John's Journal...

BOATHOUSE BLUEGILLS

Understanding Boathouse Bluegills

Click to enlargeEditor’s Note: Anglers know boathouse bream may be the most-educated panfish in any reservoir, but May and June often are the most-productive times of the year to catch bream. Little bluegills often will run in and hit any baits that fall in the water. But the larger, older gills usually will stay just below or off to one side of a school of small fish and observe what happens when the smaller fish feed. Generally if big bluegills are present in a Click to enlargeboathouse, and little fish are in that same area, the smaller bluegills will get caught, and the trophy-sized fish won’t. If you want to succeed in catching the boathouse bluegills that have tantalized others and escaped the skillet, try these different strategies this week. They will produce for you.

You can catch bluegills by using a technique no other angler utilizes. Bury a small hook inside a large redworm, attach it to 4-pound-test Mossy Oak Fishing Line, spray the worm with Spike-It’s Aerosol Fish Attractant in Crawfish or Gamefish flavors, and lay the worm on a step going from the dock down into the boathouse. Big bluegills never have smelled a worm that enticing, because probably few bluegill fishermen have learned the attracting power of Spike-It sprays. Then you hide behind the outer wall of the structure. Pull enough line off Click to enlargefrom the ultralight reel and through the rod to coil the line beside the worm on the edge of the step. Once the angler’s convinced the bluegills can’t see him, then he can take the rod tip and give the worm and the line a nudge so the worm will fall off the side of the step and into the water. Because no lead or cork is on the line as the bait falls, the line doesn’t restrict the worm’s descent. The bait hits the water, free-falling to the bottom naturally. From the hiding place, watch the line at the end of the rod. Once there’s a sharp tick on the line, set the hook and reel in the big boathouse bluegill.

This tactic can be slightly modified later when fishing from a dock. Utilizing a clear, plastic cork as a weight for the line and no lead, cast close to a boathouse with a worm sprayed with Spike-It Aerosol Fish Attractant covering the hook. When the bluegill looks up, it can’t spot the cork sitting on the water because the Click to enlargebobber is made of clear plastic. All the fish can see is a worm slowly squirming its way to the bottom. Then the bluegill attacks. This strategy works.

Tomorrow: Utilizing Other Fishermen


Check back each day this week for more about "Boathouse Bluegills"

Day 1: Learning from Boathouse Bluegills
Day 2: Understanding Boathouse Bluegills
Day 3: Utilizing Other Fishermen
Day 4: Bedding Boathouse Bluegills
Day 5: Taking Bluegills by Starlight

 

Entry 352, Day 2