How to catch cautious Bluegills?

[N00B]

I picked up on fishing week ago started with 7ft medium rod then 6ft light rod then 2 ft toy rod and i like it even better for fishing bluegill by the shore. I fish in Los Angeles artificial lakes right now.

Sight fishing bluegill by the shore about 1-2ft from surface is easy just casting any bait on the hook into the school gets instant bites from small (dumb) species in seconds, however bigger species of bluegill behave differently.

They would rush to eat bait i free drop into water, however when i follow up with hooked version they rush to it, come close almost at the bite distance and then instantly swim away, i even tried smallest hook i have and covered it completely with meat, still same reaction, it must be the line they see, thinking on using 0.5lb mono versus 4lb i am currently use.

Problem here is that big blue gill species in artificial lakes by the tame they mature are "trained" to avoid hooks by people who constantly catch them and release throughout their lifetime (same problem for bass in that lake), so fish gets too cautious.

Any advice on how to catch this big "smarter" bluegills?

[B-Dozer]

Want to have some fun? try a fly rod with a dry fly. Elk hair caddis, Royal wulff, flying ant, etc.

let it smack the water. soon as it hits, they'll hit it.

have a pair of forceps to remove the fly. 

once you try that....YOU are hooked...on fly fishing ? 

[FishDewd]

Have you tried the micro crank baits? The perch love them... They normally will hit them on the slow rise upwards during a pause. It can be a trick to hook them though.

[flyfisher]

Fly rod and slow sinking spider.  Just let it drop and do its thing all on its own and they cant resist it.  Poppers and other dry flies work but you won't catch as many of the big ones that way in my experience.  

[slonezp]

Bluegills school up with the same class size fish. Sounds like you have found schools of small fish with a few larger ones mixed in. Large bluegills will school with other large gills and panfish. You are fishing the wrong school. 

[FishDewd]

Lucky craft 1.5 crankbait. I don't know what color exactly, but I used one today that I rescued from a tree and the perch HATED it! It had a color changing shimmer effect in the light. Every small baitfish just smacked and slammed the heck out of it, then when I was letting it float on the surface just off the bank I saw this nice sized bluegill come up and eyeball it like "hey bro! Why you invading my turf?" I gave it one tiny twitch and it got drilled by that bluegil. Set it and pulled him up. I didn't get a picture of it but it definitely my PB perch for sure. Almost twice as big as my hand. Turns out the crankbait belonged to a forum member who had lost it that I was fishing with so I gave it back to him after we were done fishing lol. But I am so buying one now! It makes the perch angry!

[N00B]

In that artificial lake they all mixed up big and small hang out together.

 

This bluegills mostly small they cannot get anything bigger than 1/4 of an inch in their mouth so size 1.5" crank-bait would not work here.

 

Fly fishing sure thing maybe later now i learning the basics and i don't want to jump trough many valuable lessons straight to fly fishing.

 

Issue 2, bluegills usually jump up the regular #14 hook with tiny bit of hotdog and i get hooked within a second, however after i pull about 5-10 from school and throw them far away since water is clear others see whats going on and start to be cautious they don't bite hook anymore.

Moving to new spot and the picture is exactly the same, at first they fighting for this sausage on the hook then after a witnessing me pooling their friend out of the water they loose all interest even free flowing pieces of sausage gets ignored and some lazy bluegill comes and eats it slowly, making sure its not a trap while others just stay away.

 

I can raise interest in them if i keep throwing free pieces, but even if they start being active and i throw 5 free pieces my hook in between they never go for the hook, just eat free stuff and go away.

 

 

Issue 3 when i use #10 circle-hook (gold plated or regular color) even tiny bluegills swallowing it most of the time, when i use #14 J-hooks they almost always hook by the mouth whats the thing here?

[mrmacwvu1]

Not trying to be rude here. But you came here and asked questions. You just started fishing last week. People that have been fishing for years provided you with advice. Your last post all you did was shoot down their knowledge and explain how you are doing things.

 

Most fishermen I know will help out anyone that is willing to listen.

 

Just a piece of advice.

[slonezp]

18 hours ago, N00B said:

 tiny bit of hotdog

I'm not sure about in Los Angeles, but here in Chicago, hot dogs are extinct in the wild and can only be found behind the glass windows in a grocery store. Have you tried worms, spikes, or crickets?

[CrankFate]

On 7/2/2018 at 1:26 AM, N00B said:

I picked up on fishing week ago started with 7ft medium rod then 6ft light rod then 2 ft toy rod and i like it even better for fishing bluegill by the shore. I fish in Los Angeles artificial lakes right now.

Sight fishing bluegill by the shore about 1-2ft from surface is easy just casting any bait on the hook into the school gets instant bites from small (dumb) species in seconds, however bigger species of bluegill behave differently.

They would rush to eat bait i free drop into water, however when i follow up with hooked version they rush to it, come close almost at the bite distance and then instantly swim away, i even tried smallest hook i have and covered it completely with meat, still same reaction, it must be the line they see, thinking on using 0.5lb mono versus 4lb i am currently use.

Problem here is that big blue gill species in artificial lakes by the tame they mature are "trained" to avoid hooks by people who constantly catch them and release throughout their lifetime (same problem for bass in that lake), so fish gets too cautious.

Any advice on how to catch this big "smarter" bluegills?

These casted 10-50’ beyond where the small starving bait sized fish are attacking anything that hits the water and at least 4’ below the surface.

 

[OCdockskipper]

Forget the bluegill & fish for bass instead.  The big bluegill will feel slighted and will strike your bass lures in order to get attention.  This is especially effective for females.

[N00B]

Kicker I fish both, but sometimes i like bluegill just as much.

Dink i like sight fishing, but i try this method as well.

On 7/6/2018 at 6:15 PM, slonezp said:

I'm not sure about in Los Angeles, but here in Chicago, hot dogs are extinct in the wild and can only be found behind the glass windows in a grocery store. Have you tried worms, spikes, or crickets?

Yeah they expensive though so i switched to cheaper alternative like hotdogs pieces, bluegill comes for bare hook sometimes when you just start, but later on they they get cautious they will stop eating anything, perhaps live bait is the answer here, will try this next time i go to clear water lake thanks a lot.

[soflabasser]

Try fishing with crickets with light mono.

[burrows]

Fishing is a tuff gig in LA where you fishing echo park ? Theirs catfish in their hot dogs are good bait. Lake balboa has some small bass but huge carp you can catch them on flour tortillas:) no joke that’s the bait of  choice in that lake or drive up to castaic not that far about hour and a half?