Thread: Blue Gill/Panfish Rigs

your rods n reels would be perfect for panfish!

Don't forget to try a keystone minnow. Deadly on gills and crappie.

Originally Posted by droptine

You could carolina rig it. I like to put my lead at the end of my mainline and the hook up from the lead about 16".

X2 weight on bottom works best for me.. you can cover a lot of water with that rig.. I usualy put 2 hooks spaced 12-18 apart and the weight about 12-18" below the botttom hook.. I'll put a cricket on one and a red wiggler on the other till they tell me what they want.

slider spinners are a great choice .

This may help some.

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/main-...beginners.html

I would use small cranks like strike king bitsy minnows, or road runner heads with curly tailed panfish assassin soft plastics. Even though I don't know that area those are my go to techniques.

All I've ever used(besides the occasional beetle spin by Bess)is a 6ft ugly stick,ultra light fluger spinning reel/4lb test of course.No weight,no bobber,just a night crawler(hooked like plastics,on small bait holder)or cricket. Actually casts pretty good too.Only draw back is that you've really got to pay attention,or the gill swallows the hook down.Even catch the occasional Crappie like this also.

Lots of good responses here. Ill just think out loud for a minute...

Some things about bluegill are important to know, before any bait selection is made. Bluegill are primarily sight feeders and their normal forage foods are small invertebrates like snails, grubs, nymphs, insects and so on.
Their mouths are small, too, when compared to other favored sport fish, so the foods that can get in them must also be.
Finally, they are not "chasers," meaning they don't run their food like other predatory fish. They will take small fish and fry, and they are cannibalistic in this regard - they will eat their own young. But they tend to "blast and stun" their food; they smash it hard from ambush to stun it, and then come around again to grab it up.
Their normal 'modus operandi' is to hover around structure, sheltered areas and weedy bottoms, nosing around for their foods.

Hooks in the 8-12 size range are standard for them. Long shanks are favored to prevent hook swallowing. Baits and lures in the 1" range are the common stuff for panfish. Also, because they don't chase after their food, slow presentations are important. The way to fish for bluegill is to fish slow - and then to slow down. Tuning your lures and their presentations to accommodate this will pay dividends.
So what lures are we talking about?

The traditional artificial for bluegill is the small jig, with maribou or feather trailer. In fact, if one looks at the top lures of all times, the jig is usually near the top. Jig head weights in the 1/16-1/64 size are typical for bluegill. More modern innovations include the addition of spinners to the jig, like Blakemore's 'Roadrunner' or Charlie Brewer 'Bees'.
Soft plastic twister tails, tube skirts and other "wigglers" round out the newer additions. "Tipping" the jig with small bait bits, like worm or maggots, is also favored and the new fake food baits like Berkleys "Gulp!" is gaining ground. Typical colors seen on panfish jigs are black, white, yellow, chartreuse, red and green.
It is also known that feeding bluegill will hit almost anything in the water, including a bare gold hook! Everything from hot dogs to bits of bread dough are known to take them when they are feeding actively. So just using a teensy jig and poking it around wherever brim can be found usually results in hits and hookups.

Wire spinner baits are also mentioned often, "Beetle Spins" being the most popular. Fish-N-Supply has their "Fish-N-Spin," which is basically a Beetle Spin with willow leaf blade and shortened bail. Ive never had a lot of success with these, but in looking back, I find I have usually had these too big. The very smallest, 1/32 oz sizes are what you want.
Inline wire spinners are also good for panfish. The Mepps and Blue Fox family of spinner baits are what I'm talking about here. But any "trout spinner" should do as well, like the original Colorado or Indiana in-line. Also seen are hook spinner rigs, with a spinner blade on a mono leader above the hook - just a blade with a few beads between itself and the hook.

Hard baits, or "crankbaits" also produce, especially the bigger bull bluegills. These larger fish are the only ones that can effectively feed on small minnows and other fish fry, so using these lures pre-selects in favor of bigger fish. You get less action, but the fish you catch are bigger. So once oyuve started feeding the "pee-poppers," pull out a rig with a teensie crankbait and fish it deep, around the fringe of the action. You may also hook up with other fish like crappie and bass, when using these.
Favorites here are the smallest Rapala's (#3), Yo-Zuri "Snap Beans" and other micro-sized minnow mimics. Also worth mentioning are the Luhr-Jensen "Flatfish" and the crawfish mimics. Here again smaller is better. The rule of thumb here is simple: If you think a particular crankbait is small, it isn't small enough. Keep looking.

Next are spoons. These are some of the most versatile artificial baits of all and I prefer them after jigs. "Daredevle's" rarely fail to produce, and other choices are the 1/8-1/16 sized Little Cleo's, Sidewinder, K.O. Wobblers, and so on. The 'Johnson Minnow' weedless spoon is one of my favorites. It will sound redundant, but you have to select spoons that can be run slowly around weed lines, cover and structure. Then use "jerk and flutter" retrieves. Bluegill usually hit these on the fall. It can be helpful to tip the hook with a trailer of feather, bright yarn, worm bits, or micro sized soft plastics.
Something else worth trying are ice jigs and ice fishing flutter spoons. These were once seen only in the frozen north, but panfish everywhere respond to them - today, we call them "micro spoons" and are seeing many variations on the theme. In their basic form, they are just a common Colorado, Indiana or Willow Leaf spinner blade with a hook soldered or otherwise attached to them. In fact, a mess of different ones in your tackle box are worth having, or you can make your own this way.

And we don't want to forget the fly fisherman here. Bluegill take to flies readily and almost any forage food can be duplicated effectively with a fly, In fact, when the brim are feeding lightly and being otherwise fussy, a fly may be the best way to turn them on. And you dont have to be a rabid fly fisherman, either - spinner men can use flies too.
Tie the fly on the lightest line, then "trail" it behind a cigar bobber or casting float. Work this around weed beds and other structure with a "jerk-pull and wait" retrieve, so the fly comes along behind, zipping and hovering in the water. The "waiting" is the better part of this retireve, by the way... that's when the bluegill usually nail it.
This was my brother in laws favorite technique for years and I've seen him kill Florida bluegill this way.

When it comes to natural baits, the traditional and most loved baits are crickets, worms and grubs, in that order. These are fished "free flying," i.e. without weight, when the fish are shallow, or add a small amount of split shot if a bit of depth is needed. But I think it is safe to say that they are mostly fished beneath a bobber of some kind.
An old idea that is seeing a resurgence is the use of a "slip float." This is a bobber which allows you to suspend the bait at any depth you choose from 4 to 40 ft, and makes for some easy casting. Older fixed and clip-on bobbers only allow you to have about 6 feet of line beneath them - and the dangling fixed hook lead can be a pain to cast. The slip float cures these problems. So wherever the fish are holding, deep or shallow, these "slippers" allow a bobber to place the bait right in front of the fish.

Alright, I've rambled here. I admit, bluegill are my favorite game fish. I hope I've added to the discussion somewhat. Thanks.