Searching for the Bull Gills 6/1/19

[Phil Lilley]

Find some of the MDC brush piles and look there.  I found some in them around the dam.

I'm going this week too... I usually find them in 18-22 ft of water this time of year on the bottom.

[dan hufferd]

I have caught numerous big gills on the flats around Big M in the fall in 30ft of water with bottom bouncers. I wonder if that would work now ?

[MoCarp]

Post spawn for sure

[Devan S.]

6 hours ago, dan hufferd said:

I have caught numerous big gills on the flats around Big M in the fall in 30ft of water with bottom bouncers. I wonder if that would work now ?

Dan these are the exact places I am looking(often how I came about them it) seems the point congregates them just a bit more than scanning the whole flat. A good spot is the long run out of the tip of Viney creek park. A worm on a small drop shot and you never know what your gonna catch(walleye, gills, bass). I think Bo may be onto something because the ones I caught were shallower than I expected so that may have just not moved out yet. Looking back at pictures on my phone I have them from Memorial day to the 3rd week of June so I may just be a bit early.

I bet it wont be long and Bill will put up a post where he says there are just harassing the heck out of him and clients and that'll be when its on.

[top_dollar]

You were doing the right thing. They will be on the gravel run outs soon, but it may need to get hotter.  They are all spread out right now still.  Once they all finish their spawn they'll move out to where you were in bigger numbers.  Do you use a split shot rig with a cricket or chunk of worm? In my experience bugs work better than worms.  

[MoCarp]

Crickets rock for gills and small mouths for some reason always caught some dandy ones gilling  

[bobby b.]

10 hours ago, top_dollar said:

You were doing the right thing. They will be on the gravel run outs soon, but it may need to get hotter.  They are all spread out right now still.  Once they all finish their spawn they'll move out to where you were in bigger numbers.  Do you use a split shot rig with a cricket or chunk of worm? In my experience bugs work better than worms.  

Yep, go drop shotting for bass with night crawlers on the gravel points and after catching a few bass, the gills show up and you can get all you want .

[Devan S.]

12 hours ago, top_dollar said:

You were doing the right thing. They will be on the gravel run outs soon, but it may need to get hotter.  They are all spread out right now still.  Once they all finish their spawn they'll move out to where you were in bigger numbers.  Do you use a split shot rig with a cricket or chunk of worm? In my experience bugs work better than worms.  

Generally I'm using drop shot rig for the deeper fishing. I put a snap on the end of my line in case I want to add or subtract weight purely a feel thing. Sometimes I'll run double rigs with a hook up 12" and then another maybe 16-20". I find their kind of like kentucky's in that if you can get one fired up and hooked usually I can get another fired up enough to try and steal the one above him. The only problem is that ends up in lots of hooks and fish flopping around.

Mocarp is right crickets/bugs are killer.....but I find using worms and baitholder hooks better for me. Less stolen bait from smaller fish. I just haven't found a good way to keep a cricket stuck on the way a worm does when threaded on a hook. Usually if the bite is good I can go through a few fish before needing to re-bait.

[wily]

Blah blah blah...best way to catch blue gills is shallow on a fly rod.  Catching blue gills at 30 feet sounds like a dud...good luck

[wily]

We were catching them on inside of weedlind last week...he’ll of a lot more fun than 30 foot deep