Crawlers - found out they catch bass

[Quillback]

Went today armed with a couple dozen redworms and a dozen crawlers, the plan was to catch some gills for the frying pan.  I failed miserably when it came to gill catching, caught 3 total.

Did some bass fishing off and on, that wasn't going to well either, caught a couple on the drop shot, but things were really slow.

Decided  I needed to get rid of the crawlers so I put one on a drop shot, threw it up in the place that has been a consistent bass producing spot for me the last month or so, and caught a spotted bass as soon as that crawler touched bottom.  Went through that dozen pretty quickly, it was literally a spot per cast.  Nothing overly big, but lots of fun on the light gill rod.  Once I ran out of crawlers, my catching was done.

I'd fished that spot with plastic worms and jigs and if that was all I had done, I would said no bass were there, but they were there and they were all over those crawlers.  

The fish were in 5 - 15 FOW in a little cut on a gravel bank,

Biggest fish was a cat that ate a drop shot Finesse Worm.

I was done at 0945, hot, no wind, pleasure boats were emerging.

WT 84.

 

[Dutch]

Maybe you needed some crickets.

 

[fshndoug]

How deep did you fish for the Gills?

[Quillback]

5 minutes ago, fshndoug said:

How deep did you fish for the Gills?

Anywhere from 5 to 30 feet.  The few that I caught were in about 10 FOW.

[Quillback]

12 minutes ago, Dutch said:

Maybe you needed some crickets.

 

Could be worth a shot.  

[Terrierman]

Crickets = bluegills.  Little cricket hook, one split shot about a foot above the hook, 12 to 15 feet around bridge pilings in the shade.  Then you can have a fish fry.

[Hawg]

That’s a good report 👍

[fshndoug]

I fished for bluegill during the summer on a local lake for 20 years with crickets and #4 test with a split shot in 15-20 feet of water. I never caught a big gill in less than 12-15 foot of water. If small gills would get to the bait on the fall I would add a little more weight. I never could figure out why I never caught them deeper until I got a locater that would show that 20 feet was about where the thermocline was located during the summer. I know gills suspend but you might have better luck fishing on the bottom in 20-35 feet of water on the rock. FYI gills love a little piece of peeled crawfish.

[MoCarp]

Bluff banks..find a blow down then the better gills suspend about 25 foot out from the brush  swim a small Jig tipped with a bit of worm…..early they can be on the surface, as the sun comes up they drop down….bigger fish run deeper….in a pinch slip bobbers and wax worms….put them bull bream on ice they will be better table fare 

[Terrierman]

13 hours ago, MoCarp said:

Bluff banks..find a blow down then the better gills suspend about 25 foot out from the brush  swim a small Jig tipped with a bit of worm…..early they can be on the surface, as the sun comes up they drop down….bigger fish run deeper….in a pinch slip bobbers and wax worms….put them bull bream on ice they will be better table fare 

Whenever I'm keeping fish to eat, they go straight into a cooler full of ice as soon as they come off the hook.