Right now in North Central Michigan I am catching them in water ranging from 5 - 30 fow. In the last couple weeks the gills really started moving in from the deepest parts of the lake to shallower bays. On the warm sunny evenings it is pretty easy to catch a good batch of gills that are hanging just under the surface and gorging themselves on minnows and zooplankton. When it is real cold at night and nice and warm during the day they will often have a tendancy to be down by the bottom throughout the night and early mornings, but as the sun climbs they will rise in the water column and take advantage of the warm sun. Plus there is a lot of minnow activity in the shallow bays this time of year, so any of the typical spawning bays tend to bring the gills and specks right back in the fall. This is actually my preferred time to catch good gills as they can be very aggressive. I am no fisheries biologist or anything, but I do believe they are preparing to head into the cold winter months by loading up on food now, much like a lot of other critters this time of year. Very light tackle, slow presentations, steadily searching all the depths that have any cover, or open water adjacent to structure. Just be sure to search very methodically as they could really be anywhere right now, but once you find them it should be good fishing.
This video will show you a bit on how I go about it this time of year.
August Panfish 2012 - YouTube