bluegill spawn talk...

okay, so i have always heard a few things. bluegill spawn throughout the summer and they spawn best around a full moon?
so do they leave the spawning area and come back in around full moons each month? Are the bigger fish more abundant on the beds around a full moon then as compared to any other time?

In my experience ... yes and yes.

Also, bigger fish tend to bed in deeper water.

Well let me tell you my experience on testing that theory out this past year. I had always read that each full moon....when water temps are at or around 72, you will get a bluegill spawn every month through the summer. I decided in early spring of 2014 I would test this theory out on 5 different bodies of water. I have a HB 899 si and have 100's of bluegill beds marked. It is not only easy to find beds with these units it is also easy to see if there are fish in the beds. The 5 lakes were Center Hill, Pickwick, Laurel Hill Lake, VFW Lake, and Blue Cat Lake out at the Williamsport Lakes. The first spawn the beds were full of fish and for about two weeks...one week before and one week after the full moon...I caught a fish on almost every cast. I would go to a different lake on each day until I had fished the list of lakes and would start over. I was catching fish off these beds pretty regular up until about 2 weeks before the full moon in June. On the full moon I noticed while there were some fish on the bed it was nowhere near as close to the numbers on the first spawn. As I went on into June I would notice there may be only 6-10 fish on a bed that in May had over 100 fish on it. I started the search again a week before the full moon in July...hitting all 5 bodies of water in the week...and would continue to fish those beds for a full week after the full moon. It was in July I noticed no fish on any of those beds. I did the same routine in August. No fish at all off of any of the beds. TWRA tells folks there are 2 spawns each year and that is it. I have since read where some say there is only one major spawn in the spring and while a few fish may spawn throughout the summer it is not many at all. I spent a lot of money on gas and put a lot of miles on my vehicle to see for myself if there was a full blown spawn each full moon. I will normally put 40,000 miles a year on my vehicle fishing but this past year I added a few thousand extra miles testing out the bedding theory. Each lake I hit I checked at least 20 bedding areas on each lake that were full of fish in May. Now one might say well maybe it was an off year. Had I only been testing this theory out on one lake you could say maybe it was just a fluke....but I was faithfully doing this on 5 bodies of water. My conclusion is they don't spawn every full moon. I know this year I will kill the gills and shell crackers on the beds starting in April-May time frame but I will spend those summer months pulling Gills out of 30 feet of water off the bluffs at Center Hill Lake. I wore myself out doing this but was determined to see it through August. The few fish that did bed in late June were just as big as the fish I caught off those beds in April-May. I fished a lot of beds on Center Hill in 9 feet of water.....and as Disco said they tend to be bigger fish. This year I will fish a lake I haven't fished in years but found bluegill beds in 15 feet of water on a scouting trip this past September. I am thinking those fish that come off of that bed will be trophy sized fish...the individual beds are quite large. This was my experience and I am no pond manager...no biologist....but I do fish for Gills a lot and know a few of their habits. Now I may check a bed or two out in June-July on my way out to the bluffs at Center Hill but I won't spend the whole summer checking beds like that again.


Regards

My singular experience is from last year. In two separate lakes, both a little less than 300 acres, I found large concentrations of bluegill on a bed in both the July and August full moon phases. I don't think all beds are active after May, as I've never really had action on many of my favorite bedding areas after May before, but I did find a couple of very active beds last summer. Don't know if the unusually cold and long winter and the relatively mild summer contributed, or if it is an annual occurance.

That's some great info. Thanks!
On average what depths did you find them on beds? Smaller fish In shallow nicer fish deeper. But how deep?

My guess is when you found shallow beds the bigger fish was there with the shallower bedding fish but off the edge of them in deeper water?

I have heard the same thing my hole life. That's great info from a dedicated fishermen. Thanks for putting in the hours and thanks for sharing

Great info!! Did you catch gills off that 15' bed?

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Originally Posted by Alphahawk

Well let me tell you my experience on testing that theory out this past year. I had always read that each full moon....when water temps are at or around 72, you will get a bluegill spawn every month through the summer. I decided in early spring of 2014 I would test this theory out on 5 different bodies of water. I have a HB 899 si and have 100's of bluegill beds marked. It is not only easy to find beds with these units it is also easy to see if there are fish in the beds. The 5 lakes were Center Hill, Pickwick, Laurel Hill Lake, VFW Lake, and Blue Cat Lake out at the Williamsport Lakes. The first spawn the beds were full of fish and for about two weeks...one week before and one week after the full moon...I caught a fish on almost every cast. I would go to a different lake on each day until I had fished the list of lakes and would start over. I was catching fish off these beds pretty regular up until about 2 weeks before the full moon in June. On the full moon I noticed while there were some fish on the bed it was nowhere near as close to the numbers on the first spawn. As I went on into June I would notice there may be only 6-10 fish on a bed that in May had over 100 fish on it. I started the search again a week before the full moon in July...hitting all 5 bodies of water in the week...and would continue to fish those beds for a full week after the full moon. It was in July I noticed no fish on any of those beds. I did the same routine in August. No fish at all off of any of the beds. TWRA tells folks there are 2 spawns each year and that is it. I have since read where some say there is only one major spawn in the spring and while a few fish may spawn throughout the summer it is not many at all. I spent a lot of money on gas and put a lot of miles on my vehicle to see for myself if there was a full blown spawn each full moon. I will normally put 40,000 miles a year on my vehicle fishing but this past year I added a few thousand extra miles testing out the bedding theory. Each lake I hit I checked at least 20 bedding areas on each lake that were full of fish in May. Now one might say well maybe it was an off year. Had I only been testing this theory out on one lake you could say maybe it was just a fluke....but I was faithfully doing this on 5 bodies of water. My conclusion is they don't spawn every full moon. I know this year I will kill the gills and shell crackers on the beds starting in April-May time frame but I will spend those summer months pulling Gills out of 30 feet of water off the bluffs at Center Hill Lake. I wore myself out doing this but was determined to see it through August. The few fish that did bed in late June were just as big as the fish I caught off those beds in April-May. I fished a lot of beds on Center Hill in 9 feet of water.....and as Disco said they tend to be bigger fish. This year I will fish a lake I haven't fished in years but found bluegill beds in 15 feet of water on a scouting trip this past September. I am thinking those fish that come off of that bed will be trophy sized fish...the individual beds are quite large. This was my experience and I am no pond manager...no biologist....but I do fish for Gills a lot and know a few of their habits. Now I may check a bed or two out in June-July on my way out to the bluffs at Center Hill but I won't spend the whole summer checking beds like that again.


Regards

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Originally Posted by ricky

Great info!! Did you catch gills off that 15' bed?

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No, spawning season was way past when I was up there. It is the lake that the TN state record came from. According to the guy at the dock I was the first one to put an si unit in the lake. No private boats are allowed and it has only been a couple of years that they have allowed kayaks. I will be up there in late April to check it out. If you could see on the surface the part of the lake this bed is at you would be shocked. Just looking at the lake no one would ever expect a bluegill bed to be in the middle of the lake. The lake is over 300 acres and I have never seen so many beds in a body of water that size. Will post back here when I pull some trophies off that bed.....LOL.

Regards

Great info same story here heard that for yrs. Every full moon they spawn. Hmmm hit the gills hard early then hit the crappies the rest of the year although I catch more gills through the ice than craps

GREAT READ . THANKS FOR THE POST AND SHARING THE IMFORMATION . ONLY A TRUE SPORTSMAN GOES TO THAT EFFORT AND SHARES. THANK YOU! YOU GET MY VOTE FOR POST OF THE YEAR .:HandsClapping:HandsClapping:HandsClapping:HandsC lapping:ThumbsUp

Other things I have noticed:

Sometimes the largest gills will be in the middle of a small group of beds.
Bigger males are often on the deep water edge of large clusters of beds.
Small ponds seem to not support as long of a spawning "season" as larger ponds/lakes - this is very general but usually true around my neck of the woods
Bluegills will reuse crappie beds - bass will steal both

When fishing beds, be choosy about which fish you keep...those large bulls are the best breeders and protectors of their stock, the average sized males are a dime a dozen. Keep all the large ones and you'll impact the total size potential of all the male bluegill

You can think of bluegill spawn as a competition....the biggest smartest males want to (and will) attract the eggs of more females and produce more young. The smaller males get the less desirable beds for a reason. I've seen big post spawn males run over a dozen smaller males out of his abandoned bedding area....not to feed or protect young (the fry were long gone) but to repeatedly push them out of his "honey hole"

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Originally Posted by Alphahawk

Well let me tell you my experience on testing that theory out this past year. I had always read that each full moon....when water temps are at or around 72, you will get a bluegill spawn every month through the summer. I decided in early spring of 2014 I would test this theory out on 5 different bodies of water. I have a HB 899 si and have 100's of bluegill beds marked. It is not only easy to find beds with these units it is also easy to see if there are fish in the beds. The 5 lakes were Center Hill, Pickwick, Laurel Hill Lake, VFW Lake, and Blue Cat Lake out at the Williamsport Lakes. The first spawn the beds were full of fish and for about two weeks...one week before and one week after the full moon...I caught a fish on almost every cast. I would go to a different lake on each day until I had fished the list of lakes and would start over. I was catching fish off these beds pretty regular up until about 2 weeks before the full moon in June. On the full moon I noticed while there were some fish on the bed it was nowhere near as close to the numbers on the first spawn. As I went on into June I would notice there may be only 6-10 fish on a bed that in May had over 100 fish on it. I started the search again a week before the full moon in July...hitting all 5 bodies of water in the week...and would continue to fish those beds for a full week after the full moon. It was in July I noticed no fish on any of those beds. I did the same routine in August. No fish at all off of any of the beds. TWRA tells folks there are 2 spawns each year and that is it. I have since read where some say there is only one major spawn in the spring and while a few fish may spawn throughout the summer it is not many at all. I spent a lot of money on gas and put a lot of miles on my vehicle to see for myself if there was a full blown spawn each full moon. I will normally put 40,000 miles a year on my vehicle fishing but this past year I added a few thousand extra miles testing out the bedding theory. Each lake I hit I checked at least 20 bedding areas on each lake that were full of fish in May. Now one might say well maybe it was an off year. Had I only been testing this theory out on one lake you could say maybe it was just a fluke....but I was faithfully doing this on 5 bodies of water. My conclusion is they don't spawn every full moon. I know this year I will kill the gills and shell crackers on the beds starting in April-May time frame but I will spend those summer months pulling Gills out of 30 feet of water off the bluffs at Center Hill Lake. I wore myself out doing this but was determined to see it through August. The few fish that did bed in late June were just as big as the fish I caught off those beds in April-May. I fished a lot of beds on Center Hill in 9 feet of water.....and as Disco said they tend to be bigger fish. This year I will fish a lake I haven't fished in years but found bluegill beds in 15 feet of water on a scouting trip this past September. I am thinking those fish that come off of that bed will be trophy sized fish...the individual beds are quite large. This was my experience and I am no pond manager...no biologist....but I do fish for Gills a lot and know a few of their habits. Now I may check a bed or two out in June-July on my way out to the bluffs at Center Hill but I won't spend the whole summer checking beds like that again.


Regards

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thanks for sharing this extraordinary effort.when we had global warming here in the north a few years ago i found beds in april and may usually may/june or june july around here.first spawn was june 2014,found a few in july.here's the kicker found a ton of them on beds in august ,wasn't looking but found them.saw a lot of commotion in the water,went near to see what was going on and sure enough a cluster of craters with a few hundred fish.we had a record cold winter ,very cool spring with late frost and a cool summer.this year was super cold again but it is warming much sooner.

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Originally Posted by Cricketcage

My singular experience is from last year. In two separate lakes, both a little less than 300 acres, I found large concentrations of bluegill on a bed in both the July and August full moon phases. I don't think all beds are active after May, as I've never really had action on many of my favorite bedding areas after May before, but I did find a couple of very active beds last summer. Don't know if the unusually cold and long winter and the relatively mild summer contributed, or if it is an annual occurance.

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same thing here last summer in north illinois.annual crappie trip to southern illinois last spring.same weekend every year for the past 10.the lake had froze over for the first time in years,water was around 55 at the warmest,we usually dont need minnows as they are shallow and aggressive.caught a lot of fish still but almost entirely on minnows where normally most on jigs and plastic.cant wait to see what happens this year

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Originally Posted by Smoltz

That's some great info. Thanks!
On average what depths did you find them on beds? Smaller fish In shallow nicer fish deeper. But how deep?

My guess is when you found shallow beds the bigger fish was there with the shallower bedding fish but off the edge of them in deeper water?

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depends on the lake.i find beds in 2 feet and 15 feet.bigger fish will usually be a little farther out but nearby.if you bass fish its a good idea to have something for them also as they are always lurking near the beds

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Originally Posted by Gobob

Great info same story here heard that for yrs. Every full moon they spawn. Hmmm hit the gills hard early then hit the crappies the rest of the year although I catch more gills through the ice than craps

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crappies like the full moon too.first time i went to reelfoot ,planned for the full moon in march.it was late in march that year.even with a massive cold front they were right wher they were supposed to be.had never fished there before but we still caught a ton