Full Moon....A Few Gills

Last night I scurried down to the local creek in search of some Full Moon Panfish and got humbled real quick by some Large and Smallmouth Bass that pulled drag, broke lines, and basically had their way with my offerings. Well about 2 miles as the crow flies is another creek mouth that flows into the lake that also holds good numbers of Bluegill, but I have never caught any of size, meaning nothing over 7.5-8in. Well, as usual they were there in numbers but not size. Here are a few of the 20 or so I stuck this afternoon.
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From the last picture you can see how clear the water has become now the rains have stopped and they are drawing our lakes down about .5ft a day. My choice of baits was a Lunkerhunt Spade Grub with a Wax worm but I could not keep the worm tip on the hook due to the small gills knocking it off as quick as I could get the jar open and another one on the hook. Pretty much every cast was a bite or a fish as the sun was setting. These fish are where the solid tip Ajing Rod shines, and the TripleCross made for an enjoyable evening. Of course a Green Carp found my bait,
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But small he was and as with all the Gills they were photographed and released to grow up. From East Tennessee I say Welcome Spring and hope everyone can get out soon and pursue these fun and feisty fish.


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Nice.

Regards


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I hope to do good today, with the gills, thanks for post and pics.

Good to see some showing up in numbers. Even the small ones can make for a fun evening of fishing. Got a spot I hope I can get to in the next couple evenings if all the rain here in East NC don't have it to muddy. Nice rod & reel setup you got there too.

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Looks like a lot of fun!

Good outing.
That’s the class of Gil’s we have here. Seems everything is that’ size and when you get into “good” size gills, that means ones 7.5-8”
Like 8.5” being nice one



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Nice day of Gillin. Those gills look like they’re stunted. Does anyone ever keep some to thin out the herd. Maybe shift some over to that bass pond you started at.

Its weird, these are feeder creeks to Cherokee Lake, a large reservoir here in E TN. I have caught 8-9+inch Gills from the creek closest to the house, where the bass were earlier in the week, but when I go fish this particular creek that is only about 3 miles away by road I hardly ever catch anything over 8in. Deep, shallow, Winter, Summer they always run on the small side in this area. Have fished these areas for years, caught literal bucket fulls out of each creek mouth but have just concluded over the years that one creek is better than the other..size wise. The only factor I see of any difference is the proximity to the Main Channel. I catch the bigger fish in the creek that is closer to the Main Channel. The lake in general has an overall good population, size and numbers, just certain areas tend to hold bigger fish, at least for me.

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Originally Posted by StantheMan2567

Its weird, these are feeder creeks to Cherokee Lake, a large reservoir here in E TN. I have caught 8-9+inch Gills from the creek closest to the house, where the bass were earlier in the week, but when I go fish this particular creek that is only about 3 miles away by road I hardly ever catch anything over 8in. Deep, shallow, Winter, Summer they always run on the small side in this area. Have fished these areas for years, caught literal bucket fulls out of each creek mouth but have just concluded over the years that one creek is better than the other..size wise. The only factor I see of any difference is the proximity to the Main Channel. I catch the bigger fish in the creek that is closer to the Main Channel. The lake in general has an overall good population, size and numbers, just certain areas tend to hold bigger fish, at least for me.

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I have certain lakes I don’t fish, folks ask me “Why”. I will forgo any fish to catch big Gills.....around here that means 9 inches and over. There are several lakes that do not produce big Gills that are reasonably close to me. Old Hickory.....tons of bluegill but no size. Normandy lake.....no size. Woods Reservoir......no size to them. When you look at these lakes you just have to ask yourself why? Old Hickory should be producing very big bluegill but it does not and you look at it and try to see what is different about it than say Pickwick.....KY Lake.....Nickajack. The only reason I can see is Old Hickory is on the Cumberland River system and the water is much colder. Yet if I use water temps as the reason I look at the bluegill I catch out of the Caney Fork River......a trout stream with constant temps of around 50-52 degrees. While it does not regularly produce 9 inch Gills it does produce 7-8 inch Gills that have a larger girth and are fat...heavy for their length. Makes no sense to me.

Regards


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Yeah that’s interesting statements.
I have seen that myself


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alphahawk

I have certain lakes I don’t fish, folks ask me “Why”. I will forgo any fish to catch big Gills.....around here that means 9 inches and over. There are several lakes that do not produce big Gills that are reasonably close to me. Old Hickory.....tons of bluegill but no size. Normandy lake.....no size. Woods Reservoir......no size to them. When you look at these lakes you just have to ask yourself why? Old Hickory should be producing very big bluegill but it does not and you look at it and try to see what is different about it than say Pickwick.....KY Lake.....Nickajack. The only reason I can see is Old Hickory is on the Cumberland River system and the water is much colder. Yet if I use water temps as the reason I look at the bluegill I catch out of the Caney Fork River......a trout stream with constant temps of around 50-52 degrees. While it does not regularly produce 9 inch Gills it does produce 7-8 inch Gills that have a larger girth and are fat...heavy for their length. Makes no sense to me.

Regards


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I wonder if the size or lack of in a body of water which share similar traits to a body of water that does produce larger fish could possibly be the genetic composition of the breeding parents as a logical excuse or reason?

Most species the parents genetics have a distinctive influence on size and why would that be different talking about fish? Sure environment and food sources and amounts factor in as well but I am sure that genetics play a role as well.

Around here the Bream always have a stomach less than half Full of something that is always Black -- No Insects or anything that can be Identified.. which makes me believe that the Diet is mostly Plankton -- the pictures showed Green Bream that are always smaller