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How often is it the case that Crappie and Bluegill are in the same area together? The reason I'm asking is that I was thinking about making up some drop shot rigs with a crappie jig lower down and a bluegill hook up higher. Or I could do it the other way with the bluegill hook lower down and the crappie jig higher up. That way I would have 2 baits for two species of fish in the water at the same time. Has anyone ever tried this? If so, what were the results?
Thanks
GF
I've caught loads of gills on 1/32 jigs while fishing for crappies.
I’ve caught plenty of crappie and gills in the same spot in creeks. As for lakes, not so much. But I’m still fairly new to all of this. Lol
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I have done that many times with good results.
I've generally found catfish and bass hanging around bluegill more than crappie.
OK, thanks, guys, you've confirmed what I suspected; that it isn't totally out of the question that crappie and bluegills could be together. I'm going to make up some rigs and give it a try next time I'm on the water which probably won't be until Spring. Last Fall I had some pretty good luck with bluegills in fairly close to the bank, fishing with an ice fishing bait that I found out about. The neat thing was that this ice fishing bait was working in SC in short sleeve weather. I'm going to try some bluegill/crappie rigs next chance I get.
Thanks
GF
Tie a 4 inch Surgeon's loop for your bait hook top dropper, for your (worm,cricket etc) and leave about a foot and a half of tag end for a 1/32 oz jig.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gill Fisher
I've just about ALWAYS found Bluegill in the same places I've found Crappie ... either yanking the tails off my plastics or ripping off fins & eyeballs of the minnows (back when I used minnows). But, I've just about always found the bigger Bluegill to be out deeper & more scattered than the small to hand size ones.
I think that rig will more than likely keep you busy with Bluegill bites, than Crappie. :twocents
Yes... I agree,this would be more of a Bluegill rig.It would also depend on the crappie to bluegill ratio.But if there are some crappie and bass in your area you would at least have a chance to catch some.Quote:
Originally Posted by CrappiePappy
Crappie are structure creatures and use it to ambush bait like shad. If there are shad in the area then there will be bluegills and crappie and bass. The crappie hold a certain depth in schools. The bluegill will usually be just below the crappie closer to the bottom. Drop your jigs to the bottom and reel up a crank or two and use smaller jigs with lots of moving action. I tie my own 1" to 1.5" with little rubber legs on a 1/32 jig that move all the time and get bit by bream more than crappie. For crappie I'll use 2" to 3" jigs and 1/8 to 1/16 heads. I bring the jigs higher (about 10' to 15' from the surface) for crappie. Good luck!
I find bluegill in the winter months mixed in with crappie at the same depths when they are all on the bottom ,but i don't find numbers of the bluegill most of the time because I don't use a small enough bait to target just them , I watched a guy use worms beside me one day though and right on the bottom like me and stay up with my crappie ketch rate quite well and we were pulling fish up pretty fast .
I've generally found that bluegill like a fast troll. Sometimes they like it the bait on the fall. Where as crappie seem to prefer a slow troll. I generally catch way more bluegill, catfish, and stripped and spotted bass because I troll at a faster pace than what crappie want to keep up with.
I firmly believe there are no absolute 's when It comes to fishing . I catch quite a few bream with crappie using 1/80 oz. jigs with nibbles . Deep brush piles tend to hold better fish when mixed . Don't know if that would apply anywhere else, just my experience . :juggle
I used to catch bluegills while fishing for crappie in the willows of the oxbows. They would hit the same jig. Never knew what you were gong to land.
U-Tube video of Crappie on structure shows if it swims it will like structure. If the school is large other fish push further away
When jigging for crappie and I tip with a nibble I get bluegill. Underwater videos show bluegill and crappie hanging together.
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Ice fishing for sure, we always get bummed out when the bluegill come in. They seem to chase out the Crappie, that is our thought, it could be wrong.
Aye usta catch crappie, gills, small bass, warmouth with our dock lift when I raised it. can't catch nothing now, not even asiancarps.
I catch a few gills every almost every time I’’m crappie fishing
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I do that all the time, Larger jig on top with a smaller jig on bottom or vice versa, I love to catch bream also, when using that setup you can catch both and also catch more crappie sometimes. You can do this spider rigging or long lining. Adding a attractant of some kind helps, Slab sauce, nibbles etc.
I find the same thing. Crappies tending to be higher than blue gills. During ice fishing, we run a lot of double rigs, our bottom rigs will mostly be setup for blue gills fishing close to the bottom. When we see a mark come in higher in the column, we come up and fish them with the other jigs. We run two different baits. One that appeals to gills, one that appeals to crappies.Quote:
Originally Posted by CrappiePappy
One thing to consider here. Bluegills predominately feed on plankton and zooplankton wheres crappies will feed on your bigger lavea, insects, and minnows. As the sun begins to come up, plankton and zooplankton go towards the bottom in order to get away from the sun. The blue gills will follow the plankton and zooplankton. If you ice fish and have a flasher, you will know what I am talking about. As the day progressess, these fish will go deeper and deeper until they are on the bottom. As the sun starts to set, the plankton and zooplankton rise towards the top bringing the bluegills up with it. Because if this, later in the day, when the sun is going down, this is when we find the vast majority of crappies and bluegills mixed together. For the most part, the crappies are staying somewhere in the water column. When that plankton and zooplankton meet that desired depth, the gills also meet that desired depth.
Just food for thought but, on average, this would be the reason why your crappies will be higher in the water column during the day, and "might" be lower in the column right before dark.
I [emoji813]? bluegill and bluegill filets![emoji476][emoji226][emoji3]
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