Bluegill guys

[DLD24]

I found a lake that looks great for big bluegills and also a guy from work said there's a lot of 1lbers in it....its 130 acres and it says the max depth is 7.5ft,but the guy at work said hes found 12ft...It says it's clear with mostly a mucky bottom...Where would you guys start looking for the gills...I don't fish gills much...Would you guys try and find the holes or try around shoreline areas?? Thanks for any help

[Moon Lake Refuge]

15 minutes ago, DLD24 said:

I found a lake that looks great for big bluegills and also a guy from work said there's a lot of 1lbers in it....its 130 acres and it says the max depth is 7.5ft,but the guy at work said hes found 12ft...It says it's clear with mostly a mucky bottom...Where would you guys start looking for the gills...I don't fish gills much...Would you guys try and find the holes or try around shoreline areas?? Thanks for any help

Without knowing the lake much, we fish a lake at the cabin and usually do pretty well picking them up on the last 10 feet or so on the edge of the weed line.  Shallow lake like that though may have some weeds throughout or nowhere though.  Changes in the lake bottom are usually where I try and start.

[kiowa]

I have fished a decent sized private pond that has huge bluegills in it for about 10 years now.  When I first hit it, which was also during my formative time ice fishing, I stuck to the shoreline structure in the arms and small bays of pond and did 'ok', pulling out the odd 12in bass and 10in+ bluegill from time to time (6-7ft depth). 

On one really slow day I went out to the dam part of the pond and worked my way into the "middle" of the main body of the pond (no visible structure).  I found a trough that went parallel the dam shoreline that was 10 to 14ft deep, and that's where the fish were hiding during the winter.  Last Sunday I picked up a 13.5 inch crappie, lost another, and caught 2 ten inch BG and sorted through a bunch of 8 to 9 inchers throwing most back.  So my advice to you is to find the deepest pockets in the lake and hit those.  The deep areas seem to, at least for this pond, hold the schooled fish and maybe it will be true for your lake too.  Make sure you have plenty of waxies because you'll burn through them if the fish are active! Good luck

[rundrave]

hey kiowa, if your fishing said lake and keep pulling in those bass when your searching for gills do you simply move or will the gills frequent the same areas as the bass?

[kiowa]

rundrave,

I will catch the odd bass when I have found the gills, but in my experience the bass seem to hang near the structure (shore and downed trees)  and don't mix much with the schooled pan fish which seem to be drawn to the changes in depth in otherwise structure-less areas. 

[DLD24]

Well we only managed one, but it was a monster10.75"... 7.5ft was the deepest we could find

[th64]

If I was fishing that shallow lake I would cut a loy of holes and bring my camera. A flasher does not cover much water when you have less than 10' between you and the bottom-but in a clear shallow lake the camera is a big help. Good luck.

[kiowa]

DLD24, nice fish.  I'm betting there are some big schools in that lake so take Th64's advice to find them.

If you do find yourself on some 'gills the following tips might help you get a few more bites if the fish are finicky. My go-to lure for bluegills is a small tear drop that glows (usually green) tipped with a waxy.  In my experience BG like a more vertical presentation instead of a horizontal one.  Also, since BG have such small mouths I tend to us the smallest waxies that I can find in the tub AND this is very important, hook them so that none of the hook tip is exposed.  I like to place it through the body and have the hook tip just under the head of the worm.  Sometimes gills 'taste' a potential meal by partially inhaling it into their mouths, if they detect the hard barb they usually spit it.

If the fish are hungry no worries, they'll inhale it no matter what.

[monstermoose78]

I would try plastics it tends to keep the smaller gills away and the big ones will eat them with out an issue.