Clear Water Bluegills

[Jim Gronaw]

Hey everybody. I have been catching alot of high end gills and magnum yellow perch this season from some very clear , smaller lakes that I have just recently started to fish. One body of water is a quarry that has insanely clear water and just has some exciting viewing options for spawning gills in water as deep as 10 feet that you can see every thing going on.

The other body is a small public lake that is not quite as clear, but has very clear water and never seems to muddy up after a rain.

Just lookin for a few tips on the crystal clear advantage of fishing environs like these. For now, I...

Use lo-vis monos at 4 lb test
Use bronze or red hooks for baitfishing
Make long casts to fish once I locate them , and
Utilize small, #10 or #12 hooks to secure earthworms and nightcrawlers.

Any other tips would be helpful...thanks!

[Dave Lipps]

re: low vis-mono...I have used a high vis yellow 4lb mon for the past several years with a 5' to 6'
clear 4lb leader which seems to work good in fishing many of our clear water lakes here in southern Michigan..and the #12 size hook is a must for the small red worms...fishing this without
bobber...just as you mention make a long cast and let it settle to the bottom...at times one can
see the strike on the way down with the hi-vis yellow or hi-vis green line...great pictures..love
that perch!!!

[Jim Gronaw]

You know, I have gone as far as to wearing camo and crawling along when the fish were real shallow and spooky.

[John Cachel]

Very nice perch and 'gill!

I think that size 12 is pretty small for nightcrawlers but tiny redworm or maggots might be fine! I use size 8 on leaf worm or small leech. I like to use between 8 and 6 hook to avoid bluegill get deep hook in throat. Size 6 and 8 is fine for big bait like leech, small nightcrawler or giant redworms! Small long piler is useful to remove the hook. I used 2 lbs test line for clear water but its too risk for big bluegills so I found that Tectan Premium Plus 3.1 lbs test line is doing very well for me in clear with lack of covers lakes! It made in Germany and you can find this fine fishing line in Cabela's catalog! I always use Trilene XL GREEN 4 lbs line for my most general fishing! 6 lbs test line with live bait like leech or giant redworms for heavy covers like lily pads and fallen trees! Long rod like 7 ft St Croix ultralight or 7 ft 6" Bass Pro Shop microLite rods is great for long cast with small lures or live bait!
Fresh live bait with slip bobber is great for me for clear deepwater and big bluegills cant resist fresh free live hmmm hmmm good bait! I found real good lure is about 1/2 inch long weight nymph (gold head) brown body with a Gulp pink maggot for big bluegills! It look, smell and taste like natural also added a Gulp maggot to make lure little heavier for better long cast! I got 3 bluegills over 10 inch on this lure last week!