California Bluegill!

[fishmount]

Hi everyone,  I'm new to this website, and this is my first post.  I have been fishing since I was about 5 years old and now I'm in my mid 60s.  Although I was an avid bass fisherman for many years, like so many others, I have returned to my childhood love of fishing for sunfish, primarily Bluegill and Redear Sunfish.  Lucky for me I live close to Lake Perris here in southern California that has world class trophy-sized Bluegill in it.  The Florida coppernose sub-species was stocked here way back in the late 1970s and they have adapted very well, spawning and growing to unusually large sizes due to the very fertile lake that has abundant aquatic insects and lots of thread fin shad for the fish to feed on.  I like to fish from a float tube, but occasionally go out in a boat to fish.  We used very light tackle and 2 lb test on our spinning reels because of the clear water, and fish with tiny hand-tied jigs or spoons.  Large fish are released to help keep the lake a trophy fishery.  

[bchase44]

Welcome to the forum, I love fishing for blue-gill and red-ear!!

Never caught them that big though!

[AC870]

Man that's huuuge! I'd love to get into some that size. Do you catch them in numbers or just 1 or 2 here and there.  

[soflabasser]

Nice bluegills.

[fishmount]

Yes we get them in numbers, but usually in certain areas of the lake and usually in the spring thru fall.  You may catch 20 fish in the morning and out of those, 5 to 8 fish will be a pound or over.  The rest will be 7 to 10 inch fish.

 

[BASS302]

Fishmount,

Nice bluegill, wish I could catch one that big!

[CrustyMono]

[JustJames]

Hi welcome here, I fish the same lake with you, but for bass only. I wanna learn to fish those sunfish and crappie at perris, maybe you can show me some rope.

[fishmount]

Here's a couple more pics of a big male and a colorful female Bluegill from Lake Perris in southern California.  

[earthworm77]

Quote

 

Really pretty Gills, the first picture looks like what we calla Copper nose blue gill here in Fl. They can get pretty big too.

[Darren.]

Welcome aboard!

Wow, some awesome bluegill!

[Redlinerobert]

Those fish are beautiful, welcome!

[bchase44]

Those are beautiful fish!  Are the colorful ones always female?  That seems opposite of other colorful critters.

[fishmount]

Eartworm77… You didn't read what I started above on Nov 7.  They are indeed the Florida sub-species called coppernose Bluegill.  I think they should actually be called copperhead.  

bchase44…  Yeah, usually the males are more colorful, but this beautiful hen coppernose BG was quite the exception!

[soflabasser]

8 hours ago, fishmount said:

Here's a couple more pics of a big male and a colorful female Bluegill from Lake Perris in southern California.  

Those are some beauties,they look very similar to the ones I catch in South Florida. The biggest ones down here have a purplish color to them, especially when they are over 12" in length(at least the ones I have caught ).

[fishmount]

We have the almost black males with the purple heads here in some of our lakes..

[Bluebasser86]

If bluegills grew as big as bass, I have a feeling bass would be a lot less popular. I know I'd love to catch some monster gills, but they just don't grow very large here. A 1 pound bluegill is a giant most of the lakes I fish. 

[fishmount]

I had to post this photo of a 3 pound Bluegill that I mounted that was the old Lake Perris record Bluegill.  The current Lake Record is a giant of 3 lbs. 15 oz.!  The fisherman that caught this 3 pounder wanted the mount painted as a "Northern" Bluegill; a more traditional look because the live fish was colored like the above fish.. dark with orange fin tips, and to him it did not look like a Bluegill at all.  It was his money!

[NavyTom]

Nice fish. My mouth is watering

[scaleface]

If I knew how and where to catch gills that size , I would do a heck of a lot less bass fishing .

[wdp]

3 hours ago, scaleface said:

If I knew how and where to catch gills that size , I would do a heck of a lot less bass fishing .

Agreed!

[clh121787]

Here's a dead one I found over Christmas fishing the canals in el centro ca.  2.6 in the scale.  That's a 7 inch bait next to it for reference. Biggest gill I've ever seen 

[CrustyMono]

On 1/20/2017 at 5:20 AM, scaleface said:

If I knew how and where to catch gills that size , I would do a heck of a lot less bass fishing .

 

I fund a quarry that was loaded with smaller bass. I easily caught 50 a day. Then, I had the brilliant idea of bringing a trout rod to try for rainbow and lake trout in really deep water. I had an inline spinner. First cast, i hooked a monster. It was not a trout, but a 2.5 pound bluegill. they fight much harder than a bass. it is comparable to a 5 pound largemouth. Non stop action with over 75 a day. Its truly great, that is, until you catch them all.

[soflabasser]

 I have lots of variety to choose from in Florida and still enjoy catching big bluegils. Its such a simple way of fishing where you can just sitdown,catch lots of fish,and enjoy the outdoors.