Summer fishing for bluegills

By Rennie Phillips

I grew up in the Sandhills of Nebraska, so I've fished most of the hill lakes as well as Lake McConaughy. Lakes in Nebraska are a lot cooler than in Missouri or even more southern lakes like Enid or Sardis. Just a few days ago the water surface temp at Lake McConaughy was 59 degrees, which is pretty cool.

Big Mac, as many call the big lake, is a huge body of water so it doesn't warm up very fast. The smaller the lake and the shallower it is the faster it warms up.

In the last fishing report for Missouri, it listed the surface temp for Clearwater at 72, Duck Creek at 79, Lake Girardeau at 72, Lake Delaney at 68 and Wappapello was at 75.

As the lake or pond warms up, fish respond by moving to deeper, cooler water.

This seems especially true the bigger the fish. Small bluegill or bass or crappie can be caught in fairly shallow water, but it will be around cover.

Many lakes will have water grass or weeds growing around the edges. This will be a great place to catch a small bass or bluegill.

Many of these lakes also will have fallen timber around the edges. You will find smaller crappie around this fallen timber.

Occasionally, you will catch a decent crappie, but most of them will be smaller.

When you fish for bluegill in the summer, if you aren't losing some hooks and gear, you probably aren't where the fish are.

There is one place at Lake Girardeau I fish for bluegill. There must be some stickups out in the lake in about 6 to 8 feet of water. I know when I put my baited hooks right in the stickups, I'll catch a bluegill.

Ten or 20 feet away from this spot isn't nearly as productive. But the tradeoff is about every two or three casts, I'll lose a hook and sinker.

The key is structure or sunken timber. When I fish in deeper water, I normally fish right on the bottom using No. 8 snelled hooks and red wigglers.

Another place I like to fish for bass or bluegill is humps or shallow spots close to deeper water, especially early in the morning or later in the evening.

It seems like the fish roll up on these humps chasing bait fish or bugs or such. When I fish these humps, I like to use a slip bobber and suspend the bait just off the bottom. You can use small jigs or crickets or worms.

For bass, use night crawlers, and for bluegill, use the red wigglers. I have been fishing using red wigglers and consistently am catching bluegill.

I've run out of red wigglers and switched to night crawlers, and the fish quit biting.

If you like to use a fly rod, you can use almost any wet fly. I'd use a weighted fly if you have one, or tie one adding a few wraps of lead.

Check the rate at which the fly drops. I try to tie my flies so the fly would drop 8 or 10 inches per second.

As you retrieve the fly, pull it in short jerks and allow it to drop a few inches now and then. Bluegill are a blast on a lightweight fly rod, like a four- or five-weight outfit.

I normally tied my flies using red or yellow or black hackle.

Probably the key when using a fly outfit is making sure the hook is sharp. Keep a hook hone close by and use it on every hook. If you can drag the hook on your thumbnail and it doesn't dig in, sharpen it.

Small poppers or dry flies will work as well for bluegill. The popper will have to be small, so either tie or make your own or buy small ones. Size 8 or 10 hooks or smaller would be about right.

Years ago, most of my poppers were made out of balsa wood. The new foam or sponge bodies are a lot easier to use.

If you see the bluegill pipping the surface after bugs, a topwater bait will work.

One of the neat things about using a popper or floating bug is that small bass will tear them up as well.

I like to eat bluegill, but a 10- to 11.75-inch bass is pretty good eating as well.

Make sure the bass is legal, though. Most of our area lakes have a 12- to 15-inch slot length where these bass have to be released.

If you are into catch and release, either use barbless hooks or pinch down the barb.

I fillet all my fish, no matter how small they are. When I was growing up, we scaled the bluegill and crappie, but I don't anymore. I fillet out all the bones and then fillet the meat off the skin.

Some of the experts say not to soak the fillets, but we do. We add the fillets to salted water and let them soak. Most of the time, by the time we get home and skin the fish, it's too late to fry them that night, so the fillets will soak overnight.

I grew up using plain salted and peppered flour as a dip. If I'm making my own, I add cornmeal to flour and then salt and pepper it.

I normally use Andy's. I like the taste and the fact it is ready to use. As a matter of fact, Andy's has a vegetable mix for veggies such as zucchini. Pretty tasty!

Many of us have fond memories of catching bluegill as children.

They are fairly easy to catch and fight like they are twice their weight. Downright good eating.

Happy fishing.

Until next time.