What advice can you give me for locating bream beds. I usually can catch them once I locate them but finding a concentrations of fish is a problem for me.
Thanks for the advice
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What advice can you give me for locating bream beds. I usually can catch them once I locate them but finding a concentrations of fish is a problem for me.
Thanks for the advice
A good pair of polarized sunglasses will help. I find most of my beds by seeing them.
Some people claim that they can smell when and where blue gills are bedding.
Once you get to know the odor you will never forget it.
1. Sight, as long as you are looking in probable spots.
2. Smell
3. Bubbles
All of the above.....the new side scanning sonar also works great .Quote:
Originally Posted by brimeater
i look for dark spots in the water.the beds look like you took a 5 gallon bucket and smashed the gravel or mud down making holes everywhere this from fanning.good polarized sunglasses will help more than anything.where im from in tn they are usually on the beds late may and june and i would start looking in 2to3ft of water
This is a good post I was just about to ask the same question. In south east Virginia the waters are tannic, dark tea colored, you cannot really see past a foot ever.
What is the norm, the north west side of a lake? a north shore of a shallow cove? How about depth, does it matter? I am guessing less than 4 feet? I catch random bluegills around logs and stumps but they seem to always be small, like 4 inches max.
What is the difference in the males and females? do most folks toss back the females?
I am assuming the larger one are on the beds. I have targeted crappie only for the last 3 years spending 2 trips trying for gills. not being to successful.
Hi,
As usual I have not communicated well. Maybe my wife is right!!! What I was trying to convey is that I know what he beds look like I just don't know the best places to look for them. I am sure I need to be looking in 1 - 2' of water but should I be looking for shallow water that is near deeper water, in larger flats, etc. Thanks for the replies.
I look for hard bottom, out of the wind, and 1 to 4 feet of water. If you have old road beds in lake I would start there. Hope this helps.
I have found no consistency with the location of bluegill beds! I use two techniques on a new lake to find the: 1) motor (fast idle) around the bank pretty close, 10' or so, from the edge and watch/look. You can move pretty fast and just mark the ones you see. Of course the water has to be clear to see them. 2) Get a fly rod and popping bug and again cruise the bank pretty quick casting every 5-10' along the bank. If the popper lands above an active bed it gets HAMMERED immediately. I usually have to circle back to fish it. The first technique covers more water quicker but the second technique is much more fun.
Wait for a full moon. Find shallow coves with sandy bottoms. Look for the beds which resemble tires under the water. Then, catch 'em fast as you can!
good idea Dickie
Round here you can smell em out, it will knock you outta the boat, smells like ripe watermelons to me. In my home state of SC i would catch alot of gills and not ever smell the beds. Just pick a cove or section of the lake and fish it well like dickie said. Fish everyspot on the bank and if you find a bed they will hammer it. Dont fish like alot of guys i see who just sit in one spot and fish, you gotta stay on the move and when you catch one throw back in the same spot and if its a bed it will happen time and time again, if they dont hit it again, move on. You cant always see the beds so dont rely on sight, if it rains the water gets all stirred up and you cant see anything anyway. I like to use crickets under a small cork.
if you found beds last year there should be some in the same general area from year to year at least it seems that way to me
yep, bream will bed in the same spot year after year. I have beds back home that me and my dad found when i was little and still going back to em and gettin on fish.
Don't fish beds, give the fish a chance - not a challenge.
I bed fish very little anymore, for a couple of reasons:Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyrod Man
1) I'm not always free to fish during the best times (full moon.)
2) The fish just get hammered at that time of year. Everybody's fishing for them.
My best fishing is almost always after the spawn. Most people ignore them once the spawn is done, which means I have them mostly to myself.
Your joking right? thats like saying dont deer hunt during the rut.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyrod Man
Deer hunting has a specific season, though. You have to hunt during the rut. There's no season for bluegill. You can catch them year round.Quote:
Originally Posted by Southern Young Gun
You don't have to fish beds to catch plenty of big fish. Bump bottom around the ledges and deeper water next to spawning flats. You'll be surprised at how many big fish you'll catch.
haha, c'mon man are you guys really being serious? This fella posted a thread about how to find beds b/c obviously hes havin a little trouble and wants to get a hold of some good fishin and you guys are kinda hijacking his thread and making it seem that if you fish a bed you less of a fisherman. And deer dont have to be hunted during the rut where im from. Season opens Aug 15th and goes out Jan 1st, which leaves plenty of time that the deer arent rutting, just sayin. Almost any biologist will tell ya that plenty of bream need to come out of lakes and ponds to keep over population down. Why do you think the limits are so high? In Florida is 50 per person, per day. If yall are so good at finding beds that yall pass them by and dont fish em, tell the guy who started the thread your method so he can use it. dont take my words to heart just a friendly disagreement. Here are a few pics of some gills that came off the bed down here in Florida. Now why would you want to pass this up?
Attachment 57709Attachment 57710
same here , syg, where I'm at. too many gills in a lot of places. catching them is not a big challenge. takes one day to learn. but its a great way to have fun and great eating to. not let my grandson fish a bed? get real. h
I don't feel that way. I've fished beds before, and I'll do it again. I just don't rely on it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Southern Young Gun
I wouldn't pass it up. My point is that most people pass up the excellent fishing before and after the spawn. Some of my absolute best bluegill days have been in Nov/Dec/Jan.Quote:
Originally Posted by Southern Young Gun
THIS - is what I want to learn...I catch a couple of BIG gills from time when I fish for crappie in the winter months, but I wanna learn how to go after them specifically. I also want to figure out how/where to grab the bigguns in the heat of summer...I love stump-knockin; and all, but we have a few lakes here that are famed for breedin' dinner plate-sized gills...I want somma dat!Quote:
Originally Posted by deathb4disco
sbc
I understand what you mean by dont rely on the beds to catch gills but the only time I really gill fish anymore is in the heat of the summer when im not catchin as many crappie, and this year i prob wont even go after em at all b/c im doing a rehaul on my boat this summer, paint, boards, carpet, wires, etc. Last year i fished for gills during July and August and they were still bedding. They bed from like March/April thru August down here so its not too hard to get on em if you go to the right lakes.
before the side-imaging days - i would use my black widow spider rig. i would bait up 6 poles with crickets, redworms, and grubs, then troll the open water just outside the banks at a pretty good clip. after i would locate a bed - i would mark it - and then find a couple more. this is espcially effective for shellcrackers.
Like everyone has said. Look for potholes bout a foot across all in a group and when they are bedding, see if you can smell them out. Smells kinda like musty honeysuckle. Once you get a whiff of the smell, walk upwind and you'll find em. I do love crappie fishing BUT my favorite way of fishing is with a flyrod on a big ole bluegill bed. NOTHING like it
Thumbs UpQuote:
Originally Posted by DonDon
ccm, they say pictures are worth a thousand words, I hope these pics of bream beds will show you what you're looking for. I think some of the best fun you can have is fishing a Bream bed with a 3wt Fly Rod I just keep a few to eat and release the rest.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...9/104e0068.jpg
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...9/104e0062.jpg
lets not forget guys you dont have to keep every fish you catch. nothing wrong with keeping what your goin to eat and throwing the rest back. its a blast to catch them i take my 9 yr old son and its fun for me just watching him catch fish.
I agree 100%, like I said in my post, keep enough to eat and release the rest!!!!!!!!!
Or if you know you only go gill fishin a couple times a year keep all you catch on those few outing and you have fish in the freezer for the whole year. Thats my view. I went prob 5 times last year prob kept 300 im guessing (all bigger than your hand). Fry 20 of em once a month or so and then give a few to my grandparents. Right now im out and wish i woulda kept more.Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackhawk19
if the water is clear the polarized glass work good if in dirty or stained water get you some crickets or red worms with a small gold hook and little splitshot and start casting youll find them