Thread: How to Locate Bluegill Beds

Bluegill will bed in a bunch of different places, in the lakes I fish, a flat, or a small shallow pocket, or shallow point are some of the best places to look. You should be able to spot them next to the bank or close to shallow cover with a good pair of polarized glasses. Beds are usually not that deep, unless your talking about redears, they will spawn deeper, were talking about visible beds. Some believe gills will bed in 10' or so, but those are a little harder to find. You may see 5 beds or you may see 100, just depends. Spotting them is farily simple, if you know where to look. As mentioned before, you can smell them when on the spawning beds. Good luck!

Originally Posted by Locator79

Bluegill will bed in a bunch of different places, in the lakes I fish, a flat, or a small shallow pocket, or shallow point are some of the best places to look. You should be able to spot them next to the bank or close to shallow cover with a good pair of polarized glasses. Beds are usually not that deep, unless your talking about redears, they will spawn deeper, were talking about visible beds. Some believe gills will bed in 10' or so, but those are a little harder to find. You may see 5 beds or you may see 100, just depends. Spotting them is farily simple, if you know where to look. As mentioned before, you can smell them when on the spawning beds. Good luck!

really? what do they smell like?

Originally Posted by jonnythefisherman1

really? what do they smell like?

I smelled up a bunch of bedding Bluegill, one time .... and the smell was just like a "fishy smell", not the "dead fish' stinky smell but more of a smell like when you pass by a bucket of fresh caught fish or a stringer full of fish that someone's holding. I was going down a bank, wind blowing towards me .... once the smell went away, I turned back around & started fishing. Sure enough, there they were

I've also heard people say that it smells alot like ripe watermelon :p
I've also heard people say they look for lots of tiny bubbles coming to the surface in an area ... supposedly bubbles are released from the bottom, when the Blugill are making the nest depression.

... cp

Originally Posted by crappiepappy

I smelled up a bunch of bedding Bluegill, one time .... and the smell was just like a "fishy smell", not the "dead fish' stinky smell but more of a smell like when you pass by a bucket of fresh caught fish or a stringer full of fish that someone's holding. I was going down a bank, wind blowing towards me .... once the smell went away, I turned back around & started fishing. Sure enough, there they were

I've also heard people say that it smells alot like ripe watermelon :p
I've also heard people say they look for lots of tiny bubbles coming to the surface in an area ... supposedly bubbles are released from the bottom, when the Blugill are making the nest depression.

... cp

the old timers look for bubbles and call it foaming , you can tell the difference in fish bubbles and just air pockets .

How it smells will depend on the lake. THink about it, they're roiling the bottom up when they fan, that's what you smell. Gotta remember the 'foaming', I've found that around here the larger gills are generally the deeper bedding gills.

[QUOTE=INGrandad;1199743]How it smells will depend on the lake. THink about it, they're roiling the bottom up when they fan, that's what you smell. Gotta remember the 'foaming', I've found that around here the larger gills are generally the deeper bedding gills.[/QUOTE just smell your finger,after you caught a few.
They like to bed over a over hanging branch sometime's, they suck stump's and iffrn the bottom aint red sand the water should be of a difernt color soft residue. Bubble's i find are in shallower water as the lake i fish now is mostly shallow.
And oppen water bed's that are harder to find i would immagine will be the deepest? And in differn color screen's on side iammaging as said the color you are using will appear the same shade, bronze a more bronzer color golf ball(Iffen a fsh is on the bed,on sideimmaging to me it looks like a golf ball.) the lighter the lighter the redder the redder as the shade's tend to favor! Just my oppoin? Happy fourth feller's!!
PS i still think if there is one there and you have a crickett kicken they will have to have it?

Originally Posted by jonnythefisherman1

really? what do they smell like?

FISH

Originally Posted by Buckeyemusky

FISH

See, I was thinking more like DINNER:D

use the SI if they're out in deeper water to track them down:D:D:D

Originally Posted by DonDon

use the SI if they're out in deeper water to track them down:D:D:D

Thats an awsome picture, but not being a user of electronics could you describe a bit of what I am looking at some of the technical info such as depth, temp, etc. Thanks