Bluegill Fishing Tips: How to Catch Bluegill All Day Long

Bluegill season is approaching, when the scrappy little fish are building and tending spawning beds in the shallows. The spawn brings together large numbers of bluegills, making them easy to find and catch. At other times bluegill are scattered all over the place and an angler is lucky if he can find even a few. During the spawn, which in this area usually begins in mid-May and often lasts through June, anglers catch probably 90 percent of the bluegill they catch all year. In good times on lakes with large bluegill populations, it is common to catch 30 to 50 fish a day.

Bluegill are bigger in some lakes than they are in others. In good bluegill lakes, a significant percentage of the adult bluegill weigh 6-8 ounces. Huge ones weigh 12 ounces. A bluegill that weighs a pound or more is a fish of a lifetime, the equivalent of catching a 9-pound or bigger largemouth bass.

Creating a feeding frenzy is one of the tricks of advanced bluegill fishing. It works this way: If anglers have located a pocket holding a number of bluegill, they try to arouse the competitive spirit of the fish by throwing baits repeatedly and rapidly into the same spot. The bluegill literally get excited, probably believing some kind of insect hatch is taking place.

A crowd gathers in response, with bluegill racing each other to take the bait. This method works best when the bluegill are fairly deep and when the anglers have been careful to stand off a ways and not do anything to spook the fish.

Not spooking is another trick in bluegill fishing. Many anglers, operating in the belief that all bluegill are stupid, fail to avoid scaring the fish. That's why they catch mostly small fish, which are young and stupid.

Standing up and banging around in the boat is a no-no. And people fishing from the bank should never walk directly up to the bedding area. They stand back, getting no closer than casting distance to the fish.