what is the best bait for bluegill??

[micah mack]

i need to learn more variety of baits. tell me what is the biggest bluegill you caught on that bait.

[carl hendrix]

get with leo; and dick tabbert on raising worms!!

[Jeffrey D. Abney]

Jigs under a float tipped with grass shrimp or live crickets......2 pounds 4 ounces.....but many trophy class bluegill over the years....I most often fish jigs that are in the 1/32 ounce range in spring and summer....go smaller when the water is cold...a reliable method year round once the depth required is figured out......

[Leo Nguyen]

I believe Jeffrey Abney got us all beaten on this category in the public waters, aside from the monsters from private lakes, such as the Richmond Lake, Tony's hidden treasure ponds, Bruce Condello's monster ranches, Walt's mysterious ponds, and various other hidden jewels.

As Carl indicated, nothing is better that worm on the hook. Worms will get hammered regardless. However, as Jeffrey indicated, shrimps, crickets, waxworms, mealworms, lures, crankbaits, flies, and various methods of jigging will yield massive results. It's not about what's the best bait to use, rather, it's how you present the bait based on the natural foraging food sources.

Since you are connected to the waters of the Great Lakes, and hopefully the elevation does not exceed more than 400ft above sea level from the tributaries and feeding waters going through your area, look up for grass shrimps. If you have shrimps in your water, Jim's shrimp jigs will be a killer in the water. Tooty's Silent Stingers will follow quite well to slay the monsters in the water. Use Jeffrey's method of stringing the bait offering. Not sure who else at BBG lives in KY. Hope the BBG family from this area chime in soon.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

If you want one bait that is universally appealing, I'd go with earthworms. Neck and neck with these are crickets.

Every place has local forage that may be favored at certain seasons. If you can trap or capture these things (like grass shrimp), that is good. Grub baits, too, like mealworms are generally good. But all or any of these may be hard to find or catch

Worms, by contrast are found almost every where. If you want to collect them yourself, they are also free. Best of all, fish love em.
Their one drawback is they will catch most anything. I like that about them, but it is something to remember.

[Ronald A Wilson]

I do use some live bait ,but it is really hard to not use the gulp alive 1in minnows ,and the small leachs . I use watermelon pearl, emarld shiner,pumpkinseed ,and the olive and pumpkinseed leechs .fantastic baits ,and one bait does last for several fish ,although the leechs are really hard to keep on because the gills suck them of so easily.good luck and try gulp alive 

[Johnny]

The best luck I ever had on live bait was a small child that weighted just under 10 pounds (maybe 3 weeks old), strapped a floaty around its waist then placed a long shank hook under the floaty & secured it between its butt cheeks with the hook skyward, that way I didnt sling him off the first cast & he was weedless, besides a can of children are expensive.

 

The bluegill weighed in at just over 4 onces, agressive little thing, top water action is just to much fun to watch.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

I've never had a lot of luck with the Gulp minnows. I thought they look pretty good, and I've caught a few bluegill on them, but just a few.
presentation seems more important than any magical qualities the Gulp product may have.
as for using small children as bait, well, I wouldn't generally recommended.

[Sean Penix]

Lately I have been using a 1/64 oz jig tipped with a Berkley Gulp Alive! cricket the 1" size or tipped with wax worms. The biggest gill I caught I was actually using a 2" minnow fishing for bass. It really varies from water to water. I know areas where Night crawlers are the best but wax worms don't work, and vice versa and this goes for everything I get here in Portsmouth ohio. The jigs I actually tried because of this site and they kill em.

 

[Johnny]

What put that in my head was me & wifey was fish'n & the gills were realy on that day, just make'n complete savages out of themselves, I tols her that is a BG got to be as big as bass you couldnt put a kid in the water, they'd have it consumed.

 

only play'n, not try'n to hijack the thread.

 

Carry on.

[Lori Rexrode Hall]

So far, I'm addicted to bright yellow jigs with a swivel or spinner (if that is correct terminology) I really don't know....I just go to my local Dick's sporting goods and pick out the jigs that I think are pretty......so far, in the spring, when the fish were on the beds, it was a winner in the pond.  :-)  I've never caught any BBG in our big lakes such as Falls, Kerr or Gaston.  Is that because they are so, so big??  Pond fishing seems to be where it's at for these BBG's.  Any thoughts fella's?

[Leo Nguyen]

Lori, you got the terminology down pretty good. It's a spinner. David is the master when it comes to spinner types.

BGs are very fast learners. They may be come lure/bait shy, knowing what to observe and stay away from, once they're caught a few times. Otherwise, you may not have any in the lakes at all, or rather, population may have been thinned out so much that you're not hitting the right spots where they were. Electro shock the lakes to know the density the fish population is the key.

We have huge lakes over here, and BGs are everywhere. Fishing pressure for BGs are pretty high. However, once the banks are over pressured with fishing activity, the BGs migrate to other safer locations.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

There may be another reason beyond pressure that accounts for fewer massive gills in public waters than we wouldn't like: most anglers don't know their quarry.
The bluegill, like every other natural creature, is subject to life cycle variations. These primary follow the seasons.

So, those big, bedding gills that seem to bite any "pretty" thing passing by, well...they soon disappear once the spawn us over. Those that DID fall victim to a well placed spinner or bait are gone, yes. But probably more than we know have moved to a new location, their "summer haunts," if you will.

This takes into account other factors being equal, like adequate food, no toxins or poison, enough oxygen, etc. It is known that some waters, for many reasons, just hold few bragging size bluegill.

Certainly a fishery with potential can be maxed out and, in theory, be utterly depleted. But I suspect most if the time...we just don't know where they are. THAT is the greatest challenge an angler faces. It isn't having the right reel, boat or sunglasses. Rather, it is finding the darned fish on any given day, place and time.