A New Outlook on Bluegill Fishing By Brian Waldman

"You've got to believe your electronics". That's what I was telling myself on a short after work trip to the lake this spring. I had been working a jig along a secondary ditch trying to find some post spawn bass grouped up, when I looked at my SI unit and saw what appeared to be bluegill beds. Thing was, I was out off the bank a good 150 feet or more, and not in any type area that you would associate with bluegill nesting.



Fortunately for me, I had a light spinning outfit on board, so I quickly picked it up and flipped a cast in the general area where the beds appeared to be. I let the small curlytail jig sink all the way to the bottom, then proceeded to slowly swim it along. It didn't make it far before it was intercepted by a ticked off bull bluegill. The graph doesn't lie.

Since that first eye-opening experience with the SI unit, I have made numerous others in late spring for nesting gills. It's good to revisit your roots, and reflect upon why or what got you "hooked" on fishing in the first place. For many, including myself, it probably stems back to trips as a kid. In my case, that was either fishing crawdad tails for perch on L. Michigan, or using minnows with a bobber and cane pole on the banks of the newly built Eagle Creek Res. back in the early 70's for crappie.



It doesn't always work out, but each year I like to grab some live bait and some floats and chase the panfish for a couple trips. Sometimes it's within the context of taking the nieces or nephews fishing, other times it's helping out at the State Fair Kid's Fishing Pond. But every so often it's just me wanting to do something different for a day. Thanks to SI, this happened a bit more frequently this year.

A typical day would often go like this: I'd stop by the bait shop and pick up a tube of crickets for the cricket cage. I then rigged up a 7' ML pole with 4# line, tied to a 1/32-oz. fluo. red jighead and fished under a Thill Mini Stealth float. After launching the boat, I headed out to a couple spots with bedding bluegill I found, set an anchor, then proceeded to drown some crickets, having a blast catching hand-sized and better bluegill from this area "in the middle of nowhere". There's still something inherently satisfying and even exhilarating about watching a float get pulled slowly under the water by an unseen fish below, at least to me, but that's not the only way to catch these feisty fellows. If the water is calm enough, a lightweight fly rod and sinking nymph can be an outright blast. A buddy and I did this with his custom built 0-weight flyrod this spring, and it was a real thrill. Another good option that I have found
is a small 1- or 2-inch curlytail grub fished on a 1/32nd or 1/16-oz. jighead and swam through the nests. This is also probably the fastest way to cover water searching for fish if you're on the trolling motor. Use 4# monofilament line, and a nice 6’ or 7’ L or ML outfit, and the 1500 Series size spinning reel of your choice.



Previous to me obtaining my SI unit, I never would have thought of looking in such a place for these nesters, and I can almost guarantee that nobody on this lake ever had either. Traditional sonar in 2D would likely never show such an area well enough to figure out what you were seeing, but thanks to side-imaging, technology now gives anglers the power to find such hidden spots. The caveat being that you need to respect the power and ability the units give you, and not clean out a whole nesting colony
of oversized gills. They truly are rare and special in most waters, and every single one I caught this year went back to the water after a powerful and rewarding fight.