Swim bait bluegill

[Quillback]

Been dragging Keitechs around on Loch Lomond here in Bella Vista for bass.  The bass are chasing shad mid-lake and I can usually pick a few up early in the AM.  Was getting a bluegill or two, but was I was using a 3.3 Keitech on a 1/4 oz head and that was a little too big for them.  Decided to go with a 2.8 on a 1/8 oz head today and put 8 nice gills in the boat which have been transformed into fillets in the freezer.  They are out in the middle of the lake, eating small shad just like the bass.  

[Greasy B]

Those are some very nice fish. 

[Dutch]

Good looking gills.  I’ve been catching green sunfish on Zeros while bass fishing, but none big enough for the knife.

[Johnsfolly]

Great looking bluegill @Quillback! Nice fat fish and bet that they were nice fillets! Sure that they put up a great fight as well.

[Quillback]

6 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

Great looking bluegill @Quillback! Nice fat fish and bet that they were nice fillets! Sure that they put up a great fight as well.

They are becoming my favorite for eating, a couple of weeks ago I fried some walleye and bluegills and I thought the bluegill was better than the walleye.  To each his own of course, but I think these bluegill are very tasty.  

[Johnsfolly]

25 minutes ago, Quillback said:

They are becoming my favorite for eating, a couple of weeks ago I fried some walleye and bluegills and I thought the bluegill was better than the walleye.  To each his own of course, but I think these bluegill are very tasty.  

I agree. Bluegill are my favorite fresh water fish to eat.

[Big Keene]

Nice fish

10" bluegill are worth going back and getting crickets or red wigglers for. an ultralight and jumbo bluegill is a hard to beat combo!!

top notch fillets as well!

win win

[Quillback]

4 hours ago, Big Keene said:

Nice fish

10" bluegill are worth going back and getting crickets or red wigglers for. an ultralight and jumbo bluegill is a hard to beat combo!!

top notch fillets as well!

win win

I went back today and caught another 4 good sized gills on the swimbait.  I now have plenty of fillets so will probably leave them alone for a while.  They are out chasing shad over 40-50 FOW, so I don't know if fishing worms will get them, but it is certainly a possibility.  I have thought about some really small swimbaits on little tungsten heads, Z-man makes some little 2 inch paddle tails that could be the ticket for these open water shad chasers.

The bass in this lake just moved into one of the coves and they are in there thick chasing shad, had a good late morning throwing the Keitech at them.  Had another 8 boats or so there with me, but could still get in there and get some.  Hard to ignore the bass and chase the gills when the bass get going on this shad bite.

[Dutch]

Good going again.  I probably caught 6-8 green sunfish again today on Zeros bass fishing.  Only one of them would have been anywhere close to filleting size.

[Terrierman]

On 8/20/2020 at 12:10 PM, Quillback said:

Been dragging Keitechs around on Loch Lomond here in Bella Vista for bass.  The bass are chasing shad mid-lake and I can usually pick a few up early in the AM.  Was getting a bluegill or two, but was I was using a 3.3 Keitech on a 1/4 oz head and that was a little too big for them.  Decided to go with a 2.8 on a 1/8 oz head today and put 8 nice gills in the boat which have been transformed into fillets in the freezer.  They are out in the middle of the lake, eating small shad just like the bass.  

Those are for sure big bluegills.  Actually my favorite eating fish.  By a skosh.