Bluegills Drive us Crazy

[MNGeorge]

We do most of our Largemouth fishing in a 100 acre lake that holds some very nice Bass.  The problem is the lake is over run with stunted Bluegills and no matter what depth we fish, we are constantly getting our worms pecked at by these Bluegills.  Worm size/type makes no difference, they all get peppered by the Bluegills.  Does anyone have some ideas how to minimize the Bluegill action without also reducing the Bass bites?

[Mattlures]

throw swimbaits! I dont beleive I have ever gotten a bluegill bite on one.

Also it is a good thing if you have that many gills in the pond. That means the bass will have plenty to eat. I dont know if you can have too much bass forage

[ba7ss3in]

Eat some of the gills.

[moby bass]

At the much smaller pond I fish, I got a bass, a crappie and a bluegill last evening, all on a #5 floating Rapala. No clue why the

bluegill hit it, he wasn't that big and there was no way he was going to get it down his throat. Usually they pick at the plastics as I get them closer to shore, but never get hooked. Now live bait is another story. Its a constant rebaiting of the hook.

[fishizzle]

A 150 acre lake I fish has a kids derby to rid excess sunfish.

They are good for the garden.

Kids bring in 5 gal pails of them and the heaviest wins.

[CL]

blue gills are your friends in a pond. they are one of bass's favorite food. you will need to throw something other than a "real" worm. this time of year i would go with a senko or maybe even try a spinner bait. that should get ri d of the little guys and only get big ones.

[Tin]

I prefer harpoons and or spear guns.

[Dan:]

I once caught a bluegill on a LC Pointer...that was weird. Also, often times when I wade rivers for smallmouth I use shaky heads with finesse worms. Redbreast sunfish and green sunfish used to bother the heck out of me by biting my worm and making me set the hook on a fish that couldn't fit the bait into its mouth...Eventually, I started to be able to tell the difference between sunfish and bass bites. A sunfish bite is generally more like pecking while the bass usually are one solid bite.

If you are using live bait, I don't think you have many options besides harvesting some of the bluegills.

[SouthMiamiBassMan]

If your lake is full of Bluegills you are in luck as that is what the Bass are feeding on (not worms). Here is what you need: (check to see if this is "Legal" in your area.)

Get a small live bait bucket.

Use a small bait hook.

Cut the tip of the worm off (1/4 in) and bait it on the barb only. This will insure that you will hook the fish with it's first nibble.

Catch and keep about four - six of them in the bucket.

Re hook your line with a 2' worm hook and a bobber 20 inches from the hook. Hook the Bluegill in the meaty part right under the dorsal fin. Through out near shore were there are other Bluegills or where ever you know there are bass hunting. No Bass can resist the Bluegill trying to get away from the bobber. You can catch a lot of Bass this way and they will usually be big ones.  

[Rob Faddis]

I love Brim, yum...all sunfish.  So do the bass.

[-ebby-]

using bluegill for bait is illegal in mn... I get hit by them alot even on spinnerbaits, poppers, and crankbaits. THey will hit alot but i would stay away from plastic if you can't tell them apart from bass, eventually you will be able to. Also the senko type bait or a tube is the plastic they hit the least for me. And look at the supper sunny spinner by renosky its a good bait.

Also try a sunfish swimbait it could work good.

[jwo1124]

There's really not much you can do about the gills. I would reccommend not using any sort of live worms for bass fishign in areas where there are a lot of gills because it will just be a waste of money. If you are using bait, opt for shiners. Try using crankbaits in bluegill colors to get some bass that are most likely feeding of the gills. I was just at a local fishing hole the other day, and the shoreline I was standing at was full of smaller 3-5" gills roaming and sunning themselves. Most likely if there are  alot of gills stacked up, there are probably bass lurking in the deeper water waiting for one to stray into the deeper open water, or for low light when the bass creep up into the really shallow water and annihalate the gills. The best time to fish for bass is from dusk to a little past sundown. The bass will be up shallow hitting anything that moves. I caught a nice 3-4 lber. last summer on a popper night fishing. I also got a few on crankbaits.

[Lorne]

If your lake is full of Bluegills you are in luck as that is what the Bass are feeding on (not worms). Here is what you need: (check to see if this is "Legal" in your area.)

Get a small live bait bucket.

Use a small bait hook.

Cut the tip of the worm off (1/4 in) and bait it on the barb only. This will insure that you will hook the fish with it's first nibble.

Catch and keep about four - six of them in the bucket.

Re hook your line with a 2' worm hook and a bobber 20 inches from the hook. Hook the Bluegill in the meaty part right under the dorsal fin. Through out near shore were there are other Bluegills or where ever you know there are bass hunting. No Bass can resist the Bluegill trying to get away from the bobber. You can catch a lot of Bass this way and they will usually be big ones.  

I don't have a problem using minnows and the like for others species of fish but that is taking it a little too far imo.

[MNGeorge]

I guess I should have made it clear we are using plastic worms, not live worms.  Also, we know the difference between Bluegill pecks and Bass bites most of the time.  I was just trying to see if anyone had a "go to" bait that the Bluegills don't bother so much but still catches Bass like a plastic worm.  Thanks for the feedback.

[Rayraff]

dynamite

jk

[B-Ass-Mad]

too many could be a bad thing; their diet consists mainly of small invertebrates as well as fish fry, competition for young bass.

[-ebby-]

I guess I should have made it clear we are using plastic worms, not live worms. Also, we know the difference between Bluegill pecks and Bass bites most of the time. I was just trying to see if anyone had a "go to" bait that the Bluegills don't bother so much but still catches Bass like a plastic worm. Thanks for the feedback.

try a tube instead, they won't pick at the tail as much but still some also they won't get hooked very often because of the larger width.

[BassinBoy]

throw swimbaits! I dont beleive I have ever gotten a bluegill bite on one.

Also it is a good thing if you have that many gills in the pond. That means the bass will have plenty to eat. I dont know if you can have too much bass forage

I agree Mr. Mattlures but I have noticed that if there is to much forage in small lakes or ponds then the bass dont react to lures like they normally do.  You really have to pick the right bait and presentation to make them eat your lure instead of the dozens of other chances they would have at other forage.

[32251]

If your lake is full of Bluegills you are in luck as that is what the Bass are feeding on (not worms). Here is what you need: (check to see if this is "Legal" in your area.)

Get a small live bait bucket.

Use a small bait hook.

Cut the tip of the worm off (1/4 in) and bait it on the barb only. This will insure that you will hook the fish with it's first nibble.

Catch and keep about four - six of them in the bucket.

Re hook your line with a 2' worm hook and a bobber 20 inches from the hook. Hook the Bluegill in the meaty part right under the dorsal fin. Through out near shore were there are other Bluegills or where ever you know there are bass hunting. No Bass can resist the Bluegill trying to get away from the bobber. You can catch a lot of Bass this way and they will usually be big ones.

I don't have a problem using minnows and the like for others species of fish but that is taking it a little too far imo.

Perfectly legal in most areas as long as the gill is caught in the same lake you are fishing in and not brought in from another water.  Bass eat these all day long. Why would you thing this is something out of the ordinary to use small bream for bait??

The method for catching them above is perfect.  I caught about 100 like this the other night and we put them in a live bait box that floats on the water.  When we needed one we just opened the box and reached in.  Live gills are a perfectly viable bass bait.

[Troutfisher]

I'll second that.  Bluegill, especially from the pond where you're fishing for bass at, can be an EXCELLENT bait to use.  I've caught some big bass on them.

["Lunker Hunter"]

When I lived in Chicago I had a small lake I fished that had a lot of small bluegills. We fished early am and late evening for bass (the bluegills were less likely to bother us) and mid day for the gills. Bluegills are mighty fine eaten.  We also would use minnows from time to time.

[tyrius.]

If your lake is full of Bluegills you are in luck as that is what the Bass are feeding on (not worms). Here is what you need: (check to see if this is "Legal" in your area.)

Get a small live bait bucket.

Use a small bait hook.

Cut the tip of the worm off (1/4 in) and bait it on the barb only. This will insure that you will hook the fish with it's first nibble.

Catch and keep about four - six of them in the bucket.

Re hook your line with a 2' worm hook and a bobber 20 inches from the hook. Hook the Bluegill in the meaty part right under the dorsal fin. Through out near shore were there are other Bluegills or where ever you know there are bass hunting. No Bass can resist the Bluegill trying to get away from the bobber. You can catch a lot of Bass this way and they will usually be big ones.

I don't have a problem using minnows and the like for others species of fish but that is taking it a little too far imo.

Hmm, what's the difference?  In both instances you're using little fish to catch bigger fish.  

Seems like it should be considered exactly the same to me.   :-?

[djmax22]

The problem is that if you have a large population of big bluegill in the lake you can stunt bass growth. The DNR has said on one of the the lake that I fish that there is too many big bluegill which compete for the same food source. Although there are a healthly number of 10-12" bass, bass this size can't get its mouth around a bull bluegill.