suspending bluegill frustration!

Long post so skip to the end if you just want to see if you can answer my question lol =)

I live in the rochester area of NY and often head to honeoye lake to chase Bluegills.

The gills at Honeoye get massive but I have yet to figure the lake out. I also target gills at other lakes and have no difficulty finding them at the typical places like deep weed edge, points, docks etc.

The gills at honeoye however dont behave the same as other spots I fish. They are easily found during spring and early summer...but once summer is in full swing they suspend in deep water in the middle of the lake.

Since I fish from a kayak and don't have a motor it can be very frustrating trying to locate them by paddling and keeping an eye on the depthfinder.

Today I hit honeoye again and figured with our nights being cooler, the gills would be moving back to the weed edges...but NOPE!
I caught a few bass but none of the wonderful Honeoye monster gills.:mad:

Anyway! Heres my question. Does anyone have any experience with gills that behave similarly? Is there any set pattern to their behavior? Suspending fish really frustrate me so anyhelp would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

I Am By No Means An Expert But I Can Tell You What Worked For Me At A Small City Lake Where The Gills Acted In A Similar Manor. We Tried Everything We Knew One Day And Gave Up And Started Trolling For Crappie. Wouldn't You Know It, We Started Catching The Larger Gills. Trolling Real Slow With Jigs. They Show Up On The Finder As A Single Fish, Or Maybe Two Suspended At About 7 Ft In About 18 Ft Of Water. This Was In July And Plenty Hot. This Doesn't Seem To Work As Well In Larger Impoundments.hey, Give It A Try. Hope It Helps.

I think i would try drop shotting them, get right ofver them and lower the bait to them slowly. remember that your transducer sits lower than the water surface so take that into concideration.

Big

You might try bee moths under a slip bobber...sometimes that's pretty hard to beat this time of year.

might be a dumb question but whats a bee moth lol

What is a bee moth? Where do you get them? Is this a Yankee bait?

Bee moths are also known as wax worms. Maggot looking larva. Most bait shops carry them. I use them alot for gills.
Bill

get them shipped to you !! Grubco is an excellent place to get your live bait, and they are also a site Sponsor !! http://www.grubcobait.com/

Dale Cochran is a great guy, and very supportive of our sport. Tell him I sent you :D ... or tell him you're a Crappie.com member. Neither will get you a lower price, but it will continue to show Grubco that its sponsorship of the site, is a good deal ... and they will continue to support the site.

...................

As for catching deep water suspended fish - they're not there by accident. And they don't get "massive" by accident, either.
Find the depth of the Thermocline, and fish just above it.
Look at a map of the lake - find those "middle of the lake" drops/points/channel bends/humps ... and any cover that may be on them.
They're not just out in open water, hiding from your hook :p they're there for a reason, and they're oriented to a specific type of structure/cover/depth setup. They're also there, because there's food there !! Watch the Depth Finder for schools of baitfish, suspended at a certain depth ... fish slightly deeper than the bottom of the school, as long as that depth doesn't take your bait below the Thermocline. If there's ANY type of structure or cover (tree, hump, brushpile, bridge pilon) that extends above the Thermocline layer ... fish around it !!

... luck2ya ... cp :cool:

Just a clarification... the question really isn't in what to use to get them to bite. Once I find the gills I usually dont have too much difficulty....rather the
question is the behavior and location of gills that suspend instead of relating to cover.

Thanks for the replies.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/images/regions_images/honeoye.gif

... my guess would be that they're in the deepest part of the lake and suspended because of water temp, security, and feeding opportunities. And since the lake isn't all that big, or very wide, they really don't have far to go to get to shallow water or warmer water (if temps start dropping drastically). And with Alewifes being in the lake ... they're probably staying in the coolest layer of water they can find --- so the Bluegill are most likely suspending nearby ;)

Looking at this map : I'd be looking at the deep hole on the East side of the lake (mid-lake). I'd also be looking at the knob point that juts out, just North of the deep hole. The steep drop in front of the private launch would be of interest, too.

... luck2ya ... cp :cool: