Thread: Need Help With the KY and Barkley Bluegill & Redear

Hey guys, I am a local of Ky and Barkley Lakes, grew up bank fishing catfish on both lakes and the rivers. I have now started chasing the pan fish. This is the first year that i have gone strictly after the gills and crackers. I have a side scan unit and i have spent some time scanning for beds. but i have only been able to find one small bedding area, fished it twice and caught maybe 20 decent bluegill, and the third time i fished it, nothing. After spending the last two fishing trips basically only scanning for beds, and finding nothing, i need some help. What type areas/banks should i be checking? 6'-4' deep? sheltered? buck brush? stake beds? sandy/rocky bottom? should i scan open water? I have gotten into the habit of not fishing an area unless i see beds, should i be blind casting jigs and drop shot crickets in decent looking areas even if I don't spot beds? not looking for anyone's honey hole, but just some friendly advice to help me target these feisty critters.

thanks!

Originally Posted by perchjerker108

jangle, spent last week looking for Bluegill at KY lake. It was tough. I found only about 5 spots in 4 days that had some Bluegill.( I checked out over 40 spots). Worked hard to get 40-50 decent Bluegill/day. I have a basic POS depth finder, so I could not see or find any beds without my polarized glasses. I found that when and if I found a 'bed'. The fish were not actively going after the bait. I had to cast, twitch the bait, wait 5 seconds, do it again and eventually get a 'small' bite. Then had to wait another 5-10 seconds to get them to basically pull the bait sideways a little, and then I could hook them. Very few aggressive bites. The depth I found most was in 3 feet of water. Had to fish on or near the bottom. Almost were male fish. I was fishing Johnathon creek back in the bays. Sometimes 40-50ft out from the buck bushes. I went into a bay and fan casted bait in various areas in the 3-4 ft water until I found a few. I did try some areas in the bays with deep water near the bank (7-8ft deep, 15-20ft from the bank) and fished 6-8 feet down. Found no beds but did find a few mostly female Bluegill with eggs and caught about 15 nice Black Crappie on dang Wax worms in the process over 4 days. Also caught several small cats (1-3lbs) in the deeper water on wax worms.

thanks for the reply! I have never tried sight fishing for them, i may try this next time out.