My 2 Cents On Pre-Spawn Gills

Reading all the recent reports on the Panfish board lately has me biting at bit to get out there and assess the spawning progress of the local Bluegill population. The moon and stars did not line up well for me this evening but I made it work anyway and squeezed in 2 hours of run and gun fun searching for the little buggers. Water temperatures of 75, a good sign but the afternoon winds frustrated me on the first couple spots. The Corto with the light braid was not working, had to keep the rod tip low and could not feel the jig. I visited two known bedding areas and absolutely nothing. Ok, time to look at pre-spawn haunts, deep banks, drop offs, and sheltered deep little cuts off primary points. This combination worked, as I started picking up a few here and there, nothing big, but medium sized chunky Gills.
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I caught a nice female, and decided to keep her for some R&D on egg development and Spawn progress.
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If you notice all fish this afternoon that were photographed were caught on the Triple Cross. I started with the Corto but an old nasty catfish took my Trout Magnet and Berkley Wax Worm, and left me with some slime and frustrations. I retied once, lost another rig to a “rock” fish, so with my limited time I put it away and used the Triple Cross the rest of the evening. My conclusions from this evening are about the same as Alphahawk lamented this afternoon in his report, they are just NOT spawning yet. The males were not peeing when squeezed, but are getting colored up nicely. 17 was the number on the clicker tonight as I put my gear away and headed back. I only invited 7 home, mainly to look at their “innards”!
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The top two males were just nice chunks, perfect eating size for this lake. Lots of fun on the JDM gear.
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The big girl above was indeed gravid, but not ready to lay them by any means as the eggs were developing and not bloody or soft. Around here, I believe the main spawn comes on the Full Moon in May and June. Just my opinion, and your mileage may vary. Anyway, a fun evening, hopefully the first of many to come over the next few weeks. Get out there, they are biting!


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Great report. I started fishing the staging areas mid March. Last 2 weeks have been catching Pre & post spawn fish in the same area. I think the CNBG spawn earlier and more then the Northern BG.

Great report Stan. You’ll hit them right one day soon when it all comes together.

Pretty fish....good girth on them.

Regards


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Originally Posted by LedHed

Great report. I started fishing the staging areas mid March. Last 2 weeks have been catching Pre & post spawn fish in the same area. I think the CNBG spawn earlier and more then the Northern BG.

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The areas I fished last night were dry ground in mid March. Our lakes fluctuate so much from winter to Spring I can literally walk around the bedding areas and brushpiles that I fish later in the year. Makes for a challenge to hit them at the right times.

Very nice and very informative read Stan. Seems you were very systematic in your approach and knew just when to eliminate certain areas and move on to others until you found what was producing some fish.
I think that logical process of eliminating water (spots) over more productive ones, as demonstrated in your report; is where a lot of fishers find themselves disconnected, unproductive and aimlessly wondering.
Well done sir. It sounds like you are on the edge of something pretty awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Good report and pics, We are starting to catch some nice gills and crackers here in south TN. close to the beds but not on them, yet.