Large Bluegills ARE carnivores...

[Jeff Soto]

Has anyone else noticed that many of the really big, trophy-sized Bluegill caught, are on small baitfish replicating lures, often by bass and trout fishermen?  I have.  As a matter of fact, a few years ago, while I was busy doing fish taxidermy, practically all the large Bluegill that were brought to me to be mounted had been caught "accidentally" on small lures, such as small crank baits, jigs, and plastic worms and these lures were usually in a natural shad or minnow color. (I'm talking about fish over 2 lbs here!)  I have also seen big Bluegill cough up tiny shad and bass fry while fighting on a line.  Yes... we catch plenty of very big BGs on live baits such as crickets and various worms, but perhaps if we want the really big record-sized trophy 'Gills, we should start using small fish-like lures in the deeper areas where the larger fish congregate.  I'm going to keep a small lure like the Rapala CD-1 on one of my rods when I go fishing now.

[Vincent Ventura]

my biggest bluegill ive caught was on an 1/8 ounce jig head with a 3 inch minnow colored curl tail he was around 11 to 12 inches the only time ive been on the water without scales or a tape cuz i was fishing for catfish bait i also catch lots of gills on gapens flub dubs in 2 1/2 inch size

[Ryan]

i completely agree with this statement. by fishing with crankbaits and large live baits, the amount of fish you may catch will decrease, but the size of the ones you catch is well worth it. Upsizing is great when your catching the small guys!

[Kenneth Born]

the biggest gill I have ever caught was on nightcrawler, but I have caught many on live minnows as well, earlier this spring I caught a 12 1/4" blue on a bass minnow which was about 4" long, and lost a few other fish due to light tackle. I have been using 8 lb test for the past 4 years and so far this year I have had several bass and a couple crappie take minnows and snap my line so I have upgraded to spiderwire stealth 20 lb. test which is very small diameter, same as 6 lb test I believe, but works way better if I do get a bass or crappie of good size to take my bait. and I find a small thill slip bobber to work best for me, weight it down so it floats 3/4 of the bulk of the bobber is submersed so it puts little resistance on the line incase the fish are cautious feeders.

[Ron Emmons]

I'm a new fisherman (just retired). Great tips, thanks

[mike needles]

ive caught them off of 7" trick worms while bass fishing, its funny cause i just read a whole article about fishing deep water with artificials for big bull gills