cold water gills, redear

[slickwater1]

alright boys when the moon is out in may we can catch a 100 an evening. is it possible to catch these guys in 50 degree water. if so where do i start and what type of presentation.

[ab824]

I have been catching about 25 or 30 every time I go fishing. I have been using jigs with tubes on stake beds and tree tops. I was fishing for crappie and was using 1/16th jigs but if I was going to focus on gills I would use 1/32 and always tip with crappie nibbles.

[slickwater1]

how deep you fishing. I caught a few out of some stake mats yesterday. Didn't catch a crappie but did manage a nice bass out of a brush pile.

[deathb4disco]

is it possible to catch these guys in 50 degree water.

Sure it is. Just check out the ice fishing board sometime.

Although, I don't ice fish (Atlanta is amazingly devoid of ice fishing opportunities), I actually prefer cold weather fishing. Most people forget about gills once the spawn is done.

I usually fish deeper water near the spawning grounds. I also use live bait much more. It's much more productive, IMO.

[azslabber]

Same her with the no ice thing.But when the water is 50 degrees,that's full blown winter here,and the gills love worms then.

["G"]

Red worms on the bottom in deep water near spawning areas works for me.

[redearhoosier]

As my handle indicates, I LOVE redear and choose to target them almost exclusively. My wife and I went Wed., March 24th and didn't do good at all. The temperature at Hardy was hovering around 48-50 degrees and the fish weren't biting. I fished deep water, in between water and shallow water with no luck. Ended up catching two small bluegill and one striped bass.

I'm of the opinion that yes you can catch them over ice in the winter but once it melts and they scatter, it becomes much tougher. I'm talking about early spring gill/ear fishing. I think the gill/ear action will turn on much more in the coming weeks as the weather warms up. They should really turn on in mid April, packing on the weight for the upcoming bedding season.

[jigtwins]

In my experience the cold water early season gills are usually in cover. Weeds or timber are the best for the lakes I fish. Try the same areas that you would find crappie in the fall , and the gills should be close by.

[ShellQuacker]

We almost always use worms, because we're targeting big shellcrackers, but we catch them pretty much 12 months a year. Obviously, the spring and warmer water brings better catch rates, but you can catch some really large bream in cold water. They taste great too!
All I would add, seems obvious but, slow your presentation down, and don't be afraid to fish shallow water on a sunny winter day. (No ice here either)

[Jiggin_Joe]

I catch gills all winter long threw the ice so I'm sure you can nail them in any temp heck they gatta eat right

JJ