when do bluegill spawn?

[sadworld]

what time of year are bluegilll on beds? also would you fish real deep right now? haven't really TARGETED bluegill, at least lately. thanks for the help.
do you cruise the shoreline looking for beds? any other panfish help would be great.... matt.

[Crazy Axe]

From what I've learned so far.. they start to bed/spawn when the water surface temp gets around 60*. Less than that, they should be staging in deeper water adjacent to bedding areas. If the lake you are fishing is small, there maybe a few signs of beds. If not, look for beds from the year before. Generally they bed in water between 2 and 15ft deep. It's easier to catch them if you can see them, but word is that they spawn in deeper water later in the year, and usually those are the bigger ones.

Sadly, even though I've been armed with this info, I haven't really gotten into them.. yet. I'm hoping this year is the year.

[jmckeon]

if you guys know of anydecent blue gill areas i would apreciate any info or spots would love to hook in to some more.
finally got a few today not huge bout 6 inchs over on sanford lake but would like to get a mess of them

[duckman#1]

fished a lake Near Bitely yesterday. surface temps where 54-55 deg. trying for specs, but didn't find any takers.

[NorthChain]

My boys and I caught a few 6-7" gills from shore this week. I'm thinking the warming water is bringing them in shallow.

[leesecw]

They wont be on their beds for awhile yet. 50 to 60 degrees look for the crappies to spawn first. I used to fish sanford lake when i was younger {Im 55} and we didnt get into the bluegills untill the middle of may. I fish the backwaters of the ausable now and we get them them from the middle of may until the first or second week of june

[BOEDY]

As someone said above look for the bigger fish to spawn later in deeper water. Every year we rent a cabin on hamlin lake in ludington the last week of july and every year theres BIG gills spawning in the same area in 10 to 15 foot of water... I was shocked to find them spawning that late but it happens every year...And there all nice fish 8 to 10", very few little ones....What ever lake you fishing that time of the year look for the right kind of bottom for spawning in as deep of water as you can find (sandy/gravel or hard bottom with sparce weeds)....

[the roofer]

fished saturday from 4 pm to 8 pm 25 blue gill all about 6" caught them in 2 hrs. no gills on anybeds yet,but a few of them looked like they were starting to spawn...as I was leaving with what I thought was a fine catch...I met 2 older gentleman pulling there boat out next to my canoe....and ya they had a cooler filled with 10" plus crappie...fished the lake for years and never caught a crappie...thank you my 2 M.S. members for showing me a new rig setup see ya there saturday....all my gills were caught on bobber and nightcrawler

[ready2fish]

Originally Posted by the roofer

fished Saturday from 4 pm to 8 pm 25 blue gill all about 6" caught them in 2 hrs. no gills on anybeds yet,but a few of them looked like they were starting to spawn...as I was leaving with what I thought was a fine catch...I met 2 older gentleman pulling there boat out next to my canoe....and ya they had a cooler filled with 10" plus crappie...fished the lake for years and never caught a crappie...thank you my 2 M.S. members for showing me a new rig setup see ya there saturday....all my gills were caught on bobber and nightcrawler

i feel your pain, i hate that when that happens i guess thats why its called fishing

[RobFromFlint]

The bluegill in the lake I fish for them spawn when the SURFACE water temp hits 68 degrees. Also have late spawners the end of June. Best fishing seems to be the niddle of May.

[sadworld]

theres no size limit to panfish right? if so, what's typically a keeper in YOUR book? also how do you guys prepare them? fillet or gut em?

[RobFromFlint]

7 inch minimum for me, scaled then filleted, skin left on.

[Bassfisherman94]

they spawn when the water is at least 55 degrees

[ready2fish]

Originally Posted by sadworld

theres no size limit to panfish right? if so, what's typically a keeper in YOUR book? also how do you guys prepare them? fillet or gut em?

thats really up to the fisherman but as said above 7 inches +

if you do a search with goggle using "cleaning bluegills" theres lots of videos and articles

[fathom this]

I pay alot of attention to water temp when I fish spawning fish,
All fish have a temp when they reach peak spawn. Crappies are 65 degrees surface water temp and bluegills are 70 degrees surface temp.
I have monitored surface temp and watched bluegill go from being no where near their beds at 65 degrees surface temp to spawn at full tilt a few hours later when the temp hit 70 degrees. It is also true that bluegills and crappies will spawn more than once.This is the reason you may see spawning fish in July. Bluegills and Crappies can also postpone their spawn because of cold or hot weather. Spawning fish do build their " nests "
before peak water temp is located. Fish will almost always spawn in the same spot year after year. I am always amazed at how many fishermen can't see beds even after I tell them where they are located. Someone mentioned Hamlin lake as a good bluegill lake, I rate it as a great lake.
The beds are very hard to see there because of turbidity .