Belt Buckle Bluegill

[ten_scoach]

New to chasing bluegill for food. Trying to catch a few limits the next few weeks for a familly reunion fish fry. Does anyone have any suggestions to point me in the right direction?

[Jeff Olson]

Im just learning the lake, but what I have found is find some structure or by a dock and there should be bluegill.worms on a bobber.the larger fish seem to still be deeper.about 8 to 12 ft. I would think they should start to move shallower soon to spawn though. they sure are tasty!

[abkeenan]

Jeff gives good info about areas around docks. If you find the right dock you can load the boat with nice size gills. In the dam area sometimes in the mornings we will use crickets and a small split shot and use them on gravel type bottoms and catch everything from gills, to smaller cats and some nice bass mixed in. If you are in the dam area try around some the islands that are just north of the 86 bridge to the diving bluff as they start to get hot right about this time with the multitude of species I described earlier. If you see the gars rolling around on the surface the other fish are around also. If you really are wanting a fish fry you might want to throw out a trot line for a few days using some of those perch/blue gills as bait and you will have plenty of flathead meat for your fish fry which in my opinion is just about as good as it gets as far a taste goes. Good luck.

[Phil Lilley]

I fish for them in the dam area every year- usually start in June but it's early... June pattern should work right now.

Points - 12-18 feet of water. Drop a cricket or piece of night crawler to the bottom and crank up once or twice. Move around and find the right depth.

Last year I fished north and south of the Branson Belle - those gravel banks were full of gills.

[Guest]

I fish for them in the dam area every year- usually start in June but it's early... June pattern should work right now.

Points - 12-18 feet of water. Drop a cricket or piece of night crawler to the bottom and crank up once or twice. Move around and find the right depth.

Last year I fished north and south of the Branson Belle - those gravel banks were full of gills.

This is a vertical technique?, so a drop shot will work in the same manner?

or does the split shot rig out-produce the drop shot.

Ive never fished this way, but Im open to new ideas as long as the gills are biting.

Thanks

[Grappling Coach]

We have been catching a lot of nice gills on points from 16 - 22 feet. Crickets and night crawlers have worked equally well on a drop shot. Every point we have fished has had fish on them. I stopped by a friends boat dock to talk to him for a few minutes. While I was there, I dropped a few crickets down and caught a few fish there also.

[dtrs5kprs]

Drop shot if vertical, or split shot / mojo if dragging in same places. Another place worth a look is a channel swing with wood. Drop shot around the wood and watch graph for activity that does not look like bass (smaller stuff).

[bluebasser86]

I caught a couple hand sized 'gills by the dam this weekend on a channel swing bluff bank in about 30' of water on a 3/4oz jigging spoon, really surprised me both times.

[dtrs5kprs]

I caught a couple hand sized 'gills by the dam this weekend on a channel swing bluff bank in about 30' of water on a 3/4oz jigging spoon, really surprised me both times.

Yep. Seems like everyone fishes the gravel points for them, but I catch more quality gills on the swings once they leave shallow water. It is basically the same way I learned to fish for them in the summer in IA and N. MO. Your depth was about right. They will be in that 25'-35' of water with everything else, especially if a thermocline gets going.

Only problem is keeping little bass off at times.

[Champ89]

We were fishing the Aunts Creek area for three days last week and we caught about 40 big bulls, mostly males. It was a great trip. Bass in the morniing and evening, Gills in the afternoon.They were in a wind blown pocket protected behind a dock in 9-12ft of water. Caught all on red wiggles on a drop shot rig.