Thread: Locating bream beds

same here , syg, where I'm at. too many gills in a lot of places. catching them is not a big challenge. takes one day to learn. but its a great way to have fun and great eating to. not let my grandson fish a bed? get real. h

Originally Posted by Southern Young Gun

... if you fish a bed you less of a fisherman.

I don't feel that way. I've fished beds before, and I'll do it again. I just don't rely on it.

Originally Posted by Southern Young Gun

Now why would you want to pass this up?

I wouldn't pass it up. My point is that most people pass up the excellent fishing before and after the spawn. Some of my absolute best bluegill days have been in Nov/Dec/Jan.

Originally Posted by deathb4disco

Some of my absolute best bluegill days have been in Nov/Dec/Jan.

THIS - is what I want to learn...I catch a couple of BIG gills from time when I fish for crappie in the winter months, but I wanna learn how to go after them specifically. I also want to figure out how/where to grab the bigguns in the heat of summer...I love stump-knockin; and all, but we have a few lakes here that are famed for breedin' dinner plate-sized gills...I want somma dat!
sbc

I understand what you mean by dont rely on the beds to catch gills but the only time I really gill fish anymore is in the heat of the summer when im not catchin as many crappie, and this year i prob wont even go after em at all b/c im doing a rehaul on my boat this summer, paint, boards, carpet, wires, etc. Last year i fished for gills during July and August and they were still bedding. They bed from like March/April thru August down here so its not too hard to get on em if you go to the right lakes.

before the side-imaging days - i would use my black widow spider rig. i would bait up 6 poles with crickets, redworms, and grubs, then troll the open water just outside the banks at a pretty good clip. after i would locate a bed - i would mark it - and then find a couple more. this is espcially effective for shellcrackers.

Like everyone has said. Look for potholes bout a foot across all in a group and when they are bedding, see if you can smell them out. Smells kinda like musty honeysuckle. Once you get a whiff of the smell, walk upwind and you'll find em. I do love crappie fishing BUT my favorite way of fishing is with a flyrod on a big ole bluegill bed. NOTHING like it

Originally Posted by DonDon

... my favorite way of fishing is with a flyrod on a big ole bluegill bed. NOTHING like it

Thumbs Up

ccm, they say pictures are worth a thousand words, I hope these pics of bream beds will show you what you're looking for. I think some of the best fun you can have is fishing a Bream bed with a 3wt Fly Rod I just keep a few to eat and release the rest.