Ghostly Gills?

[bluegillboogieman]

The Gills I catch in NW Florida are colorful and so dark it comes off on your hand when you take the hook out. The ones in my usual haunts in lower Alabama are plain to brilliantly colored depending on the lake. Except some I caught last week from a one acre pond on a local military base. The game warden had told me there were some belly bream in that pond, the kind you have to hold against your belly to get the hook out because they're to big for your hand.

He was right, I guess. The ones I hauled in fought like bluegills and were shaped like bluegills, but they looked like ghosts. Kind of grey all over and their gills were white. I put them in the ice chest and they colored up some by the time I got home.

The water looked like it had been fertilized recently, but I've caught lots of colorful gills from water like that before.

Were these big boys so surprised to be caught that their hair turned white like in the movies?

Anybody else caught any ghosts?

Bluegillboogieman

[Jeff Soto]

Let's see some photos!

[bluegillboogieman]

Sorry, I ate em. When I go back to that pond, (named Ech Lake by the way) I'll take a camera.

[Earl Dykes Jr.]

I have a local pond here that I fish, ( I am in Southeast Alabama), that the brim I catch are always very dull looking. It has a big ditch running in to it and the water has become permantly stained over the years. It looks like mud soup, but you can always catch a mess of gills. These fish are also all mixed up. Red bellies, blue gills, longears, and warmouth. No color but good to eat.

[bluegillboogieman]

Earl, I'm down in Enterprise. I've fished at Barbour County Lake a few times. I caught a few nice ones there. Do you have any experience there and maybe some tips for it.

[Earl Dykes Jr.]

Boogieman, the best spots on the lake seem to always be from the old pier above the boat landing all the way down to the dam. The very best place being between the boat landing and the old pier that is falling in. This pier is located back toward the town of Clayton. It is a very small pier. I use a 12' jigging crappie pole, a natural cork and 4 lb camo line with a cricket or a small crayfish, right up close to the bank in the shade. Of course when they are bedding they are always a few in any of the shallow water. Biggest thing is to be stealthy in your approach. BE QUIET. The fish in this lake are spooky. I once caught some big gills at the pipe tower at the dam fishing about 10 ft deep, but only once. A guy that use to work for me use to take a 2/0 worm hook and put about 10 red worms on it and bottom fish. He caught alot of catfish, but he caught some huge bluegills. Good luck. Let me know next time you are coming up.

[jonathon ratzlaff]

In my pond there is no cover or structure and all have color. but sometimes ill catch a allmost albino one. its weird the colorless ones are more finniky.