Thread: Bluegill/redear guide

For $35 less than what a well-known Kentucky Lake crappie guide charges per day, you can fish world-class private ponds with me. I guide on several phosphate pits that were mined by TVA in the 1930's and '40's and that I now manage intensively for trophy bluegill; in the three years I've been offering trips on these ponds, every party that has fished with me has caught at least one bluegill 10" or better, and every party but one has caught at least one bluegill 11" or better. And the party that didn't catch an 11" caught this:



Here are a few more examples of what you would catch in a day's fishing:

I forgot to mention I'm only seventy miles from Kentucky Lake. My best pond now has several bluegill over two pounds in it, and I saw one in September - got a very good look at it at the surface - that would've gone three pounds if it weighed an ounce.

^^^^^^THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TNpondmanager I'm interested in learning more. We have a guy in Illinois that manages ponds, and does fishing trips as well. I believe his name in Nate Herman. Do you have a website?

I am familiar with Nate - he has grown some big bluegill up that way for sure. I'm sure if he lived where I do he would have put someone on a three-pound bluegill by now. One major advantage I have in this area is being able to stock coppernose bluegill, which are a subspecies of bluegill native to Florida; they're basically the bluegill equivalent of Florida-strain largemouth, i.e. a substrain native to Florida that grows much larger on average than northern-strain bluegill. They don't do well in cold climates, but do fantastically here. Two of the four biggest ones I posted photos of above are coppernose. And, there's a high probability that the giant I saw in September was a coppernose. I do have a website, ***************. I'm having a new website built that if I understand my web designer correctly, will be up within days; but the present one has info on my guide service as well (it just doesn't have a lot of the big fish photos that the new one will). Feel free to send me an e-mail here or directly through my website, or you can call me via the number listed on the site.

the coppernose get larger than the red ear ?

Originally Posted by newbe2

I'm looking for advise on a guide to hire at Kentucky Lake. I have taken my Father on some guided crappie trips the last 5 years, but would like to mix it up this year. I have heard from Illinois crappie guides Kentucky Lake offers awesome Bluegill/Redear fishing. Can anyone offer any suggestions?

Are you looking for catch and release or looking to take a mess home ? I have a buddy that guides on Ky lake that will fill a cooler with 8 and 9" gills and redears, clean and pack them up for the trip home too. His name is Brad Weakly. You can find his website on the Ky lakes guide listing on Kentucky Vacations at Kentucky Lake & Lake Barkley

Eagle, the redear get pretty big - I saw a fish back in June that, unlike the bluegill I saw in September, I didn't get a good look at; I just saw it spook away from the boat as I was spraying for duckweed...So I don't know whether it was a bluegill, redear, largemouth, or tiger muskie (the fourth species present in that one-acre pond - there are two of them, stocked December 2009 at 12"). But what I saw of that fish looked like it was twelve inches from its back to its stomach...I fully understand if people don't believe that. But assuming my eyes were not playing tricks on me, it was a very big fish, whatever species it was. It seems unlikely that it was a largemouth just because they tend to be much more streamlined than bluegill, and even a ten-pounder would not have that kind of distance from its back to its stomach; and muskie of course are even more streamlined than largemouth. From what I saw of the fish's side, I didn't see a lateral stripe, which makes it less likely it was a bass. The biggest bluegill I posted a photo of above, the northern-strain that's a little over 11" without its tail pinched, was caught when I went back to the pond about a week later to try to get that fish on the hook. Obviously I didn't catch it. I'm hoping a client hooks it at some point this year.