Big Sunfish - The Secrets

[biggiesmalls]

Hello everyone, 

 

I have found something that I would consider to be amazing - a pond where any time you go, catching a sunfish (believed to be hybrids, but more on that later) that is 16 ounces or higher, is practically a guarantee - and catching multiple fish is still very likely. I have decided that I want to make the most of this, and see if I can learn what the absolute best way to catch big bluegill is. 

These fish are in a neighborhood pond, with relatively clear water. I have permission to, if I so choose, move these fish into another neighborhood pond. I may or may not do this, but the reason I am considering it is so that I can have another variable to play with - clear vs stained water (don't have access to dirty water). Still thinking about this, but for now they are in a relatively clear pond. 

 

So, my experiment will basically involve me fishing on this pond for at least one hour per day, every day. I will be testing various rigs, baits, and artificials, and keeping a detailed log of my results, which will be moved into a spreadsheet by the end of the week (or by the evening of that day). Each rig/bait/artificial will receive a specific amount of time to be fished - no more, no less. Right now I am using a cheapo 5' ultralight rod - although I may not start this experiment until I can get a custom rod built (which will be done sooner or later). I want to test an ultralight and a light action rod, to see which is better suited to specifically targeting big bluegill. 

 

I will post a link to the spreadsheet, after I get everything for this experiment figured out. I will also update this thread when I decide on the rigs that I will test, baits I will use, and lures I will throw. 

 

Tight lines,

Drew

[slonezp]

There is much more to large sunnfish/bluegill than just water clarity. Genes, hard bottom, and, probably more of a factor, an abundant source of nutritional food, are going to grow bigger fish. I fish for pan fish on a number of public lakes and there is one lake that holds bluegill/hybrids larger than the rest. It has a hard bottom and my livewell is littered with snails when I get home. The other lakes have soft bottoms and and it seems insects are the primary food source. There is no doubt in my mind its the snails that make the difference. 

[biggiesmalls]

17 minutes ago, slonezp said:

There is much more to large sunnfish/bluegill than just water clarity. Genes, hard bottom, and, probably more of a factor, an abundant source of nutritional food, are going to grow bigger fish. I fish for pan fish on a number of public lakes and there is one lake that holds bluegill/hybrids larger than the rest. It has a hard bottom and my livewell is littered with snails when I get home. The other lakes have soft bottoms and and it seems insects are the primary food source. There is no doubt in my mind its the snails that make the difference. 

I'm not sure how the bottom will play into it - might be an interesting thing to test as well. I think genes have the most to do with it. Some ponds can put out hundreds of 16-ounce gills and never put out a fish that hits 17 ounces. Not sure if bluegill eat snails or not - I thought that was only redear/shellcrackers. 

 

Will be interesting to see though - maybe I'll sacrifice a few fish to see what they've been eating. Or if any die from a guy hooking or anything. 

 

I'd say genes are the most important though, followed by a good food source, for growing big gills. But my experiment is just on catching them, if you know they're there

[biggiesmalls]

Rigs used will be:

• Spinner blade rig
• Slip float rig
• Drop shot rig
• "Naked" rig (nothing but hook and bait)
• Carolina rig
• Jigs (both straight up jigs and jigs suspended under a float)
• Split shot rig
• Three-way rig

Baits used on these rigs will be:

• Nightcrawlers
• Crickets
• Red worms
• Leeches
• Minnows
• Wax worms
• Grasshoppers
• Meal worms

 

[biggiesmalls]

As far as artificials go, I want to do a comparison between live baits and artificials - so I have decided that I'll be using 2.5" Gulp minnows, 1" Gulp crickets, and 4" Gulp earthworms, in colors that mimic the live baits of the same size. That means watermelon pearl minnows, breen crickets, and red wiggler worms (which look similar to fathead minnows, house crickets, and red worms, respectively). 

 

I want to try spinners as well, so I'll be throwing 1/32 ounce Beetle Spins, 1/32 ounce Road Runners, and 1/24 ounce Rooster Tails. 

 

Of course, jigs are popular. I'll probably do a shootout of jigheads (although I doubt it really matters) - the Beetle Spin jigheads vs the Lindy jigheads. I'll use both for live bait on their own, live bait with a slip float, and for use with plastics. 1/32 ounce size on a black jighead for both of them to make sure they're consistent. Both jigheads carry a #10 hook on them. 

 

I will be using some custom-tied hair jigs made to imitate grass shrimp, PM me if you want to see how they're made (idea from a thread on another forum). 

 

I am not testing any crankbaits right now - I have a bunch I want to try out, so this will wait until I narrow the list down and it'll be its own shootout. 

 

Then of course, I've got to try soft plastics. These will mostly be fished on jigheads, although I may try some with the clothespin spinner from a beetle spin. I want to try the 2" BPS Squirmin' Shad in a jighead, to see if the big bluegill are aggressive enough to try and get at a live fish. I've also never tried a curly tail grub for bluegill - so these need a try. I will probably buy some 2" BPS Triple Ripple Grubs to see if they live up to the hype. 

 

Aside from artificials, I might try a few flies. These will either be bought from BPS or hand-tied, going for size 10 on all of them so we can get consistency throughout them. Rubber/foam spiders, bluegill poppers, hare's ears, and black woolly buggers will be used (again, this is if I decide to fish flies in this experiment). 

[MassBass]

I am not sure if you are conducting a precise scientific experiment here, but do you have a hypothesis of what will work best? There is a line between sportfishing knowledge and scientific/academic knowledge. Is an old Alaskan fisherman smarter than some young guy with a masters in Biology? If its of any value, I caught some tough river sunfish vertical jigging a small kastmaster spoon. 

[everythingthatswims]

On ‎6‎/‎28‎/‎2017 at 9:17 PM, slonezp said:

There is much more to large sunnfish/bluegill than just water clarity. Genes, hard bottom, and, probably more of a factor, an abundant source of nutritional food, are going to grow bigger fish. I fish for pan fish on a number of public lakes and there is one lake that holds bluegill/hybrids larger than the rest. It has a hard bottom and my livewell is littered with snails when I get home. The other lakes have soft bottoms and and it seems insects are the primary food source. There is no doubt in my mind its the snails that make the difference. 

Never thought about it until you made this point, but snails absolutely grow bigger bluegills

[davecon]

Don't know if you have them in your area, but here in Central Florida the best live bait, hands down, is a grass shrimp. It is a small shrimp a little bigger than your fingernail. Here, at least, they are caught with a small mesh net on the end of a pole in and around hydrilla. It's a pain to catch them but nothing comes close to their effectiveness.

[biggiesmalls]

On 7/3/2017 at 8:08 PM, davecon said:

Don't know if you have them in your area, but here in Central Florida the best live bait, hands down, is a grass shrimp. It is a small shrimp a little bigger than your fingernail. Here, at least, they are caught with a small mesh net on the end of a pole in and around hydrilla. It's a pain to catch them but nothing comes close to their effectiveness.

We've got them here, they fill up the hydrilla in some of the ponds. They seem to work well but they haven't lasted long in a livewell/bucket and don't seem to stay on the hook well either. I'm interested to try those grass shrimp hair jigs though. 

 

On 7/2/2017 at 5:42 PM, MassBass said:

I am not sure if you are conducting a precise scientific experiment here, but do you have a hypothesis of what will work best? There is a line between sportfishing knowledge and scientific/academic knowledge. Is an old Alaskan fisherman smarter than some young guy with a masters in Biology? If its of any value, I caught some tough river sunfish vertical jigging a small kastmaster spoon. 

Not at all a scientific experiment, I never enjoyed those. I'm just getting an excuse to fish more, and an excuse to buy more tackle - and hopefully I'll end up finding a few new lures that I like

As far as the Alaskan fisherman vs the Biology major, I'd say experience trumps knowledge, most of the time. Knowledge will get you far but experience gets you things that you can get in no other way. 

 

This has taken a turn, actually. I've been gifted a MTB subscription, so what I will be doing now is getting panfish lures every month, and testing them, I will probably review each lure as well. 

I will still test baits, hooks, rigs, etc though. And I am trying to get in contact with the guides on Richmond Mill Lake to see what they prefer for their big bluegill (pretty much the only lake in the world where a 2+ pound bluegill isn't a pipeline dream).