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That’s a real nice ‘Gill there, GLR.
Bob
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By the looks of your photo Slab, it already looks like you know how to catch crappie. It's NO different for bluegills, perch or sunfish. Of course #1 is to know the water you're fishing - depth, weeds, bottom types (hard/ soft), points, steep drops, docks, season, weather changes, etc. Areas change by the season and may differ year to year. Everything mentioned make for patterns that may be depended on. The larger the water, the more time needed to find fish.
All of the above mentioned lures are good ones but as for myself, I will always depend on light, unpainted ball head jigs and soft plastics - of which there are a million designs. Shape, action, size and color are always important but many combinations of them make it easy to not get locked in to any one or a few.
Big fish of any species will bite small lures as do small fish. The float & live bait is the slowest way to catch fish though productive at times and not large fish necessarily.
When it comes to rod & reel, light action spinning rods with smaller spincast or spinning reels do very well detecting strikes at long distances and setting the hook. My line preference is 6 or 8# test braid for casting long distance and better hooksets. This year I've probably counted (per a counter and photo log) over 700 fish and all because of the tackle used, subtle presentations (speed and type of retrieve) and tried & true lures.
A float with small soft plastic attached to a 1/32 or 1/24 oz jig is great when there is a slight chop on the water.
I wait until the float disappears while I'm fishing with another lure and then set the hook. Easy peasy. But jigs should be worked slowly all around the boat to find fish - especially groups of fish in an area.
I've shown hundreds of examples of fish and the lures that caught them on this site but here a few more:
https://i.imgur.com/SM5bOrV.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/4HbMiad.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/W03rCXs.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/yKS86QH.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/AIMrXrD.jpg
As you can see, bright unnatural colors do the trick in off color water.
Straight tail lures are my most used tail designs:
https://i.imgur.com/JeJvBhv.jpg?1
...as well as no tail:
https://i.imgur.com/SdW8103.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/g7Bfvo6.jpg
Curl tails do well in the murky color water shown as well as darker colors:
https://i.imgur.com/g8erebl.jpg
...not to mention the overhead spinner:
https://i.imgur.com/e07ZYf0.jpg
Ideas to try that I've caught many fish and fish species over the years.
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1 Attachment(s)
With the Z-man TRD on a Nedhead.
Attachment 388625
Nah, not really. This guy thumped this bass rig yesterday. My fav is earth worms or 1" Gulp minnows on a drop-shot or on a bobber.
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1 Attachment(s)
I fish on the bottom with split shot and #6-8 hook. Attachment 388626
Attachment 388627
Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app
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Wow! Thanks for the responses everyone! I appreciate your time.
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I guess I need to try one of those magnets because I have never caught a big bluegill---yet.
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I rarely use Crappie or Trout Magnets right from the package but attach the tails to different bodies such as this Trout Magnet tail added to a larger body:
https://i.imgur.com/gqADyxa.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/9qVnD79.jpg?1https://i.imgur.com/ojem9Qg.jpg?2
...and this Crappie Magnet tail added to the flat body of a segment cut from a French Fry stick:
https://i.imgur.com/YU5CcQ8.jpg?1
...or other grub body with the curl tail cut off :
https://i.imgur.com/HbxD88N.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/zkUk7NZ.jpg
Sometimes fish in general attack larger bodies more often - larger meaning thicker and a bit longer.
Who says you can't catch larger fish with small lures!:
https://i.imgur.com/naTv4dL.jpg
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As stated by others above, you need to fish a lake that actually produces big bluegill. A lot of them don't for some reason. Generally what I've found is there isn't any sure fire way to catch the larger fish without also catching the smaller ones. Even large bluegill have small mouths and so using a larger bait doesn't make as big of a difference as it does with fish like bass and crappie.
The average size seems to run a bit larger when I fish jigs vs. live bait and I think that is because the fish need to get the jig hook in their mouth on the initial strike and the larger ones are able to do that a little bit easier. You can also fish very small crank baits and those will usually only catch the larger fish, but generally not a lot of them. I've actually caught a few large bluegill while fishing small minnows for crappie, but it has been a rare enough event that I don't think I'd count on it producing any real numbers of bluegill. Generally, if I know the lake has large gills I keep moving until I find bigger fish as they often seem to group in sizes. The bigger ones do often hang out in deeper water than smaller fish too. If I'm catching 6" gills in 3 feet of water, sometimes I'll find 8 - 9 inch fish by fishing near the same area, but where the water deepens to 6 - 8 feet. Eight to nine inch bluegill are very common in many lakes around here, 10 inch and larger are present, but quite rare.
