6/20 bring on the bluegill!

[Fish24/7]

Launched at 7am stayed till 11.   They are grouped up and near the surface so sight fishing is a great way to catch em now. Couldnt begin to count how many gills I saw and caught.  Hundreds. I was throwing several baits all of them producing.  Rebel grasshopper,  rooster tail, homemade  micro ice jigs and Berkley power baits. All you have to do is show them something to eat  and they grab it.  Was catching them 2 at a time on a double ice jig rig. The small ones outnumber the big ones of course  but all of them a blast to catch on micro light gear and 2lb test.   I was catching about 25 or 30 small ones to every keeper. The bigger ones were just under the smaller fish or along the bank on logs. I pulled up against a log ,sat very still ,and just watched the water.  Within minute or 2 there were gills all around staring at me.  😄 I was fishing in the back of a cove that had a little creek channel. Man were they thick in there! Kept a dozen hump headed  thumpers to take home. Saw tons of baby bass too. 

 Spent the last 30 minutes bass fishing.  Found a group of standing trees in 2-4ft. Made a short cast into the tree shadows with a custom painted brown and orange gill pattern squarebill that I ground the bill down to make it a shallow diver . made 2 slow cranks with the handle and a bass at least 5lb with mouth open wide took a swipe at it but didn't eat it. I think she saw me.  Made about 2 more handle turns and another bass 3lb class just mouthed  the side of the bait ever so softly and turned away, another 2 cranks and a 2lber swam under it and bumped it with his mouth shut. One cast, 3 bites, no fish 😄. Made about a dozen more casts  to those trees from every angle possible also  I threw a worm a jig a spinnerbait and 3 other kinds of crankbaits around those trees, nothing.  So many gills around those bass were probably full of em! 

[Johnsfolly]

I love catching bluegill. Sounds like a great time! Congrats!

[Fish24/7]

Me too! I enjoy it just as much as chasing bass.  with  the micro light gear those  9-10" gills will give you a hell of a fight! Drag stripping and rod doubled over 😄It's really mind blowing to me how many there are in the lake now after all the high water years.  At times I'd see as many as 30to40 around the boat. Groups of about a dozen up cruising everywhere .

[jdmidwest]

Bluegill are about the only fish I fillet and eat.  If I get into a run of white bass, they will hit the cooler too.  Sometimes a stray catfish goes in too.

[fishinwrench]

1 hour ago, jdmidwest said:

Bluegill are about the only fish I fillet and eat. 

And what a PIA it is!  

I love eating bluegill, but I would rather carve a whistle out of a hickory stick than to fillet 15-20 of them.

[jdmidwest]

Kinda like peeling shrimp, shucking crawdads, or cracking crab legs. You have to do some work for the good stuff.

[Fish24/7]

My preference  is scale em,  gut em, heads off, rolled in corn meal and a super hot grease bath.  I like my perch tails extra crispy😄  and eat the meat right off the bone

[jdmidwest]

I eat a bunch of them as a kid like that.  But with the invention of the electric knife, no bone picking any more.