Everyone knows when to head for shallow coves to catch summertime gills with slip-bobbers. The buzz is all over social media with posts of big bluegills and it seems that everyone is catching them. This is a fun time of year and I look forward to it each spring. But where do those big bluegills go when the spawn is over, and the easy fishing has ended? Bluegills will suspend.
The Slip-Bobber Set Up
If you are not familiar with the slip-bobber rig it can be a definite asset to your bluegill arsenal. Here are steps to rigging a slip-bobber for fishing varying depths of water so you can target those gills wherever they might be.
Bobber Stop- There are several different bobber stops to choose from. My favorite is the yarn type that you thread onto your line and cinch tight to create a stop that can be adjusted. This allows you to adjust according to the depth you want to fish. Bright colored stops are great so you can see that it slides to the top of the bobber and confirms that your bait is at the depth set.
Bobber- A slip bobber is one with a hole all the way through to put your line through allowing the bobber to freely slide up and down. Quality slip bobbers are important as they allow the line to slide easily, and this is important when fishing small baits and sinkers. Light line in 4-6 pound test aids with this as well.
Bead- A small bead is sometimes needed to keep the bobber stop from going through the hole in the slip bobber. Most quality slip bobbers have a small enough hole that a bead is not needed so keep this in mind. With a bead the line must slide through it and the bobber and sometimes will catch, and your bait will not slide down to desired depth.
Where to Find Summer Bluegills
First Drop
As the fast and furious bite subsides up shallow it feels like your bluegill season is over. Before you hang up the ultralight rods and put away the worm hooks and jigs stay out there and learn to catch bluegills after the spawn, and you can have some fun throughout the summer and even into the winter months.
Bluegills will fall back, after the spawn, and cruise in packs looking for food. This food can be young shad or hatching larva from the gravels. After the spawn, look for bluegill to be suspended along the first contour drop within their spawning bay. This drop can be a difference of 2 or 3 feet or 7 to 8 feet depending on the area. Bluegill will hang in the deeper water for a good while after spawning and the best way to target them is with a slip-bobber.
Set your bobber stop to a foot or two from the bottom. Cast into this deeper area to target roaming bluegills. You can sit tight and let the fish come to you. If you have forward-facing sonar, you can mark the schools of bluegills and go to them, casting to them with your slip-bobber setup. I prefer to sit and wait for the schools to come to me. These suspended bluegills will roam open water and eventually make it around to your presentation. I like to fan cast several rods when sitting still with each rod set to different depths. The fish will let you know the optimum depth and you can set your bobber to fish it. However, I have found that these bluegills are usually at all depths and fishing varying depths seems to target them all.
Main Lake
If you find that the bluegills have left the spawning cove more than likely they have headed towards deeper water. As we all know, spawning bluegills are easy to find and catch and then most people just hang it up till the next spawn. If you want to catch big bluegills throughout the summer, then it might take some time to learn their patterns. The good news is once you figure out what they do on your body of water you can find them there every year. One good area can hold thousands of bluegills and can be all you need to have a place to catch them for many months. Put in the work and you can put bluegills in the boat when your buddies are asking “where did you find those”?
Even though the fish have left their spawning bays they don’t go far. Locating deeper holes leading from those bays is the first place to look. Don’t be afraid to fish as deep as 30 feet deep when the summer heat sets in. The beauty of summertime gills and the slip-bobbers is that you can fish all depths and a big tree in deep water will often hold some big bluegills. Bluegills aren’t always on the cover though. smallmouth bass will be suspended in the deep water just cruising around looking for food. You can see these schools on sonar and fish accordingly. You can anchor in an area with these schools and fish a slip-bobber just like you did in the spawning bay. Just set your bobber stop at the range you marked the schools and wait. It seems that waiting for them is more effective than chasing the schools around.
Summertime Gills and Slip-Bobbers First Seen in MidWest Outdoors Magazine
Best Bait for Slip-Bobber Bluegills
There are many different presentations that will work on summertime bluegills. They are opportunistic feeders and anything that interests them will work. Live baits like bee moths, worms and crickets work great. Artificial baits work great. But, unless there is a pretty good ripple on the water’s surface, to move the bait for you. You should work an artificial bait by twitching and reeling a foot or two. This not only covers water effectively. It gives your artificial presentation a little lively action that will attract gills from afar. A very slight twitch is all that is needed to impart plenty of action to the bait below. With live bait the smell and movement will draw them in.
Conclusion: If you love catching bluegills, and only target them during the spawn, I encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and learn to catch them throughout the year. For catching summertime bluegill, the slip-bobber is the perfect tool . Tight Lines.
ABOUT AUTHOR Ken McBroom is an outdoor writer/photographer and outdoor columnist for Kentucky Living Magazine. Ken is from Lynchburg Tennessee and now resides on Kentucky Lake in Kentucky. Check out more outdoors at Ken’s website www.ramblingangleroutdoors.
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