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Hi,i got these two fishing poles and both reels are spooled with 4lb line with 7' light action rods.What rig can i use from shore to catch blue gill and pan fish?Are there any still fishing rigs i can use instead of using a bobber?What lb line should i use?Where i fish,Lake perris,i've seen this guy with a bag full of blue gills he caught from shore but i couldn't see his rig setup.I did see he was using light action outfits.He was using crickets for bait.
Casting almost any small jig will catch gills. Try Beetle Spins, Trout Magnets, marabou or hair jigs. They are especially effective when tipped with bait, like a piece of worm.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dgonzo85
For line, I wouldn't go higher than 4#. You'll get more bites and greater casting distance with 2#.
Try fishing on bottom.
You mean with a carolina rig?Quote:
Originally Posted by droptine
You could carolina rig it. I like to put my lead at the end of my mainline and the hook up from the lead about 16".
dgonzo85
You are probably fishing the best lake ever for panfish. Me and a partner keep a 21' pontoon in the Marina just to fish for big Bluegill. My partner has the lake record for Redear. I got a 17" crappie this year. We got a couople of Brutegill that went over 2lbs as well. All on jigs.
Fish 2lb test - 1/32nd/#8 hook jig
I second that. Also try small crank baits and roadrunners too.Quote:
Originally Posted by deathb4disco
Small Rooster Tail
What size treble hook should i use?How do you hook crickets on them?
I love Lake Perris.I always see people catching bluegills.The DFG stocked it with rainbow trout not too long ago and i heard that the marina is a good spot.
Depending on when you fish (as in where in the water column the fish should be located) ... you can use several rigs, other than a hook/sinker/float setup.
One I like to use, when fishing on bottom, is the "worm rig" (as in Bass fishing with a plastic worm). Simply put, it's a 3/16oz bullet shaped slip sinker, with a #4 lite wire hook tied on the end of your line. You "can" put a bobber stopper on your line, between the hook & slip sinker, to insure that the baited hook flutters down after the sinker has hit bottom ... how long it takes your baited hook to reach bottom, after the sinker hits, is determined by how much distance you place between the hook & bobber stopper. Bites are detected by your line moving away from your rod, towards where the sinker landed. I've used this setup for nesting Shellcracker, & occasionally for Bluegill.
Another setup that works, is the "drop shot" rig. Basically it's a sinker tied onto the end of your line, with your hook tied up the line about 12" - 18" (or more) depending on how far off bottom you want to fish & how deep the water is where your rig is thrown (the angle of the line vs the depth dictates how far up the line your hook needs to be ... to get the baited hook at the proper depth). Bites are detected the same way as they are when you're tightline fishing .... you'll feel the jerk thru the rod.
If you know the bottom isn't full of stuff that you'll hang up in .... you could use a simple tightline setup (hook/sinker). But, fishing from shore, you might want to use a much smaller/lighter sinker than you would normally use ... in order for the baited hook to slowly fall thru the water column. Or, you could simply let the rig fall, counting down to the desired depth ... and reeling it back in, before it hits bottom or doesn't get a strike. Mud bottoms, pea gravel bottoms, & moss covered bottoms are good examples of where this rig could be used.
If the lake has the size panfish that the others claim .... artificials are a good choice. Some suggestions for consideration, are :
1/32oz marabou Roadrunner
Sinking Rapala minnow
Mini Crankbaits
In-line spinners (like the Rooster Tail, Mepps, Blue Fox, Panther Martin)
Beetle Spins
Pop-eye jigs (with or without plastics/live bait added)
As for using Crickets .... I'd use a #4 Aberdeen (but, you could use a long shanked "cricket hook", or even a smaller sized Aberdeen). You neither need to, or want to, use a treble hook with a Cricket. What you want to do is to put the hook point into the Cricket at it's neck ... then thread it onto the hook, with the hook point coming out the other end. (Some may suggest just the opposite, & that works, too.) The hook point being exposed does not deter the fish from biting the Cricket .... it looks like another leg coming out of the Cricket. Small fish will peck at the Cricket, at the legs & head .... larger fish will simply suck the whole Cricket in.
Use whatever pound test line that your reel works best with .... Bluegill & other Sunfish are rarely line shy. Your 7' light action rod & 4lb test line are fine.
.... luck2ya .. cp :cool:
your rods n reels would be perfect for panfish!
Don't forget to try a keystone minnow. Deadly on gills and crappie.
X2 weight on bottom works best for me.. you can cover a lot of water with that rig.. I usualy put 2 hooks spaced 12-18 apart and the weight about 12-18" below the botttom hook.. I'll put a cricket on one and a red wiggler on the other till they tell me what they want.Quote:
Originally Posted by droptine
slider spinners are a great choice .
This may help some.
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/main-...beginners.html
I would use small cranks like strike king bitsy minnows, or road runner heads with curly tailed panfish assassin soft plastics. Even though I don't know that area those are my go to techniques.
All I've ever used(besides the occasional beetle spin by Bess)is a 6ft ugly stick,ultra light fluger spinning reel/4lb test of course.No weight,no bobber,just a night crawler(hooked like plastics,on small bait holder)or cricket. Actually casts pretty good too.Only draw back is that you've really got to pay attention,or the gill swallows the hook down.Even catch the occasional Crappie like this also.
Lots of good responses here. Ill just think out loud for a minute...
Some things about bluegill are important to know, before any bait selection is made. Bluegill are primarily sight feeders and their normal forage foods are small invertebrates like snails, grubs, nymphs, insects and so on.
Their mouths are small, too, when compared to other favored sport fish, so the foods that can get in them must also be.
Finally, they are not "chasers," meaning they don't run their food like other predatory fish. They will take small fish and fry, and they are cannibalistic in this regard - they will eat their own young. But they tend to "blast and stun" their food; they smash it hard from ambush to stun it, and then come around again to grab it up.
Their normal 'modus operandi' is to hover around structure, sheltered areas and weedy bottoms, nosing around for their foods.
Hooks in the 8-12 size range are standard for them. Long shanks are favored to prevent hook swallowing. Baits and lures in the 1" range are the common stuff for panfish. Also, because they don't chase after their food, slow presentations are important. The way to fish for bluegill is to fish slow - and then to slow down. Tuning your lures and their presentations to accommodate this will pay dividends.
So what lures are we talking about?
The traditional artificial for bluegill is the small jig, with maribou or feather trailer. In fact, if one looks at the top lures of all times, the jig is usually near the top. Jig head weights in the 1/16-1/64 size are typical for bluegill. More modern innovations include the addition of spinners to the jig, like Blakemore's 'Roadrunner' or Charlie Brewer 'Bees'.
Soft plastic twister tails, tube skirts and other "wigglers" round out the newer additions. "Tipping" the jig with small bait bits, like worm or maggots, is also favored and the new fake food baits like Berkleys "Gulp!" is gaining ground. Typical colors seen on panfish jigs are black, white, yellow, chartreuse, red and green.
It is also known that feeding bluegill will hit almost anything in the water, including a bare gold hook! Everything from hot dogs to bits of bread dough are known to take them when they are feeding actively. So just using a teensy jig and poking it around wherever brim can be found usually results in hits and hookups.
Wire spinner baits are also mentioned often, "Beetle Spins" being the most popular. Fish-N-Supply has their "Fish-N-Spin," which is basically a Beetle Spin with willow leaf blade and shortened bail. Ive never had a lot of success with these, but in looking back, I find I have usually had these too big. The very smallest, 1/32 oz sizes are what you want.
Inline wire spinners are also good for panfish. The Mepps and Blue Fox family of spinner baits are what I'm talking about here. But any "trout spinner" should do as well, like the original Colorado or Indiana in-line. Also seen are hook spinner rigs, with a spinner blade on a mono leader above the hook - just a blade with a few beads between itself and the hook.
Hard baits, or "crankbaits" also produce, especially the bigger bull bluegills. These larger fish are the only ones that can effectively feed on small minnows and other fish fry, so using these lures pre-selects in favor of bigger fish. You get less action, but the fish you catch are bigger. So once oyuve started feeding the "pee-poppers," pull out a rig with a teensie crankbait and fish it deep, around the fringe of the action. You may also hook up with other fish like crappie and bass, when using these.
Favorites here are the smallest Rapala's (#3), Yo-Zuri "Snap Beans" and other micro-sized minnow mimics. Also worth mentioning are the Luhr-Jensen "Flatfish" and the crawfish mimics. Here again smaller is better. The rule of thumb here is simple: If you think a particular crankbait is small, it isn't small enough. Keep looking.
Next are spoons. These are some of the most versatile artificial baits of all and I prefer them after jigs. "Daredevle's" rarely fail to produce, and other choices are the 1/8-1/16 sized Little Cleo's, Sidewinder, K.O. Wobblers, and so on. The 'Johnson Minnow' weedless spoon is one of my favorites. It will sound redundant, but you have to select spoons that can be run slowly around weed lines, cover and structure. Then use "jerk and flutter" retrieves. Bluegill usually hit these on the fall. It can be helpful to tip the hook with a trailer of feather, bright yarn, worm bits, or micro sized soft plastics.
Something else worth trying are ice jigs and ice fishing flutter spoons. These were once seen only in the frozen north, but panfish everywhere respond to them - today, we call them "micro spoons" and are seeing many variations on the theme. In their basic form, they are just a common Colorado, Indiana or Willow Leaf spinner blade with a hook soldered or otherwise attached to them. In fact, a mess of different ones in your tackle box are worth having, or you can make your own this way.
And we don't want to forget the fly fisherman here. Bluegill take to flies readily and almost any forage food can be duplicated effectively with a fly, In fact, when the brim are feeding lightly and being otherwise fussy, a fly may be the best way to turn them on. And you dont have to be a rabid fly fisherman, either - spinner men can use flies too.
Tie the fly on the lightest line, then "trail" it behind a cigar bobber or casting float. Work this around weed beds and other structure with a "jerk-pull and wait" retrieve, so the fly comes along behind, zipping and hovering in the water. The "waiting" is the better part of this retireve, by the way... that's when the bluegill usually nail it.
This was my brother in laws favorite technique for years and I've seen him kill Florida bluegill this way.
When it comes to natural baits, the traditional and most loved baits are crickets, worms and grubs, in that order. These are fished "free flying," i.e. without weight, when the fish are shallow, or add a small amount of split shot if a bit of depth is needed. But I think it is safe to say that they are mostly fished beneath a bobber of some kind.
An old idea that is seeing a resurgence is the use of a "slip float." This is a bobber which allows you to suspend the bait at any depth you choose from 4 to 40 ft, and makes for some easy casting. Older fixed and clip-on bobbers only allow you to have about 6 feet of line beneath them - and the dangling fixed hook lead can be a pain to cast. The slip float cures these problems. So wherever the fish are holding, deep or shallow, these "slippers" allow a bobber to place the bait right in front of the fish.
Alright, I've rambled here. I admit, bluegill are my favorite game fish. I hope I've added to the discussion somewhat. Thanks.
Excellent write-up, Dahut! Hands Clapping You an editor for a sports magazine? If not, you could be! I fully agree with the last statement you made...I started fishing as a kid for gills-hooked for life. Thumbs Up
great ifo dahut,thanks for the tips.
I'm jealous, you get to fish one of the premier bluegill/panfish lakes in the entire country. I've seen some photos of fantastic gills/redears coming out of there. I'm not opposed to artificial baits because they do produce but I'm old school. I fish here in Indiana for redear and bluegill by fishing directly on bottom with good red worms. I'll use a small sinker and a #4 Aberdeen long shank wire hook and let it sit on bottom. On a typical day, I'll have this setup on two poles and the other pole will have a slip float either suspended at a certain depth or laying over on it's side indicating it's on bottom too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dgonzo85
I find that fishing on bottom allows me to catch more redear, which is what I'm targeting anyway, and the bluegill I do catch, seem to be bigger than most. I'd fish Lake Perris the same way if I were you, throw it out in 8-10 foot of water and get ready! Tip-put two lively red worms on the same hook, BIG redear and bluegill are greedy. Crickets don't hold well enough on the hook IMO, so I seldom use them.
Its a pretty safe bet that the larger bluegill are in deeper water. Fishing on or near the bottom, in 6-14 feet is the thing to do in the warmer seasons, say, late in the spawn and into summer (even deeper in the winter).Quote:
Originally Posted by redearhoosier
Regardless, they arent usually inthe shallows during daylight, unless there is plenty of shady cover. It's best to look for deeper water where it draws close to weeds and cover close to shore.
From the bank, early morning and late evening is your best bet for catching the big fish as they transition to evening feeding in the shallows.
I like to use a slip float, too, suspended about a foot off the bottom around structure or deep pockets.
Nice.Thanks.Ill be fishing for bluegill at perris lake in the summer more often.
The southern pro tiny worms have been working well for me on the bluegill, especially last year. I havent been out much this year, but they usually work.
Im also interested in the Berkley Gulp products. Ive yet to use any of them.
http://8f253ang9l8p0u956gu508l622.hop.clickbank.net/
Lake Perris 03/28/11 124th belly spinner chub jig with a cricket. We fish UL jigs all year long - just change the depth.
Attachment 58264
That is a gorgeous gill. You mostly use 2# line?Quote:
Originally Posted by LedHed
dbd
Like the Yo Zuri Hybrid green 2lb - use to use Tecton.
wait, is the camera too close? or, is THAT the fish?
I caught one like that there with an inflated nightcrawler on 2lb test and it snapped the leader off.That happened last week.
jonny177 – that fish is over 10” three of my fingers is ~2.5” – should have measured it. My partner and a buddy got on them last week – our big Bluegills are starting to show up.
Dgonzo85 – “I caught one like that there with an inflated nightcrawler on 2lb test and it snapped the leader off.That happened last week.” If you did that from shore – it was more than likely that it was a Redear.
The BG are in 20’+ range, but will be moving in shallower now – especially after the warm weather this week. The RE are going back and forth to the shallow range – seen some real nice ones coming from the marina.
This is going to be a banner year for the Big Bluegill and Redear, this season, at Lake Perris. They need to leave the water level alone!!!!!
I'm gonna try more 2# line this year. You're probably fishing clearer water than me, but I'll still try it.Quote:
Originally Posted by LedHed
On a side note, I was on another forum recently and was amazed at how many people use 8 or 10# mono for gills. One guy even used 12#! :eek:
I have had some luck using a modified drop-shot rig. Using 2# line I tie a big dropper loop a couple of feet up the line and cut the loop at the top end. Then I tie a small (8,10,12) size hook to that hanging part of the dropper loop and put a small drop-shot sinker about 18 inches down. Fish with waxworms, redworms, I even saw somebody using this rig catch really big ones with a tiny piece of mackerel off the shore at Perris. Using the drop-shot and the hanging line allows your bait to be more active and move around a little more.
I lost the fish at lots 11 and 12.Im going over there again this saturday.Im not sure what it was,i know it was a panfish because i saw it and it wasnt no trout which i was really going for.