Big bluegill

I wanted to share a pic, I live in a state that it’s tough to find big bluegills. We get lots of 6-8” usually not much over 8” Long. I had been on a quest to catch a 9”+. As a tip, what I did was search biologists reports for lakes in our state and found a lake a few hours drive that showed a large size of average bluegill caught during there lake surveys. I took a weekend road trip and it paid off with a few at the 9in mark. It took a lot of work and planning to catch those fish. I really envy you guys in the state that have quality bluegill size. Caught them on my own kiptail jigs and 1/64 oz with a gulp minnow. You guys that don’t have good size class fish i know it can be frustrating. But if you do some work you can find some. I have yet to find fish of this class locally.
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Good deal. Homework pays off every time


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Nice report and good pics. Congrats

Those are some pretty fish. What time of year? Look like breeding colors.

Nice bream, great pics, We have a longer growing season, down here. It does pay off. Enjoy the coming year.

Care to share a pic of your kip tail jigs?

Pretty fish.

Regards


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That was late
June I caught those. Yeah Pic I’m posting now is the main color is use for crappie.
I will post some of my small ones tomorrow. More earthy colors.
I tie 1/64,1/32oz with #8 sickle and 1/32oz with #6 sickle and then 1/16,1/32oz with #4 sickle(crappie)
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Nice colors on the jig. I like. I'll have to try something along those lines where I'm At...Thanks for sharing.

Good looking Bluegill. Most of the Bluegill in my home lake are also 5-6". However, when the spill gates are not open at the dam you can catch 8-9" size Bluegill all day long. If you have a dam nearby check out the tailwater side.

Big beautiful gills. Congrats on finding them. You rarely find any of any size in the waters I normally fish but my BIL lives on a small lake locally that has some good ones in it. My best is a 9-1/2.

Here is my bluegill kiptail box.

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bluegill in the 9 inch range are tough to find here in dfw as well . most of the time I go out of town to ketch nice ones myself .
those are pretty ones ,congrats

One of the largest bluegills I ever saw was caught from a South Dakota stock pond called Curlew east of Rapid City. This was back in 1971 when I was stationed at Ellsworth AFB. I think Ellsworth is now closed.

back when I first got out of the service in 1992 and landed a job With Busch Gardens in Va. We were allowed to fish the back waters of the River Ride when the park wasn't open, there were some huge bluegills in there. No/ to little fishing pressure produced some big gills. Had to use an unweighted hook with grass hoppers, and a clear float or they wouldn't bite. Gills were dinner plate size.

Those are some pretty gills in the pics, look better on a plate.

Fishing the St Johns here has gotten me a few very nice ones over the years. Pulled in 4 on 4 casts that I could see on beds with a white beetle spin lots of years ago, every one 10 or better. Visited that area since with less than stellar results. An occasional 9 keeps me happy and some of the Warmouth I get are nothing short of huge by my standards. Hate fighting the boat traffic like I used to so some of my areas are now untouched by me and I see little traffic otherwise. Having a copper nose make my drag slip gets my heart going, still a kid inside, I guess.