BlueGill Bonanza...

[Jim Hudson]

Well today found myself and other FM user Tom (aka Cheffrey) on a local inland water in search of some bull gills...

Had quite the time with Tom, where we got into some pretty good fishing.... with size of fish too boot.. At times each of our flashers would show marks from the bottom to nearly 10 feet off bottom... Amongst all these marks, were some of the biggest, fattest, and prettiest BlueGills I have ever had the chance to lay my hands on... Not just one or two of these 10 inch plus fish, but quite a few.... Today was probably one of the best days I have had on the ice for big blues... And hopefully not the last..

Majority of my fish came on a white size 10 Arnolds Fairy Jig and a size 10 Techni Glo Red Fat Boy. Meat was needed for the most part, where waxies and or spikes did the trick... The bite lasted for a good while, but then screamed to a halt, where we had to coax the remaining fish to bite... But during this downtime is when I caught my largest fish of the day... This fished taped out at 10.75... Quite the fish... We also put a 10.5 through the hole for the biggest fish of the day...

Here are a few pictures from today...

[Quickstrike]

nice work guys, kinda makes me wish I would have driven back up north to do some fishin today!

[Cooter]

Thanks for rubbin it in with all those pics ya big jerk Jim!! Seriously, looks like you guys had one heck of day on the ice - congrats to both of you. Gills like that are few and far between these days....so where were you fishin? Let me guess, in Wisconsin eh?

[Wade Joseph]

SWEEET!

[Tom Linderholm]

Wow what a day! Big thanks to Jim for sharing that gem with me. After my first few small 4-7" fish I thought it might take a little work to get to the big ones.

Boy was I wrong, moved out another 10'and walla! Hogzilla time. You would of thought you were catching Crappies stuck in a Gill body the way the fish were acting today with the suspension, the finicky moves, and the pure explosion on the graph.

Gonna have a good night sleeping with thoughts of 40+ gills pulled through the ice today!!!!

[outdoor ran]

Them are some dandys for sure. Breaking ten inches in Wi isn't easy. Its fun catching them that size. Makes me wonder if you guys found my bull gill lake

[wyldewal]

Boy that makes me want to get out ice fishing. Dandy gills. sounds tasty.

[Jim Hudson]

Thanks guys... Definately was a stellar day...

Randy... Am not sure if it was your lake or not.. Let me know what lake it is.. And I will tell you yes or no.. Just kidding

Also, just a side note on what Randy had mentioned... about breaking the 10 inch mark... Yup, it is quite tough for the most part... And for myself.. Selective harvest on these lakes or even total C&R on some of the really small lakes is the way to go to maintain a healthy big fish fishery in my mind..... Too many times we hear about a good lake going down hill... mainly because of overharvest... As long as we protect these big fish producers, we shall still have the shot at those big 10 inch gills!!!

[Northlander]

Randy no but close.