Summertime redear/bluegill search

I'm usually the one answering questions here but I have a question of my own for you panfish gurus here.

Where would you be inclined to start looking for concentrations of gills/redears in hot weather in a lake that has no vegetation? I'm not talking about willow fly hatches or under marinas. I'm looking for fish in major coves, water up to 25 feet deep, in a lake that typically has no thermocline. Where would you start and what would you be looking for. I have DI and SI available for my search.

I catch most of my summertime gills suspended over deep water, roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of the depth of the water. (So, in 12 FOW, I'd expect to find gills from 4-6' deep.)

FWIW, years ago in the old Southern Outdoors magazine, I read about this guy who fished Kentucky and Barkley for gills. He would find the river channel and catch them suspended. (He used a fly rod, but spinning would work, too.)

I'm no guru, but I've been catching them in 12-28' of water in standing timber that I'm single pole jigging for crappie. Hitting BG baby shad and itty bitty's on a 1/16 oz jig, 8-11' deep. The other place I catch them is a steep drop (sheer face) from 4-14' with a shelf that then drops to 29' of water. They are suspending in that 4-14' but are hitting a drop shot with a worm.

When there is a hatch in the open water, they are up on the surface everywhere.

I'm fishing a smaller impoundment, but this is where the bigger bluegill are biting for me. Shellcracker's have been tough this year for me, only a few and not the jumbo's.

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Originally Posted by warmouth

When there is a hatch in the open water, they are up on the surface everywhere.

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I see this a lot, too.

I will throw my two cents worth in only to see if anyone else does this( no guru here lol . just fish long enough to get lucky sometime ) . I go to where they bed every year . If it's associated with a point then follow the ledge out to the tip of the point and fish the tip and fan cast to deeper water . If there is no contour line to follow(rare) then pull on top of the old beds and fan cast the deeper water casting to the open water . :popcorn

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Originally Posted by eagle 1

I will throw my two cents worth in only to see if anyone else does this( no guru here lol . just fish long enough to get lucky sometime ) . I go to where they bed every year . If it's associated with a point then follow the ledge out to the tip of the point and fish the tip and fan cast to deeper water . If there is no contour line to follow(rare) then pull on top of the old beds and fan cast the deeper water casting to the open water . :popcorn

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This is what I do, and also as disco said. Below Pickwick....which is KY Lake....I get on those channel edges in about 16 feet of water. But I have to tell you this has been the worst June...July.....I have seen in many years for the Gills and shell crackers. I was concerned that I had lost my skills. But many so called "gurus" I know are having trouble this year too on lakes such as Center Hill...Dale Hollow....Pickwick...and even the smaller TWRA lakes.

Regards

I gave up on bedding gills and redears very early this year. I would sidescan traditional bedding areas and find nothing but dinks or nothing at all. We did have a couple of days on Barkley with some boss redears but nothing in the way of keeper gills.

We reserve the right to blame the Asian carp for this and anything else that makes fishing stink.

I actually caught less on the state lakes here in north MS. 90% of the fish I put up came from our private lake . Usually Trace , Lamar Bruce, Tippah are where my eaters come from . Not so this year .Most were caught longlining (or trying to for crappie) since hot weather got here .:dono

Mrdux I had the same Q and the guys gave me some great info reference to rocky points leading to deeper water. Points next to the channel held the bigger fish.

No guru by any means...this came from tip give to me so I hope it help. Good luck

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/panfi...ot-deep-gills/

some places i hit they park on the bottom deep in the summer just like the winter ....the larger ones anyway
other spots they seem to be suspended around cover ....i dont open water fish for them much

Slabbacks, that is exactly what I've been looking for and I just didn't go back thru the old posts that deep. Thanks for the link. I've torn apart every on-line source I could find and most of the print articles and even videos look like they all took a single page of talking points and wrote the articles based on those talking points to fit the narrative.I'm the guy who is all about doing something different than everybody else.

I've seen those very returns on SI off deeper points on KY and Barkley but have not taken the time to mark them and go back to check them out.I have recently had a couple of prospective clients ask about deep water gill trips and I've been honest with them and said it would take me a few days to gather the info I could trust to start a search for them.

I lost a good friend almost 2 years ago who was the best redear fisherman I ever knew but he was more secretive about his spots and tactics than an bass or crappie fisherman who ever lived.. He caught some huge redears in the hottest part of summer on main lake structure. I have a general idea of where, now I've just got to forget about pulling cranks for crappie long enough to get out there and check out some new areas.We do catch an occasional big gill and even redears pulling cranks on deep ledges. I need to start by marking those spots to check later.

Glad to pass on the info. If your using a HB unit this may help as well. A post from the same spot but I went into how I set it up and what I was looking for in a post on SI. Let us know how it goes.

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/side-...ot-deep-gills/

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Originally Posted by slabbacks

Glad to pass on the info. If your using a HB unit this may help as well. A post from the same spot but I went into how I set it up and what I was looking for in a post on SI. Let us know how it goes.

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/side-...ot-deep-gills/

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Thanks. I'll check it out. I run an 1199HD and Helix 10DI on the bow.

Doug, I read an article on the internet a couple of years ago that said under water humps in the main channel and secondary channels hold nice bluegill and shellcracker. The article stated that you need to locate humps in the 20-30ft depths and then basically drop shot the bottom.

This fella is a bass fishermen and he sort of stumbled upon these fish. He uses a drop shot rig with red worms and crawlers. I was in Benton thus morning getting my tires rotated. I saw your truck at the shop but there was a light blue truck there too, didn't want to bother you.

Let's go find some of these bluegill and ears...I'll be down full time first of September.

That light blue truck was Rickie (rnvinc). We are trying to finalize some plans to head to Lake Erie on Friday with Buffalo13 and Cajun Fryer. Going to hook up with Chaunc when we get there.

After all the reading and studying I've done after I got such great info on this thread, I'm going to get after some gills and redears on the main lakes.

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Originally Posted by mrdux

That light blue truck was Rickie (rnvinc). We are trying to finalize some plans to head to Lake Erie on Friday with Buffalo13 and Cajun Fryer. Going to hook up with Chaunc when we get there.

After all the reading and studying I've done after I got such great info on this thread, I'm going to get after some gills and redears on the main lakes.

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Have you been out for them yet? Are they around the deep she'll beds?

I was at the hardware store a year or so ago and the owner knows I have fished Kentucky Lake quite a bit. He asked me if I ever fished seriously for bluegill in the summer. And I said no I have not...he said a guy was in the store a day or two before and told him he had been catching big ones on mid lake humps off the channel. He just wanted to know if there was anything to it. I do think that all the fish at some time during the year are going to position themselves where they are going to take advantage of the current from the channels.And you know how the bite changes depending on how much water is flowing.

There is a place just South of Bear creek ( can't remember exactly half a mile,mile?) on a bend in the channel where it runs pretty near the bank and the bank has a few large dark rocks and the bottom has rocks and gravel. There is a little bit of a cut back in the bank but its on a straight run of bank not a cove or point.I think there is a mile marker? on the bank and they usually have a buoy close. It's been years but I have caught a lot of Bluegill there over the years.

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Originally Posted by chaunc

Have you been out for them yet? Are they around the deep she'll beds?

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I haven't been able to find the time to get out and prospect for them out there. Guide trips and demands in the shop have had me tied up since we got back from Erie.

Work and obligations tend to do that lol. Good luck when ya do go

Mr Dux I went to lake Ouachita in Arkansas on 8/3/16 trolling walleye crawler harnasses with huge night crawlers. We were trolling 1mph using BOTTOM BOUNCING WEIGHTS in 25-35fow on humps in the lake that quickley would drop off over 75fow. We did catch some walleye but not many but we WORE the dang bluegills out man! Tellin ya that to say this.....I would not be scared to troll for them in that depth of water and flat down on the bottom just to locate them. Once ya find em change methods and capitalize on em! I would downsize some but can cover alot of water trolling. I could see them on my graph but until I caught one I didn't know what they were and bream would have been the last thing I would have thot they were. And now I know where they are I bet i can go back to them and drop shot em! That would be a blast! Good Luck!