Do you love big bluegill?

8/11/2010 fishing trip

Well Howdy Y’all
The evening of 8/11/10 was hot and the wind was absent we had a High of 103° when we went that evening between 1700-2000 (5 pm -8 pm)it was 98° at the house and didn’t drop till 2200 (10 p) and no wind for cleaning.
We had a fair time the gills we’re slow till the sun went over the treetops in the cove we were working,
Shore fishing with bobbers and worms in anything from 2 ½’ to 7’ and on the drop offs from 5’ to 15’ from shore.
The Wife uses a Zebco 33 with the 5’ 6” Zebco Firecracker MH rod with Cajun 10 lb test red mono.
I use a Shakespeare Mantis on a Mantis 6’ MH rod with Zebco 10 lb clear mono.
Yea we use antiques with new line but due to budgets we use what we have.
I use a navy knot, see our rig diagram to set up the terminal tackle and we use good ole crawlers .
So the evening moved on and as the lite went the fish bit starting with the pecker fish then we started pulling in the larger gills.
We culled out the little ones at the bank and finished with a pack of 7 (see tub o’ gills pic) with the smallest being 7” and the two largest being 9”.
The group was 2 Longear and 5 Bluegills with 5 being males and 2 females (after cleaning).
I donated two snap and hook sets due to deep swallowing gills and lost a complete set-up including bobber due to a fish taking me under a rock shelf .
The Wife did better with gear she only lost one weight to a snag.
I had my trusty Shakespeare reel go down and was unable to open the cover, anyone know how to pop a cover that wont unscrew? Had that sucker for too many years and never had this problem, oh well,
Swapped over to the backup Zebco 33 reel and carried on.
The night went great with deer, fox, and buzzards visiting us during the few hours we were there.
Love the Lake and we will be back on Saturday morning (early) to get on the kids as they wake up.
Well more as it goes on.

The wife likes a real slow steady retrieve to work her zones, I’m a quarter crank and sit retrieve type.
When we’re using single poles.
If we double up we use one as a set bait pole and work the other in zones.

8/11 hits came first as HARD hungry fish, bobber down and running hard. A half hour later they went to
tap-tap-tap and pull real shy feeders.
We worked maybe 20 yrds of the shore and anywhere from 5’ offshore out to 15’.
Really no wind to speak of maybe a few fitful breezes enough to riffle the surface but not sustained.