 BILLY
BLAKELY AND REELFOOT LAKE
Bet on the Bluegills
EDITOR’S NOTE: Billy Blakely has fished at Reelfoot
Lake most of his life and has guided at Blue Bank Resort
on the lake near Tiptonville, Tennessee, for the past
23 years. Today Blakely will share with us a little-known
crappie-fishing secret used at Reelfoot .
 Blakely:
One of the good things about to Reelfoot Lake for fishing
is that there is rarely a day during the year when you
won’t catch fish there. As soon as the crappie
fishing slows down in May, the bluegill fishing really
picks up. We catch numbers of bluegills on this lake.
Because the lake is so shallow and has so much cover
in it, Reelfoot Lake is ideal habitat for bluegill.
We catch many of these bluegills tight-lining just as
you fish for crappie. We use small Spike-It bream jigs
instead of crappie jigs to catch the bluegills. We tight-line
around trees on the shoreline. The difference in the
way we fish for bluegills and crappie is that we move
the jigs very slowly for bluegills. Too, instead of
using 8-pound-test Mossy Oak Fishing Line like we do
when fishing for  crappie,
we use 6-pound-test Mossy Oak Fishing Line. I like longer
poles when I’m bluegill fishing. I use either
a 9- or a 12-foot B’n’M pole because I want
to stay further away from bluegills than when I am fishing
for crappie. You’re much less likely to spook
the bluegills with a 12-foot pole than you are with
a 9-foot pole. When you find the bluegills, you’ll
often catch 10 to 12 around one tree. Our average bluegills
weigh 12- to 14-ounces each, but we do catch plenty
of 1 pound and better bluegills. If you love to catch
bluegills on light line and limber poles, then the second
week of May, be here at Reelfoot Lake. You can usually
limit out almost every day.
 To
catch crappie at Blue Bank Resort, contact Billy Blakely
at 1-877-BLUE-BANK (1-877-258-3226), or visit www.bluebank.com.
On a package trip, you can fish for four days, stay
four nights at Blue Bank Resort and including the cost
of boat, motor, bait, gas and ice spend $209 per person.
If you prefer to fish on your own, Billy Blakely and
the other guides will tell you where to go and how to
catch them. A guide charges $200 per day for two people.
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