Bluegill - Big Bluegill

Do you love big bluegill?

PATTERN

  1. Quickly locating active fish from the shallows to the deep weed line edges.

 

RIGGING

  1. Ultra light or light spinning tackle. Here I am using a
    1. five ft IM7 graphite Eagle Claw Powerlight fishing rod
    2. Pflueger Trion 4520 gx spinning reel
    3. 6lb high visibility yellow SpiderWire  braid
  2. Micro braid or 5– 8 lb test usually 1 to 2lb test mono equivalent.
  3. Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp Widebend or Octopus hook #8 - #14 or equivalent (im always experimenting with hooks)
  4. Heaviest reusable split shot to adjust the bobber to its neutral position or use multiple bb shot
  5. Plastic bead or glass bead. (2 req’d 1 above and 1 below float)
  6. Float stop of your choice.
  7. Bait of your choice. These are my preferred choices.
    1. GULP Maggot in pink, crème or chartreuse
    2. GULP 1” Minnow
    3. Gulp 1.5” Helgramite
    4. Crawler or garden worm segments up to an inch long
    5. waxies and/or grubs
    6. crickets
  8.  When weighting and balancing your float select enough weight to bring the float down to the balance line marked on the float. this is a very important step and is usually missed by the novice and pro alike. without a correctly balanced float you are missing fish. not enough weight and the line does not move through the bobber to reach the desired stop depth... too much you sink the float... lol... with the correctly balanced weight the bobber is set at its optimum visibility and sensitivity.

PRESENTATION:

  1. Locate schools or individual bluegills by fan casting shallow likely spot. Look for signs of feeding gills cast past the activity and slowly pause and drag the bobber rig through the activity. Cast next to submergent and emergent cover like logs, fallen trees, stumps, rocks and emergent submergent weed beds. Work your way deeper along weedbeds and weedbed pockets. Finally fish the deep weedline edges covering the full depth by adjusting your bobber stop. I feel comfortable working this ri6 down to 12 ft enough to cover the deep base of a weedline edge.
  2. Once you find actively feeding fish or a pattern of activity switch I usually switch out rigs that are more suitable to the task like a slip bobber rig with a longer rod or a lighter presentation as a quill for shallow fish.

… and of course this is a profile of the way I use my equipment… most times the equipment is bought to suit a special need or fulfill a certain level of “fun factor” to assemble these rigs. Individuals have their favorite brands of rods reels bait and the like… this is only meant to share where I’m currently at in my tweaking of rigs or setups. … And of course there is change over time. I personally enjoy taking people out and see how they fish. This is a way to do it virtually. Sharing tactics and rigs. There are so many ways to rig that if this jogs a memory of an idea or rig that may work in a particular situation and it makes your fishing outing a success than putting this index together was a success. There is always a chance that you may pick up tips from anybody at all levels of the sport.

Good fishing ,

Ken

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one of my last days able to slip bobber fish season 2014.

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