Chasing bluegill in SW MO

[ICI]

20 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

My spot isn't in SWMO but it does have lots of big gills.  The thing I'd like to figure out is how to stay on the big ones.  Early in the Spring for about 3 weeks I catch lots of big ones, but after that the big bulls just disappear.....and it's nothing but 7-8 inchers from that point until next Spring.    

I'd love to be able to figure out the why/where/and how.  

I agree, they are fewer and far between now.    I’m no expert.  But I go deeper, no top water and really even any bobber set ups.  Almost all dropshot or mini swimbait.     unlike the spring where you’re looking for beds, I am looking for places where they can suspend 15-25' but stay within 30ft of structure.   Sometimes I’ll run the coves and luck into a couple but if I’m being picked apart by the small ones or pesky green sunfish, I just move on.   At least at table rock, if you're catching long ear and green sunfish, there are no bluegill around.  They don’t seem to hang together that often, happens but not much.  Now, this is if I’m on my boat in the lake of course.   Totally different if I go smaller high pressure, like valley water or public ponds.   The best thing I can say about really high-pressure spots is "fall rate".   You can stand and watch your jig, with worm all tasty and they'll look it over, maybe one or two will test it.  For sure the artificial stuff gets ignored.   But if you take that worm, or crappie bite and throw it in by itself, it’s on, they nail it.   So, you have to rig something that falls in the water at a natural pace.  weightless in other words.   I do a lot of weighted bobber with weightless hooks for these places.   That and spider like top water.  You can find these in the fly section and then just put on with a weighted bobber.   This works for a lot of the overgrown places, especially with water down in the small lakes/ponds.  They congregate in the small open spots in the moss or vegetation away from open waters in the ponds, and nail the top water stuff.      not sure any of that helps.

[MoCarp]

6 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

My spot isn't in SWMO but it does have lots of big gills.  The thing I'd like to figure out is how to stay on the big ones.  Early in the Spring for about 3 weeks I catch lots of big ones, but after that the big bulls just disappear.....and it's nothing but 7-8 inchers from that point until next Spring.    

I'd love to be able to figure out the why/where/and how.  

They go deep real deep...

[fishinwrench]

23 minutes ago, MoCarp said:

They go deep real deep...

Not in my pond they don't.  Visibility on the clearest day is less than a foot. I can't imagine that any big bluegills are just sitting down in the deep dark mud.