Good job again
Bluegill fishing public waters in Tennessee doesn't get much better than Dale Hollow Gills. A friend and I together boated around 100 Gills all between 8-9 inches. The girth and shoulders on these fish are truly outstanding. Most fish caught on a Bison colored Trout Magnet with a few caught on white, and a few caught on a Midnight Blue Dancer. The jig head for the Trout Magnet bodies was a 3/32 ounce with a #6 hook. The jig head used on the Dancer was a Micro Fry white 1/16 ounce head. My buddy Larry was using SOS 4# test Ice Blue crappie line. I was using SOS 2# test. Larry also had two nice Smallies caught on a Bison colored Trout Magnet.....he had a great battle with those. The Gills fought hard.....once getting over the deeper water at the boat heading straight down....drags were screaming today. The pic of the warmouth is in there because I thought it was really colored up well in that clear water. We used a net on all the Gills....they were that heavy. Both of us using UL rods...best not to deadlift a heavy fish with JDM rods with tips only 9/10 of a mm in diameter. It was an absolute blast catching these fish. You had to keep the Magnet on, or almost on the bottom......we were catching these fish in 7-10 feet of water. They are not on bed...marked a lot of beds but nothing on them.....water temps were only 68 degrees with a few spots hitting 69 degrees. We would pull into a hollow.....then into the coves, and fish each pocket.....pulling 5 or 6 fish off of that pocket and moving to the next. Had two shellcracker. We caught fish for a solid 5 hours and were still catching when we both decided it best to make that drive back home. I am having the best spring fishing....ever. The new boat along with Trout Magnet...JDM rods.....makes for a deadly combination. I have been waiting for years to get on the Gills at Dale Hollow. I will continue to fish up there until the bite is over or school is out, and the lake really gets crowded. Did my best to stay away from Smallies up there today focusing on Gills. All fish released for another day. Life is very good!
Regards
Good job again
Nice fish
Moderator of Beginners n Mentoring forum
Takeum Jigs
Nice looking fish. Great fish. Congrats on a good spring of fishing.
nice catch , congrats .
That is a great looking mess of fish.
Boh
USAF, Retired (1968 - 1992)
1st SOW Air Commando
Nice fish and a big shout out for finding that pattern. Trying to figure out the red ear bite on the Twin lakes in Ky. when they are not on the bed but staging up. I bet that rod was working hard. Been looking at them. Also thinking about leaving the night crawlers home!! I met the owner of Trout Magnet a few years ago and he is a super feller.
Life is Good !
2018 Kentucky & Tennessee Crappie Masters State Champs!
sure enough looks like a fun time to me ....and them are some dandy gills without a doubt ......
personally though i love them there warmouth .....i love that smallie tiger coloration and that attitude they have ..
nice photos and read
sum kawl me tha outlaw ketchn whalesDRFISHDUCK LIKED above post
I sure wish I could find that size bluegill on Barkley. Those are some really stout bluegill. Dale Hollow has tremendous potential in the panfish department.
You are killing me with all the great pictures. To think I spend two summers at Cordell Hull and never went to Dale Hollow is making me ill. Also learned from the previous post that a Rock Bass and a Warmouth are two different species. Saw the one you posted had the 3 spines on the anal fin where the Rock Bass has 6 or 7.
Learn something new everyday on here. Keep the reports coming.
Mark 1:17 ...I will make you fishers of men