04-23-2019, 09:01 PM
Spent yesterday at Mantua chasing bluegill and perch in the wind. I arrived on the west dike about 9 am. There was one man fishing from shore north of the ramp. Checking his catch showed several large bluegill pushing 3/4 pounds. I quickly went back to the truck to grab my gear so that I might stock my freezer. I threw out my Keystone minnow hanging 3 feet under a bobber. It no sooner hit the water before it went under twice before I woke up and set the hook. It was the average size bluegill of about 7inches. Released it and threw again. Samo samo. The bluegill and yellow perch were biting everywhere I threw. About 1 in 9 were pushing the 10 inch size, with some larger. I must have caught over 100. By Noon my small bucket was full of large bluegill and larger perch. By now there are a dozen bank tanglers along the dike.
Left to go get lunch and fillet my harvest of 15 perch and 14 large bluegill. After lunch, my brother and I returned and caught a whole bunch more. Brought home another 13 huge bluegills and him the same.
This morning there was no wind, but the gills were still biting. You just had to add your own motion to the lure instead of letting the wind do it. In the calm water you could see massive swarms of bluegill along the shore. Hundreds at a time, but mostly smaller ones. the large ones seemed to prefer the deeper water. When I left at noon, I had 16 huge gills and 1 nice perch.
I had already cleaned the big ones before I thought about taking a picture. You can see some of the fillets in the pan.
Most people were using worms and only catching the smaller gills. I never used anything but the Keystone minnow jig that my friend in Alabama sends me.
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This would be a great time to take the little kids and have a bunch of fun.
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Left to go get lunch and fillet my harvest of 15 perch and 14 large bluegill. After lunch, my brother and I returned and caught a whole bunch more. Brought home another 13 huge bluegills and him the same.
This morning there was no wind, but the gills were still biting. You just had to add your own motion to the lure instead of letting the wind do it. In the calm water you could see massive swarms of bluegill along the shore. Hundreds at a time, but mostly smaller ones. the large ones seemed to prefer the deeper water. When I left at noon, I had 16 huge gills and 1 nice perch.
I had already cleaned the big ones before I thought about taking a picture. You can see some of the fillets in the pan.
Most people were using worms and only catching the smaller gills. I never used anything but the Keystone minnow jig that my friend in Alabama sends me.
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[inline IMG_0526.JPG]
This would be a great time to take the little kids and have a bunch of fun.
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Good fishing to all. Hue
