fish approach or pass the 1lb where I fish.  Somewhat depends on depth of water and style of fishing, for instance if they are hitting topwater I will use the fly rod which doesn't always produce the largest fish.  Sometimes its an issue of being able to get your bait past the smaller fish to the bigger one hanging a few feet lower in the water.  My biggest fish a 2lb shellcracker came while using a telescoping (cane) pole with a live cricket fishing eight or nine feet deep in 10 feet of water caught six more from the same hole over a lb, a feat I am yet to repeat! wish I had taken pics, but it was pre-digital and I just didn't take many pics back then. No secret: keep a line in the water if you want to catch fish.

[chris kowaleski]

Yeah i've noticed the body of water thing back home. Most of the times it was rare catching them above 8 inches, with the max i've caught being 9.5 inches.  I don't specifically target big ones for that reason really, iwould just throw some worm out there hoping to catch a nice one.  I found a boat ramp the other day on Lake Austin and my first cast was on a 12ft cane pole and i caught about a nine inch bluegill right off the bat, then switched to spinning gear and ended up catchin a couple more including a few chunky red ear. I need to post the pics still.  

But what i'm interested in is that say some of you go out in a boat, you probably have a good hole  you go to, and in that hole is it just big ones? Or do you catch several smaller ones then  start catching the nice sized ones?

[Vince Fusco]

On the river, I catch a lot of gills mixed in with the bigger ones, but in the sand pits I targeted  those pits that I know produce the larger gills. There are many pits in the area I fished, and by studying the characteristics of those that produced big gills, I learned what to look for. Water tint (even though they were clear) some had a slight green tint to them. These produced well. Since these pits were for the most part void of any visable structure, fallen trees, etc. I had to figure that the bottom contour and water clarity was the main difference in a good producing verses a so so pit. These pits had a good population of bass in them as well. No boats, or tubes were permitted in these pits so all fishing was from the shore. 

[Jeffrey D. Abney]

I fish from my boat over 95% of the time in my home state of North Carolina and nearby waters in Virginia Chris......I fish over a dozen rivers that have produced Bluegill and Shellcracker over a pound for me and my guests.....This doesn't ensure big fish all the time....I certainly have favorite spots that I frequent and many of these produce trophy Bluegill, Fliers, Warmouth and Shellcrackers to name a few......As well as I know my water and track conditions daily I still can't predict the outcome..Some places hold bigger fish and better numbers and I have protected these spots for years and they continue to provide me sustained superior Bluegill fishing and I keep a lot of fish, most are between 6 to 9 inches with some exceptions....There are smaller fish in these rivers but I rarely capture that footage...The flexibility the boat allows me ensures I'll catch nice fish because I move if a particular place is not producing quality fish......I have some great spots that require water movement, a certain wind direction, specific water temperatures and so on..........A couple examples on my favorite river.....The Stables is a creek off the main river, any northerly component of wind and I will not even try fishing there that day...water will be too low!  Beaver Creek off the same river about five miles to the North....you can fish it successfully until water temperatures fall below 60 degrees...the bank is sloped perfectly providing shallow and deeper applications...they should put a statue of me there because I have a hard time not going to that spot....I still catch smaller fish mixed in with the monster gills but not enough to be a deterrent.....The small ones are the future so for me I get concerned when I don't catch at least a few small gills.....Hope this helps Chris.... 

[Jim Gronaw]

Chris...the great majority of the fish I have caught in my lifetime that exceeded 1 pound, or 10-inches, came either from small private ponds or from smaller public lakes that were famous for producing quality bass catches, and the gills went basically ignored by the angling public. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am always hustling for small, quality private and overlooked public venues that are under the radar and I don't expose them, so that they maintain the big gill experience, as I release all gills over 10 inches. 

Most anglers keep the first gill they catch over 10 inches, and the second, and the third...etc., etc. I know it's hard to throw back the biggest fish, and believe me, I am not catching tons of them...nobody is! I am currently having one of my best years, locally, for 10-inch plus fish, having caught and released perhaps 70 individuals that have met or surpassed that benchmark. Some years, I won't catch ten that big, but I might catch over 1000 for the season, with just a handful of the big guys. Yup...they are rare. So far this year, I have caught over 1000 gills, hoping to reach 2,000. Out of all those fish, only 70 were in the one-pound and up category. There are some waters that have top-end fish that will be classified as pounders, but even larger, public venues can eventually suffer from overharvest if the word gets out and the 'bucket brigade' starts keeping too many fish.

Good luck in your search for the big guys!

[federico del toro]

There are 4 public lake that I fish that produce big fish, those lakes are Dunlap, Lake Austin, Lady Bird Lake and Boerne lake.

I have yet to find any ponds close to where i live that are managed and produce big fish

95% of the time I fish out of a Kayak and I target offshore structure that most BG fisherman would overlook, I find most of this areas produce a good ratio of big fish. This  4 lakes are completley different 2 of them are shallow lakes 20ft max and 2 of them are deep water lakes 60+ft but hey are all clear water lakes

Length wise I have caught fish as big as 13.75 but this fish only weighted 1.9 pounds so on a public lake or river is very hard for the fish to get as fat as they would on a managed lake or pond

My point is try to target offshore structure and areas that most other BG fisherman would overlook and if you are getting a lot of Dinks just move on until you start getting into the bigger fish