Connor4501
06-19-2004, 12:24 AM
Went and tried my favorite bluegill pond this evening; different from the little lake I got the 10 3/4" out of last Friday...The gills were much easier to find than the other lake in that you can see some of the beds and/or see the fish slurping flies from the surface...
I tied on a size 14 black knat and fished it with a casting bubble...Hit paydirt right off the bat...Only had one fly with me and was broken off about an hour into the fishing...Tied on a tiny Panther Martin spinner and started getting bass immediately, the only problem is they were all less than 14", but they were fun on the ultralight tackle...Didn't get too many gills on the spinner, but I did get some...
Then tied on an ice fishing teardrop and tipped it with a 1/2" piece of black rubber worm. And again it was bluegill time...I fished without a casting bubble in this case and just twitched the rig about a foot below the surface over the beds...
My tally: 76 gills with two at exactly 10" and 7/8 of a pound, over half the gills were 9" or better, and only a handful were under 7 1/2". Definitely the peak of the bedding period for the gills right now at this pond...12 bass with the 2 biggest at 12 1/2"...All the gills and bass were released to be caught again...
Since this is my own "honey-hole", I don't care if a few others from the site fish it...Numbers for gills are high in this pond and some harvest would do some good so the pond doesn't become stunted...When I started fishing it 5 years ago, there were hardly any 7" gills and there were tons of them...I started keeping a limit every few weeks or so and slowly but surely, the gills started getting bigger, and now its by far my favorite place to get a mess of gills...
I tell the 1st 3 guys who PM me where this pond is and some specifics...A little harvest here wouldn't hurt, I just don't want it fished out... ;)
I tied on a size 14 black knat and fished it with a casting bubble...Hit paydirt right off the bat...Only had one fly with me and was broken off about an hour into the fishing...Tied on a tiny Panther Martin spinner and started getting bass immediately, the only problem is they were all less than 14", but they were fun on the ultralight tackle...Didn't get too many gills on the spinner, but I did get some...
Then tied on an ice fishing teardrop and tipped it with a 1/2" piece of black rubber worm. And again it was bluegill time...I fished without a casting bubble in this case and just twitched the rig about a foot below the surface over the beds...
My tally: 76 gills with two at exactly 10" and 7/8 of a pound, over half the gills were 9" or better, and only a handful were under 7 1/2". Definitely the peak of the bedding period for the gills right now at this pond...12 bass with the 2 biggest at 12 1/2"...All the gills and bass were released to be caught again...
Since this is my own "honey-hole", I don't care if a few others from the site fish it...Numbers for gills are high in this pond and some harvest would do some good so the pond doesn't become stunted...When I started fishing it 5 years ago, there were hardly any 7" gills and there were tons of them...I started keeping a limit every few weeks or so and slowly but surely, the gills started getting bigger, and now its by far my favorite place to get a mess of gills...
I tell the 1st 3 guys who PM me where this pond is and some specifics...A little harvest here wouldn't hurt, I just don't want it fished out... ;)