Thread: Fall Gills

I fish east tn also mainly cherokee, the holsten, nolachucky and clinch rivers and douglas lake. I seem to catch more gills in the same places you spoke of, on bluff walls but I catch them alot on {small} minnows when Im crappie fishing. Last satuday I caught probobly 5 or 6 while crappie fishing the upper end of cherokee bluff walls with wood cover. 5 or 6 isnt alot but they were all big {for cherokee anyways}. Ive also caught them in the winter over humps on minnows. I think ther diet might change to minnows that time of year due to lack of insects or what ever else they eat. In {early} spring is a minnow bite as well for me.

Originally Posted by gillbuster

Question, for those who fish for winter crappie, in deeper water.. do you use smaller jigs, or larger jigs and jig vertically over them with crappie poles? Here in Masachusetts, I normally use 1/32 oz and tip it with Berkleys crappie nibblets. I normally cast it and let it drift down 8-10' and retrieve it slowly. I have tried tandem jigs also, no luck. I know there is some nice crappie/bluegills in these lakes. I tear them up in spring, summer, fall, but not in the winter. Maybe I am still fishing too fast for them??? Problem in the winter they must hug the bottom or disappear, I can't get them to hit jigs. Pickerel and yellow perch will hit it, but bluegill and crappie get lockjaw. any detailed techniques would be greatly appreaciated.
Gillbuster

Try brush on channel ledges. These fish will school up tight to brush. If the lake has little you can put out your own with great results. Live bait. Fish slow as the fish are lethargic. They have slow metabolisms this time of year.

Up at Ft. Campbell we have a gravel quarry that is about 80 feet deep and crystal clear pretty muchdown to 60 feet then the water gets kinda dark the rest of the way. Anyway I would take my two man bubber raft out there and fish for Gills. While fishing I noticed a tree that had fallen in and was hung up on a rock face in 20 foot of water I think. The Gills would school up on this tree and swim circles above it. Coolest thing I ever saw. Wish I had an under water camera with me then, the water was so clear it looked like you could almost touch the fish but they were 20 feet down. all the rest of the fish would hug the wall as close as they could.

I'm with T-roy on this one! I tend to target Gills in Winter with small minnows around dense wood cover. Also they will hit worms (but sometimes in Winter this is not always the case) fished very deep around wood cover but generally much fewer bites than in other months and most of the Gills tend to be above average size. Hope this helps!