Thread: Bream question

Originally Posted by Dollfly

This is a very interesting thread. I was watching Center Hill close until a couple weeks ago. Had to stop for a while due to sickness in family and really felt down about missing the May full moon, but according to what I'm reading here maybe I should still be checking. Family comes first I can fish anytime. Thanks to all that posted.

I fished Center Hill this past Friday......beds all over the place. Many of them empty but the ones that had fish on them were all medium to small Gills. After catching about 140 fish at or around the 7 inch mark I went out into deeper water and caught 3 really good ones but I had already been up there 5 hours and it got hot. I will give it another shot when and if the wind settles down.

Regards

Very interesting read here !
I have been keeping up with it only last couple years on Guntersville Lake and some on Nickajack ! This year I started catching bedding fish on April 10th which was very surprising because of the colder temps I tried keeping up with them every few days up until my last trip May 20th ,several of the real cool days the bigger fish would pull out a little deeper ! Finding a lot of shell cracker and blue gill close to each other this year. some of my recent finds in some bedding areas have only had smaller fish on them thinking that the bigger ones may have went earlier I will continue to check on some of the bedding areas in various places because I have found them bedding as late as end of June ! I have heard that they spawn all summer but I hadn’t ever found them past June but I do have some bedding areas marked in 6-8 fow that I’m going to watch closer this year.

Originally Posted by trypman1

Water temp is what starts the bedding/spawn, in my book. And then they get into a cycle. My 2cts.

Agree with this 100%. We had a long wet, cool spring this year. Fish were on beds 3 weeks later this year than last.

Originally Posted by trypman1

Water temp is what starts the bedding/spawn, in my book. And then they get into a cycle. My 2cts.

Yeah,that makes more sense than the moon phase.And maybe the water temp triggers the female to do something similar to Ovulation .

I fish LA/MS a great deal for sunfish and over the years I've determined that trying to catch bream on beds is not a perfect science. It's predictable and will get you within a 2 week time period if no abnormalities happen like flooding, drought, tropical storms, etc...I have not found that new and full moon phases play a major impact as much as water temperature.

I don't know how much the moon has to do with the spawn, but I do think it influences it. In April and May perhaps they spawn when the water conditions allow since there is so much variation in temperature, clarity, and water levels in the spring. But I have reliably caught fish bedding around the full moon in June each of the past 3 years. Just hit it randomly a few years back and have intentionally targeted the June full moon since whenever I can. Never used to fish around beds in June because I believed the spawn was long over by then.

Having caught so many over the years on beds in late April and through May regardless of the moon phase I think the early spawn may be less connected to the moon phase. May just be me trying to justify my experience though, since in recent years I'm not on the water all that much due to the high level of church and school activities the kids are involved in during this time of year.

Here's a nice article from infisherman on bluegill science. I like the sections on their vision and taste reception. Science Reveals Bluegill Secrets - In-Fisherman


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