Bluegill at Night?

[NeonMoon]

Anyone have any experience (or even opinion) with catching 'gills at night? I'm thinking about going out later this week and trying for some crappie, and didn't know if I'd have any luck targeting 'gills or not?

[no1son]

Generally sunfish shut down about dark or a little before, but not always. Crappies though can be real productive after dark. In some cases that is the only time the real slabs come out, especially where there is heavy fishing pressure on them.

[storminyoung]

Your best bet is 6-7p till dark, about 10p. for us hoosiers right now. I tend to get the best bite in the transition areas, points and cove mouths with good weed lines in 10-12'. The lakes I fish seem to maintain the bite into the evenings just as good as in the mornings.

[Bronson]

I've caught them on bed in the spring time, usually with a dark colored tube jig. One thing I found odd was I would be catching them pretty good but as soon as it got dark, dark they would jump one time every time you set the hook. They weren't jumping at all when there was any light. Sometimes it helps to fish around lighted docks especially if weeds are present.

I always trimmed the tail of a tube right behind the hook. Bluegill are notorious for nipping the end of your bait. Might help to tip with worms. By the way, another guy was fishing with worms and couldn't get a hit while they were tearing my jig up. Because I was casting and slowly reeling it back in, they might have been hitting because it was moving.

[no1son]

I've caught them on bed in the spring time, usually with a dark colored tube jig. One thing I found odd was I would be catching them pretty good but as soon as it got dark, dark they would jump one time every time you set the hook. They weren't jumping at all when there was any light. Sometimes it helps to fish around lighted docks especially if weeds are present.

I always trimmed the tail of a tube right behind the hook. Bluegill are notorious for nipping the end of your bait. Might help to tip with worms. By the way, another guy was fishing with worms and couldn't get a hit while they were tearing my jig up. Because I was casting and slowly reeling it back in, they might have been hitting because it was moving.

For us the crappies tend to move up in the water column as it gets darker. There are a whole lot more surface and immediate subsurface crappies as night falls. There are times it seems that they will meet the jig as it falls out of the sky on the cast. Then often if you get your cast accurate enough you might take crappie after crappie right at the surface in the same place.

I am guessing that at times we actually pull those very shallow fish out of the water on the hook set. I have seen bluegills "jump", too, but that is also almost always the result of line tension as one of their sideways runs comes up to the surface. A decent bluegill on a cast presentation makes some really impressive side runs, which the crappie tends to do more thrashing and headshaking and tends to come in much more directly. In mixed areas you can generally tell which one you have hooked by how they fight as well as generally how they bite.

[cdub]

Nighttime is when I get my biggest fish. On the lake I live on they start coming to the surface 45 min. before dark. I troll as slow as possible a casting bobber with a black rubber spider or a black popper approx. 2 ft behind the bobber. You just want that lure to make a slight wake. Hold on, they really whack them. I'll cacth fish up to 2:00am. The bigger fish suspend over deep water, no need to be by shore. Hope this helps!

[Bronson]

I am guessing that at times we actually pull those very shallow fish out of the water on the hook set. I have seen bluegills "jump", too, but that is also almost always the result of line tension as one of their sideways runs comes up to the surface.

Makes sense, they always came up on the hookset

[Spawn]

Ive caught a couple at night