Laurel Hill Lake.

For many years Laurel Hill produced really large bluegill. But the past few years it has been on a downturn. It happened to be the best weather location for me and my son to fish today.....meaning the winds were decent and it wasn’t storming. We really didn’t expect too much but I’m always up for fishing with my son.....no matter catching or not. The day turned out to be great with the two of us boating over 200 Gills. I used the Fine Tail Banshee Area Trout Rod Super Ultra Light spooled with 2.3# test ester.....using a Sow Bug Trout Magnet on a 1.5 gram Daiwa Gekkabijin jig head. My son used a Bison colored Trout Magnet. Back in 2010 I caught a couple of copper nose in Laurel Hill......but since then only the occasional copper nose would show up. Today more than half of the bluegill we caught were northern strain copper nose mix. Why more full blooded copper nose are not showing up seems odd to me....but no doubt the genes are in the lake for sure. Most of the fish were 8-8.5 inches in length. Even the 7 inch fish had girth and put up a great fight. We were catching late bedding fish......found dozens of beds with the Helix Mega si.....to tell you the truth it made it pretty easy. After 7 hours of fishing I made the 95 mile drive back home. We had an absolute ball. Both of us reminisced about what Laurel Hill used to be like......hoping it will return to what it was.

RegardsAttachment 346212Attachment 346213Attachment 346214Attachment 346215Attachment 346216Attachment 346217


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Outstanding day for sure ! Thanks for sharing ! Nice uns

Great looking Gills, so the first couple fish pictures are hybrid mix? I have never caught a CNBG that I am aware of, would like to though :biggrin

Nice fish, and a very good day. I get some but nothing near those numbers. SIL and I will go Saturday morning, hope we get a break in the storms. Thanks for taking us along.

Good deal. That many fish would be a dream

What a great day with a boat load of action. Thanks for the great report.

Awesome day and report Randy! How are you identifying the copper nose x northern strain hybrids? Are you looking at the copper patch on their head? I haven’t seen enough in Arkansas to tell. Do the CNBG have less blue on their gill plates?

Looking forward to the next video!


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Originally Posted by StantheMan2567

Great looking Gills, so the first couple fish pictures are hybrid mix? I have never caught a CNBG that I am aware of, would like to though :biggrin

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Most of the fish I caught were mixed breed. It can be difficult to tell if you just go by color. The males on bed will have the copper stripe across the nose...that is the male copper nose will have that stripe. Since pure northern strain do not have that stripe it is a safe bet that the fish I caught are mixed copper nose. The copper nose were put in the lake by folks who fish a private lake that is not 3 miles from Laurel Hill. I guess they thought it would be a good thing. Back in 2014 I was asked if I wanted to fish that lake and I have been fishing it ever since. While it is privately owned anyone who drives through the gate can fish it. But the copper nose in there do not do well at all....but it is flat full of them. Back in 2011 I think it was I caught this copper nose out of Laurel Hill. I was excited thinking they were going to take hold in the lake...they obviously did not. I have talked with TWRA folks that do the shocking and they know that Laurel Hill is full of mixed breed bluegill.....yet they are as perplexed as me as to why very few pure copper nose are caught. In the private lake the copper nose spawn on up into September. They breed like freaking rabbits.....much more prolific than northern strain. I will hit it again in July as soon as my doc says I can go after he replaces my hip on 26 June to see if the spawn there goes on for July and August.

RegardsAttachment 346286

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Originally Posted by D10

Awesome day and report Randy! How are you identifying the copper nose x northern strain hybrids? Are you looking at the copper patch on their head? I haven’t seen enough in Arkansas to tell. Do the CNBG have less blue on their gill plates?

Looking forward to the next video!


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Here is a pic of copper nose caught out of Laurel Hill back in 2011. When they mix they don’t have all these bright colors. The copper patch is the giveaway. That and copper nose tend to be a taller fish top to bottom than northern strain. TWRA is aware of the lake being full of the mixed fish. Only a few pure copper nose are caught each year. I guess it only takes a few fish to spread the genes. I am also going to include a couple of pics of Attachment 346289what was pretty much a regular catch from Laurel Hill from about 2009-2013.

RegardsAttachment 346287Attachment 346288


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Awesome!