Short trip to Lake McIntosh

My other half had her hair appointment today @ 12:30 . Probably the hottest part of the day.
But because of the heat and an issue I’ve been having with my neck and casting shoulder, I haven’t been fishing in a several days .
I dropped her off and took off to the lake.
I made the mistake of taking my BFS outfit and on the third cast , it backlashed enough that the line got behind the spool and that ended my BFS fishing for the day and I felt like I had wasted half of what little time I had . I’m just not a BFS person.
Luckily, I’d brought a spinning combo . My 6’3” Abu Garcia Mass Beat rod paired with a Carbon X 1000S reel and 3# Floroclear . Very light combo.
I tried a micro spinner for a few casts , that got a few bumps , but no hookups. They were probably bumping my ball bearing swivel I was trying out to see if it added distance and still allowed the blade to turn . Both were accomplished.
I switched to a new 1/64 jig I wanted to try with a 1” black Slider grub and caught my first fish . A little green sunfish that got the skunk off . Now I can try other bodies on the jighead.
I switched over to a Bobby Garland itty bit Swim’r to see how it fit the 1/64 jighead with a size 8 hook , and how it cast . A good fit and cast pretty good. These have a pretty nice hook IMO .
Finished up checking out the jig with a Trout Magnet , first a Bison , then a Sowbug . The Sowbug caught a small bluegill for me before my wife texted she was ready to be picked up .
A busy forty five minutes, but I learned some things that will help when I do get back out .

Nice. Good looking little fish

JungleJimJigs was talking about bass attacking his bluegill when caught and I wanted to try to explain a phenomenon I have witnessed on several occasions.
I’ve noticed bluegill, when caught and stressed, sometimes their fins and tail will glow chartreuse. It’s like they light up when stressed.
I’ve read about this happening with marlins and the fish dolphins . I’m sure other freshwater fish do it too .
I was wanting to try and capture this in a picture the next time I saw it and today it happened.
It’s rather difficult to take a photo of a fish with a phone while trying to keep it in the water .
If you look close at this picture you’ll see what I’m talking about.
This is why the color chartreuse works so good most of the time .
I’m having a tough time posting today . My cable is out due to a storm and I’m having to use my phone.

Another picture. I hope the pictures show what I’m talking about .

Cool images! Thanks for sharing

I can definitely see the greenish glow of the tail, very interesting !

Cool beautiful little fishes

Good pics and a good trip. I could have used a recharge today.

I can see the green in the tail in the water, does it disappear when fish are out of the water? Even the female gills here have some yellow or orange on their bellies. When stressed the colors can intensify and be partly responsible for attracting the bigger predators. I've been playing them lightly until they get closer then put more pressure on them when they get closer so they fight and struggle more and that's when they get attack. Wore out fish don't get attacked much. That gill in the top photos would be perfect for the bass, had one yesterday eat one that size and it was only 1.5 #. Had a really big belly when I released it.

You talking about colors reminded me of something I wanted to ask. Lots of the gills I catch have an orange area under their chin. I can never get a picture of it, pretty as it is, cuz once they’re out of the water and in my hand it turns more brown and unremarkable in just a few seconds. Have y’all ever noticed this or is it a conspiracy?

Gill, sorry to hear about your BFS mishap! I hope you haven't given up completely on baitcaster all together because even though Ultralight it isn't I believe it has a place in bluegill chasing. BFS or not all baitcaster has bigger learning curve than spinning reels and I've been through my fare amount of lawn-casting years ago with cheap Wal-Mart sourced Abu Ambassador. Since it's NOT ultralight I won't treat it as such. My lightest line on the Shimano Conquest BFS, ( I love round reel) is 6lb mono and it will cast between 1/4 oz to 1/2 oz drop-shot or Cheb rig very smoothly. Oh and yes I can see the fluorescent green on the bluegill tail in the photos. Cheb rig photo:Attachment 467745

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Interesting thoughts on the colors. I can't honestly say I ever noticed. I guess I'm in too much of a hurry to land them.