How to Find Big Bluegills in the Heat of Summer
Tired of dink-sized summertime panfish? Time to fish deep and load the boat with the biggest bluegills you'll catch all season.
I'm no Parrothead, but for the life of me I couldn't rid my brain of the sound and vision of a throng of Jimmy Buffet devotees shouting the words to "Fins"—"You got fins to the left, fins to the right, and you're the only bait in town." That Buffet is a maniacal big-game saltwater angler and I was filling a bucket with bluegills didn't seem to matter. I was catching—and it was good. I also knew that it wouldn't last. The summer sun eventually scorches those perfect hotspots, and all those fins melt away to parts unknown. Or do they?
While our favorite banks and shallow weed beds might still yield a few small bluegills in midsummer, big fish go deep to find food.
According
to a 1999 South Dakota State University study conducted at Richmond
Lake, larger bluegills wean themselves off zooplankton and rely much
more on macroinvertebrates, or aquatic insects, as the summer
progresses. This is especially true for fish larger than 8 inches.
Because aquatic insects live mostly among weed beds, anglers can draw
some basic conclusions about where they will be found when weeds are
available. But which weed beds should you target? And what baits should
you have with you in the boat?
Three Tricks For Creek Largemouths And Smallmouths
I grew up fishing the creeks and rivers of the Northeast for smallmouths with everything from flies to worms. To be honest, it was a rare to catch a largemouth in most of these creeks, simply because the smallmouths dominated in that habitat. This weekend, while wading a large creek in NC, I was reminded of the significant differences in approach when targeting the creek largemouth of the South. After years of walking through the pools in search the two species, I've narrowed it down to three main rules that will immediately put you in the bass-catching ballgame, regardless of if your search is for the brown ones or the green ones.
Livies Are Not Always the Answer: Smallmouths are much bigger suckers for live bait than largemouths. If fished correctly, hellgrammites, crawfish, stone cats, or chubs can literally catch every smallmouth in the pool before they get wise. It's just not the same with creek largemouths. There are a variety of reasons for that, most of which revolve around how largemouths set up in current vs. smallmouths. Point being, bait is just not the same guaranteed fallback plan with largies as it is with creek smallies. I'm certainly not saying you shouldn't carry some for largemouths. I'm just saying I wouldn't hit a largemouth creek without some reliable lures and flies.
Find the Slack Water: I don't steer away from current when seeking creek largemouths entirely, but I always seem to catch morewhen there is a slack-water refuge nearby. Smallies, on the other hand, have no issues with positioning themselves right in the current's main drag. When I say "slack" referring to the largies' preference, that little bit of slack water associated with an eddy is good, but a bigger calm backwater is even better for both numbers and quality.
Wood Vs. Rocks: As a general rule, quality laydowns remain in the river in areas where the current has less ability to wash them out during high water. So when you have wood that extends from shallow to deep in a slack area, that spells largemouths. To get them out you may have to flip the heaviest cover, or they may chase a moving bait reeled past. On the contrary, smallmouth not only love rocks, but they love rocks in sections where the stronger current has cleaned the rocks of debris over the years. Big loner boulders or clusters of smaller rocks within a large flat are key components to summer smallie habitat. It's wise to make up-current casts to both the front and back sides of these rocks with artificial lures, but never be afraid to resort to the live bait gravy train.
by Dave Csanda
With the northern Wisconsin muskie opener only days away, and the Minnesota opener just a week later, muskie fishing will be in full swing throughout the Upper Midwest. Anglers have already been getting their licks in on waters in the Dakotas, Michigan and southern Wisconsin. Now, North Country lakes and anglers are about to join in the fray.
Smaller is usually better early in the muskie season.
Most muskie anglers automatically grab their go-to summer and fall lures when they hit the water in spring, but that's not necessarily your best bet so early in the year. Right after the season opens, smaller baits tend to outproduce larger offerings. Like # 5 bucktail spinners, rather than double-bladed #10s. Six-inch crankbaits, rather than 10-inchers. Three-quarter ounce bass spinnerbaits, rather than larger muskie tandems, and so on. Keep things modest, size-wise, until the water warms and fish really go on the chew. Right now, with water temperatures barely cracking 60 F, they're barely off the spawn in some areas, beginning to feed, but not voraciously gobbling their way through the biomass.
In most waters, two types of patterns dominate early in the season. Oddly enough, many anglers miss out on both, focusing on drop-off areas in between-classic spots in summer, but perhaps not during the transition from late spring into early summer. Reason-deep weedgrowth is still sparse, generally until after the 4th of July. With little cover and even less food there, muskies seldom use such areas until the weeds begin to flourish.
Basically, spring muskies are usually either in…or out…depending on where the bulk of their food lies.
INS — In lakes where the fish chiefly dine on warm- or cool-water baitfish like suckers or large minnows, plus an array of unfortunate bass, small walleyes, hammer-handle pike, panfish and such, most of these species are still shallow. Often, really shallow-like 2 to 6 feet-running inside weedlines, spread across emerging weed flats, even roaming the centers of bays with fairly sparse cover. If they haven't moved out to the first drop off to deep water, there's no reason for muskies to leave these areas, either.
Cover the shallows with a series of fairly steady, modest-speed retrieves, usually without a lot of dramatic changes. Use polarized sunglasses to look in the water for followers-or non-followers. Much of the time, lazy muskies will just lay there, sunning themselves, showing no interest in your lures. Come back and re-fish the same areas at low light, hopefully when the fish turn on a bit more.
OUTS — And now, for something completely different!
Ditto for crankbaits!
In lakes with cold-water, suspended forage like ciscoes, tullibees, whitefish, etc., the bulk of the big, tasty baitfish are likely already suspending in open water at this time. Rather than remain shallow and going on a low-cal diet or fast, muskies simply shift out of their shallow spawning bays and suspend over the nearest available deep-water basin. Key areas have little or nothing to do with structure, although fish may be near points or humps that funnel baitfish between them. Basically, the presence of the forage fish is foremost on their minds.
Expect muskies to be roaming the basin at modest depths, maybe 10 to 15 feet down in clear lakes-shallower in darker water ones-near schools of baitfish. The best ways to target them is to troll modest-sized crankbaits at their level, in and around baitfish you spot on your electronics. Again, modest speeds are best-rather than high speed burns-at least until the water warms into the 70 Fs. Criss-cross potential areas, near structure, off structure, some of both, until you get bites.
If you can't, or prefer not to troll, try drifting over these same areas in the evening, toward sunset, when ciscoes rise toward the surface, following light-sensitive plankton upward as the sun dips over the horizon. Fancast cranks, even topwaters-out over 40- to 70 feet-which seems weird. Just remember, if they're not IN…they're OUT. If no one is catching muskies in the shallows, that's your key to head out to no man's land and fish over open water.
by Jason Mitchell
There is always an increased level of intensity whenever you are fishing for your next meal. When you know that you and other people are relying on what you put on a stringer or in a live well, you have your game face on. For so many anglers, harvesting fish for the table often involves panfish. In so many regions, crappie, perch or sunfish still allow some harvest where anglers can proceed to keep some fish for a meal.
Panfish are sometimes considered a fish for kids… sunfish off the dock and a three-foot-long Snoopy rod; but lets face it, adults love panfish as well. Big panfish are especially coveted, and big crappie, sunfish or perch get anglers as excited as big bass or walleye. Match wits with these fish with the right tackle and you have every bit of a challenge with a fish that can just as easily break your line. Some of the most popular television episodes we have ever done were crappie and sunfish segments. Anglers love big panfish.
Some of the biggest panfish I have ever personally caught were caught accidentally while targeting bass or walleye. Over the years, I have caught fifteen-inch crappie on Carolina Rigs intended for bass; ten-inch bluegills have hit top water poppers that were meant to target bass. Big perch have been caught on spinner and night crawler setups meant for walleye.
These accidental catches tell me a few things… first off when it comes to finding big panfish and narrowing down lakes that have big panfish, anglers are often going to find these fish by accident while targeting other species. Some of the best Intel I get comes from talking to bass anglers. What also becomes obvious is that big panfish become predators and these larger fish have no issue hitting a presentation that may be three inches or longer.
