[AtticaFish]

Fast dinner and headed to a reservoir to fish from about 7 to 9 tonight. I think every farmer in the county was out plowing or laying manure in the fields. Stunk like hell but made for a cool hazy/dusty horizon.

Was hoping to see some crappie but tried a new spot instead when I saw some fish activity in a different area..... and a youngster was fishing on my rock. Haha. Caught quite a few smaller fish regardless and managed 5 for the bucket. 2 gills, 2 pumpkinseed and a 9" perchto round it out, but not a single crappie.

Candy was happy that I brought home some tasty fish bites on such a beautiful night. Even heard some toads calling which is pretty amazing this early.

Sixpoint Resin in these weird skinny cans tonight. Really tasty with a 9.1% kick! I see this brew regularly at one of the gas stations and will likely buy it again.

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[Bucket Mouth]

Nice work. Step up one more level and get the Hi-Res.

 

[zwiller]

Hope to get out with this warm weather. Seems like a good time to ask. Yield wise, looks like the BG and PS might be better. Old timers here say BG are a waste of time...

 

[ress]

Hate to admit it but I throu bg back to. Just to much work to clean and get just nuggets. I've tried the scale gut and head off but just a tease.

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[AtticaFish]

I think gills have a good chunk of meat as long as they are 7" / 7.5" or more. I actually keep some smaller than that from a particular reservoir that is overrun with dinks. After cleaning as many as i have over the years, i can fillet them up pretty quick. Be careful to get all the shoulder meat and don't spend as much time trying to get the belly meat on smaller fish. Pumpkinseed are pretty much all shoulder and have very little belly meat even on bigger fish.

My Dad is a hard core perch and walleye guy with a boat up on Erie. I convinced him to fish with me around his docks for bluegill a few years ago and he enjoyed it. Ended up going back on his own one day and caught a dozen or so nice big gills and decided to keep them and took them to the cleaners. He was an construction estimator for his entire work career so loves numbers and ALWAYS figures out the average weight of fish when dropped off at the cleaners compared to the weight of fillets when he gets home. He was pretty impressed and said that gills actually average out to have a higher yield than perch when you compare them pound for pound. Of course if you are in a school of 12" to 14" perch, you will have bigger fillets regardless.

 

[DeathFromAbove]

I get nice fillets off Bluegills. Like Attica said, don't mess around with fish under 7 " unless you're good with a knife
But I have cleaned a lot of 6" bluegills

 

[Bucket Mouth]

Bluegills are MUCH better eaters than crappies. I'll eat crappies, but that flesh is much softer than gills or perch. Catch those big gills, they got shoulders on 'em. I think the same thing about crappies, too. Anything under 10" on a crappie is a throwback. Sometimes I don't keep em unless they are 11" or bigger.

 

[Saugeyefisher]

love me some gills. Nice haul attica.

 

[ress]

After seeing that pic of fish I'll have to try again. Maybe I need a smaller knife and better eye sight

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[Saugeyefisher]

After seeing that pic of fish I'll have to try again. Maybe I need a smaller knife and better eye sight

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I use an electric fillet knife. But like others have said,I only keep 7" an up.

 

[zwiller]

My Dad is a hard core perch and walleye guy with a boat up on Erie.

Most are that way here. All my family and friends (that eat fish and not many LOL) are YELLOW perch ONLY and think I am weird that I prefer walleye over perch. No way they will touch white perch. I only know 1 guy that eats BG and he swears once you taste them you be converted. As kids we caught tons around the boat houses but they got cleaned via firecracker method so very low yield. My goal is try and eat a bunch of different fish and see for myself.

I am dead set to find a few BG honey holes. Seems like there should be a bunch here.

SR4. Wife grew up on that road but of course probably a half hour north of you.

 

[AtticaFish]

The taste of perch and bluegill are very very close. If it was all cooked up, only way i think i could tell the difference would be by the shape of the fillet. They are just not big meaty fillets like a walleye or bass or cod so you really only get a bite or 3 out of them. Bluegill and perch are my favorites.... but the bluegill FIGHT way better.

As for the honey holes, you would be surprised where and when they turn up. A couple reservoirs around me are almost strictly last light bite and during the day you won't catch crap. Those tend to be the bigger and deeper waters. The more shallow reservoirs seem to have a good early morning bite. Once you get a pattern down, the bluegill are pretty easy to find. The good lakes change up year to year so just keep trying different spots if you get blanked on a trip. I also can't stress enough about using a bobber that matches up with the weight of the jig or bait rig you are using. A good balanced float will let you know when those fish are just sniffing your bait!

I've lived in the Attica/Republic/Bellevue area since the mid 80's so have fished just about every public lake, reservoir, river and creek in all the surrounding counties. I've been up and down the whole stretch of Rt 4 more times than i can begin to imagine.

 

[zwiller]

If you were me in Sandusky: walleye or BG? Leaning on walleye in the bay and that would be dusk into night. BG at dawn and hit the marinas. Sound right? Kinda makes sense that predators and their prey have different feed cycles, but might be bro-science. Water temp is 44F.

 

[AtticaFish]

I'd fish both is i had the opportunity. To pick one..... I'd probably stick with the bluegill. I am way better at the bluegill than walleye! Hahaha

I don't know much about the bay/River running walleye because I tend to avoid crowds if possible. The place I've been fishing near Tiffin on the river is nice and quiet..... but also have yet to catch or snag a walleye. Not sure where to tryfrom shore in the bay. Do guys fish the same spots in the spring as they do in the fall? Always see activity on the old bay bridge but no clue what they catch there other than cats.

Marina gills can make for an awesome day. If you are not getting bites, just keep trying different docks. I don't think they go far in the marinas, they just like certain docks for some reason.

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[zwiller]

I am not a fan of crowds either. NO WAY would I ever do the walleye run on the River. Not too busy at most places here. As far as I know yes, everyone fishes the same spot. No one up seems real scientific about it here. Man the FB fshing posts are getting me fired up. Not looking to limit but a few eaters would be cool.

 

[HappySnag]

I am not a fan of crowds either. NO WAY would I ever do the walleye run on the River. Not too busy at most places here. As far as I know yes, everyone fishes the same spot. No one up seems real scientific about it here. Man the FB fshing posts are getting me fired up. Not looking to limit but a few eaters would be cool.

if you have waiders you can find your own spot.i fished sundysky river many time,and fish by myself all day.

 

[kevinw]

I've never in my life had a problem with catching bluegill, but usually just large numbers of little dinks that always go back (unless they swallow the stupid hook... then they get fed to the cat).

I'm assuming it's because I usually fish for them when I see them and can't catch anything else that day... and usually the ones you see seem to be the little ones.

So am I correct in my thinking that you generally need to fish deeper to catch the big ones? Like 6 feet deep or so? I've never eaten a bluegill, but I have heard they're tasty... and the cat sure seems to like them... but I don't want to waste my time with 4-5 inchers. I know of a couple spots that are absolutely infested with gills... but I never see the big'uns.

 

[AtticaFish]

Sometimes deeper is the key but not always. There are a couple specific lakes i fish where i need a slip bobber rigged 8' or 10' down to catch the fish, but those are the exception, not the rule.

I think the reason why we all see the smaller fish is because the small fish are just plain dumb. Fish get more leery of things as they get bigger/older so they will quickly disappear if they see you coming and you may never see them at all. If you scared them to deeper water, you will have to fish deeper obviously.... but you are then trying to catch a spooked fish. It gets even worse if you are fishing really clear water. Best bet is if you do see some bigger gills, back off a little and make longer casts to them. Most times i am fishing with a float now-a-days, it is set 6 feet deep or less.

Those big panfish seem to stick together too. If you catch one good size fish, stay in that area. If it is nothing but dinks, keep moving. Some lakes get stunted and very few of the fish ever get good size. Resthaven #8 is one place i think has stunted bluegill. I have caught very few good sized bluegill in there over the years but there are bluegill all over!