Just bad year for me on Gills.

[Alphahawk]

I have had a great year catching crappie.....white bass......Smallies and a ton of spotted bass. But the one that I like to catch the most have just been nonexistent for me...the bluegill. I was below Nickajack Dam Sunday and I hooked a true trophy Gill. The water there is pretty clear. As I got the fish close to the net I could tell it was over 10 inches......a trophy here in Tennessee. It was a beautiful fish. Then out of nowhere a long nose gar that was 3.5-4 feet in length grabs my bluegill. It wasn't a fast attack like a largemouth would do, just a slow deliberate grab and he swam away slowly as my line tightened I knew it was going to get cut on the teeth......and it did. I was sick.....but that just kind of sums up my year for bluegill.......LOL. Oh well....this is life.


Regards


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[TerryD]

Going to have to keep the sidearm close at hand for the next time that happens. LOL

Several years back, I used to go to the dam in Columbia during my lunch hour. I started feeding a bunch of big bluegill daily that stayed right next to the dam. While feeding them one day, I witnessed about a 4' gar come through and grab one of the bigger gills. Evil critters for sure!

[LedHed]

Sorry about the bad luck on the BGs
Might have to get out here for a BG fix....

[hunter]

Tough break :-(
You are a good giller and we know you will be back on your game soon.
The fall bite is coming!!!

[trypman1]

Bad for me to, stayed sick most of spring, summer.

[Spoonminnow]

Alpha, do you fish from a boat?
Do you fish different bodies of water - especially those 15' or less?
Do the waters you fish, if more than one, have different structure (fish magnet areas)? Do you use sonar to find them in order to lock into a pattern?
What lures have you fished most to find and then catch fish in an area. (Note: sonar has it's limitations when finding fish you catch -IE especially those below the transducer; that's what the lure is for)?

[deathb4disco]

Alpha, do you fish from a boat?
Do you fish different bodies of water - especially those 15' or less?
Do the waters you fish, if more than one, have different structure (fish magnet areas)? Do you use sonar to find them in order to lock into a pattern?
What lures have you fished most to find and then catch fish in an area. (Note: sonar has it's limitations when finding fish you catch -IE especially those below the transducer; that's what the lure is for)?

Alphahawk knows what he's doing. His gill fishing is just not what it's been in prior years.

[Alphahawk]

Alpha, do you fish from a boat?
Do you fish different bodies of water - especially those 15' or less?
Do the waters you fish, if more than one, have different structure (fish magnet areas)? Do you use sonar to find them in order to lock into a pattern?
What lures have you fished most to find and then catch fish in an area. (Note: sonar has it's limitations when finding fish you catch -IE especially those below the transducer; that's what the lure is for)?

To answer your questions. Yes I fish from a boat........and I also have some bank spots. I put around 40,000 miles a year on a vehicle fishing. I fish multiple bodies of water in Tennessee. The lure I use is Trout Magnet....it has served me well...extremely well. I have hundreds of spots in a dozen or so different bodies of water that have produced for me over 3 decades. I use my electronics very much. I am aware that at times one may miss fish on a sonar.....however I have to tell you with the new HB Mega units you aren't go to miss much on di. It will literally pick up bluegill inches from the bottom....see image from today. All of those bluegill however were only 6-7 inches......not what I am looking for. It has not been a good year for bluegill fisherman in middle TN. That is not to say no one has caught fish...they have, but many have had same experience as me. We had a year like this about 10 years back. It has been an odd year with other specie also. For the past 7 weeks I have caught a ton of KY bass. Usually the fall of the year....winter......and early spring is best for them. Yet in the heat of summer I have been catching sometimes 40-50 fish in a four hour period on many days. So it has been an unexpected good thing to tie into those with the UL.......have never caught Spots in summer like this before. So I guess I lose out on one specie but make up for it with another. I will look for the Gills for the fall bite.........but in about 3 more weeks....or less, I will be targeting crappie pretty heavy. I am sure I will get on the Gills again come spring.

Regards


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

[Spoonminnow]

You definitely have the knowhow and equipment! My sonar doesn't come close in quality, but I never use it to find the fish that I end up catching far from the transducer. I wrote a report from today that I just erased realizing that you know your stuff and probably wouldn't find any of it useful. In any case, 48 fish - mostly sunfish before the rain came, were fun to provoke in 5-7'.

Wish I could have helped.