Thread: Bedding blue gill and shellcracker artificial baits?

Originally Posted by johndeere5045

I was wondering what type baits would work on bedding fish?

All of them.

I'm not trying to be a smart aleck. Anything works on bedding fish.

What db4d said

I love a Fly rod with a popping bug.

Get you some key stone minnows at Walmart. Superglue it to the jig head it will last a while I like to pick through them and find the ones with the orangest belly seam to work best if you don't superglue them the want last long. Fish them under a float also if you can find squirrel tail jigs the shell cracker like those have also caught crackers on trout magnets .just my

Awesome info. Thanks. I've just always been worm and cricket man. This will b something new to try when the time and water get rigjt.

I cast and slow swim a minnow imitation through the bed with a nibble on it. It will get a reaction bite because the fish always have to fend off small fish from stealing their eggs.

My wife and I were fishing a bluegill /shellcracker bed on Kentucky Lake one time.We were tucked back in a shallow pocket behind a peninsula. We were using a Lucky strike black comet swimming minnow on a 1/6 oz plain lead head and chartreuse nibble. As people were fishing down the bank they would come up on us setting it that pocket. We were pulling them out on every cast. Three different boats stopped and tried to fish the edges of it without just throwing right on top of us. They could not get a bite. Two had crickets.

I grew up fishing for bedded fish in shallow clear water.Sometimes the fish will not bite except in reaction to a predator fish trying too steal the eggs. It depends on what stage of the bedding process they are in and conditions. I have spent many a day in a tree limb hanging out over a bluegill bed trying to get bedded bluegill to bite. It's a unique perspective .

I have experienced the same as doggone. I fish Trout Magnets exclusively for Gills...but I got to tell you, anything you throw in that bed during spawn they are likely to hit it....but...having said that....you will on occasion when you find a bed of Gills....but it happens way more with shell crackers.....there will be a day or maybe two, three....when they will not hit a thing. This is quite common with shell cracker but have only noticed it a few times over many years fishing for Gills. I find beds of shell cracker every year that they are in that mood and they may stay that way for as much as 3 days. I am not even sure if there is a name for this phenomenon but it happens. I have gone to these shell cracker beds every day for 3 days in a row and get nothing. If you throw a cricket....dead minnow.....worm....in the bed after maybe 20 minutes or so they will pick it up and move it out of the bed. It can be frustrating when you find them like this. What I do when I find them like this is continue to go back to the bed everyday until they are gone. Then I look for them in deeper water close by and usually find them more than willing to eat anything I throw their way.

Regards

I have experienced the same thing went with a friend of mine about 5 yrs ago I have always said that if they want hit a cricket or worm they just not their until that day.my friend was using a yellow twister tail and was hammering them I was using worms and crickets only catching one fish.then I gave into the plastics and it was on I still enjoy fishing live bait but now I also carry a big box of plastics eveytime I go.