Afternoon bluegilling

[Illinoisgiller]

I finally got to slip off and chase some bluegill yesterday afternoon. I used my Fish Cat #4 float tube so was pleased to find the public lake smooth as glass. There was a green cast to the water from a slight algae bloom. I had wax worms and salted shrimp bits for tipping . I used a variety jigs with some Crappie Pro heads I had tied on producing best. Most of the fish I caught were males recovering from the spawn and smaller ones. This lake does have some very nice gills but I wasn't able to find them. I run an old Eagle Fish easy 350C sonar and found most fish at 20-25' along an edge that drops on to near 30. Most of the fish I kept including a couple 13" bass came from shallower weed edges . I and my son were asked by the DNR to start keeping all the small bass we get from the area strip mines .
They don't eat bad when young so I kept a couple.