You are standing by lake with warm, murky water. A bluegill erupt much on surface to eat an insect or gulp some air and then dissapears again into the water. You have a bright green jig dangling from your rod that look like a death sentence for any careful fish.
But no, the bluegill doesn’t care. The water must be dead. Or maybe something about your equipment are off.
More likely it’s just a case of offering something that doesn’t exist in that place at that moment. Bluegill aren’t finicky and they’re efficient. They’ll take whatever is hardest to miss and easiest to find.
Understanding What Bluegill Eat To Catch More
Read the Habitat and Food Chain
If you want to understand how to catch more sunfish, don’t look in your tackle box; instead, look around the water and learn to read habitat. Stop trying to cast at them and try matching their food. Stop guessing and watch for what’s on local food chain.
You won’t have to trick them. You’ll just be matching something that they has to eat, whether or not it swim up to bite your hook. Insect larvae and zooplankton makes up most of a bluegill’s diet.
Match the Mid-Water Column Diet
These tiny bits hang out in the mid-water column or float along surface early mornings and evenings. The bluegill will suspend horizontal in the water and just barely open its mouth. They’ll either peck or filter the floating meal.
So if you drop a lead sinker straight down to bottom, you’re not even in the same ballgame. You have to keep your bait suspended. Something like a small worm on a light bobber rig or a piece of dough bait let the offering freely drift through feeding area.
It mimics the natural suspension of plankton. That’s why bobber fishing is so effective in shallow coves. Your bait stay in the strike zone but doesn’t get hung up on bottom.
Fish Structure with Live Bait
Bluegill also tend to tuck in as day heats up and the sun gets high. They will hide behind downed limbs, in lily pad field and underneath docks. When they do, they eats more from the bottom.
Crayfish, snails and bigger insect larvae that hang on structure is what they’re targeting. Here’s where live bait excels. Small crayfish or a night crawler look like what fish are targeting.
It has the added bonus of a scent trail which can lures fish out from their hiding places. Water can be murky or stained, making it harder to see. Live bait provide both scent and movement, which are two key to triggering bites.
Retrieve Artificial Lures Slowly
A lot of folks do use some kind of artificial for bluegill such as a small tube bait or the Zoom Ultrajig. Those is good, but only if fished properley. Speed is everything.
While they may follow a slowly retrieved artificial, they wants something vulnerable. Usually hopping it in an uneven way then pausing for a long time produce bites. That pause are important.
It makes the lure appear as if it’s resting, or dying off. If you retrieve too rapid, what the fish sees is not a meal; it’s a threat. Slow your retrieve and it could of made all the difference between an empty boat and a full boat.
Adjust Lures by Season
The time of year also influence what you want to throw. When it’s springtime, those gills gets hot for a big meal. Even when they aren’t chasing shad around to spawn, they’ll still be feeding up for the spawn with bigger baits like insects or shad.
So they’re looking at a more livvly, bright lure. Later in the summer, they gets picky, so they’re going to conserve calories by eating smaller, less demanding meals. The winter finds them deeper again and they’ll be feeding very lightly on whatever they can scrounge up.
Knowing which species you have, but also adjusting your colors and sizes based off the time of year is equally critical. What may be too obnoxious in the summer (like that chartreuse jig) might not be seen in the winter. A natural green or brown might dissapear from view.
Fishing for bluegill is much more about observation than equipment. Look around. Where else has it been biting?
Look for splashes. Notice what cover they are near. And then put your bait right there, at the same depth where you saw them feeding.
Don’t try to trick them. Just find a way to hang with ’em. Most of the time, the water isn’t lifeless.
You’re simply using the wrong language. Change over to the locals’ lingo and you’ll get bit.
