Schooling Bluegills and other Pan fish
A PHENOMENON
In summer, Bluegills and other pan fish frequently school up into large groups. Most of the gills within a block or so along the shoreline may almost all be in one school.
We can usually find them by standing up in our boat and slowly moving along in 10 to 20 feet of water while watching for a group of small Bluegills near the surface with our long-brimmed hat, polarized glasses and life vest.
If you don’t find them in the 10 to 20 foot depth, then try a little shallower.
Most of the time they are grouped, feeding upon a massive group of zooplankton.
When you visually find a school of dozens of 2” to 4” gills near the surface, carefully note their location, or throw out a marker buoy (about 30 feet away from the school), or mark a waypoint.
If you passed close enough to spook them a little, give them 20 to 30 minutes to regroup and settle down, before approaching within about 30 feet (with stealth), to fish for them. Begin by using very light tackle and very small bait with 4 or 6# line, with 2 or 4# leader, and about a size 12 hook or size 14 teardrop, or even a small gnat-fly. A wax worm, small piece of an earth worm or other small bait is usually best.
ITEM: If the column of zooplankton is tall/deep enough, these Bluegills, tend to School Vertically by Age-Class.
In other words, the one and two year olds will be near the surface, with the three yr. olds holding a foot or two below them and so on. Each year’s older age-groups will hold a foot or two deeper.
SO, the ones we want to CATCH, (the 4 year olds and older), will usually be found around 8 to 16 feet below the surface.
We’ve found this to be the situation in almost all of the lakes where we Bluegill fish.
We need to get the bait down to the larger (deeper) fish without being gobbled-up by those pesky little bait-stealers near the surface.
Luckily, this can be accomplished by casting our “weighted-bait” over and beyond the school, and then slowly retrieving the weighted-bait down beneath the small fish.
GOOD FINDING & CATCHING, and GREAT EATING
June 7, 2014 at 2:42 am -
I have been waiting for this day when I could read and apply common sense to the fishing art.