Smell your way to Bedding Blue Gills

Smell your way to Bedding Blue Gills

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I grew up living on the lake during the summer vacations and weekends. I slept next to the window 70 ft away from the lake edge. During times when I awoke during the late spring and summer days I would be hit with that particular scent… those same times I would notice bedding gills sometimes many hundreds in numbers spawning in the shallows in front of our sea wall.

The lake was near eutrophic in identity with muck approaching several feet in thickness… our cottage shore line was kept free of muck by constant swimming and boating use as well as maintenance with raking. The bluegills apparently loved it bedding on the firm sand bottom. So through the years I always associated the smell with spawning gills … but never knew the reason.

Recently through some digging and research I learned it is a pheromone released by male and female bluegills to attract others to the colony to spawn.

“Moreover, large bluegills tend to spawn first, occupyingthe best areas. ... Because this species nests in colonies, there may also besome involvement of pheromones from males and females that draws more fish tothe colony, where over 100 adults may be in various phases of the spawn.” …In-Fisherman Mag

It is the pheromones being released into the water that some of us smell… but many of us fail to recognize the odor or even detect it.

Many times I’ll be motoring out on the lake and will detect the scent… following wind direction source to the shoreline lead me right to them.

I can smell it and hound down the areas of the spawning gills. If you know your lakes like I know mine… you know where these potential areas are and they vary slightly from season to season. I do perimeter checks… visual checks with the outboard motor close to shore often on my BOW during the fishing Lull.Periods during the day… visually as well as side scan imaging. I feel confident in finding the areas that need to be fished.

To add I believe there is a right way to fish a spawning area… if you visually spot nests with single male B.Gills guarding it’s center… the big females are just a short distance away… usually on the 8-10’ weedy flats or on the first breakline to deeper water. These are the fish to target while leaving the big bulls to finish the process of passing on the large fish gene to future generations.

Fishing the beds is literally biting the hand that feeds you. Future generations will thank you not too!

So when you are out this spring search the scent… it’s curious many I have taken fishing aren’t able to recognize it.

Good Fishing Everyone

check me out on YouTube... plenty of tips and vids...
https://www.youtube.com/user/kensobanski

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Picture from PondBoss.Com
quote from In-Fisherman Magazine

Have you always went by your Major,Minor, Lull program?

Have you always went by your Major,Minor, Lull program? If not, was the traditional way not working for you? Have to be honest, it seems to me that your putting alot of effort into certain times that you go that seems to dictate the ONLY time you fish. As I said before I give you props for sticking with a certain program. Just wing it a couple times and see what happens. Good luck in your open water adventures.

Thanks!… I’m 62 years old… fished old school till about the 90’s when Doug Hannon came onto the scene… my Dad and I followed him like a shadow… read his books, articles etc.

Wasn’t till about 5 years ago due to my disability and limited amount of time spent on the water… I was getting skunked a lot so I started timing the periods. What a difference in productivity.

I needed to find the spots on the tough local reservoirs, bought a good mapping sonar and mapped all my local lakes covering every square yard… loaded my knew maps onto the sonar unit and marked quite a few great spots.

With locations and solunar solved in the equation I started fine tuning presentations for the trophies. They started coming across the gunwales in numbers… and then I was able to get family and friends into the trophies… this is truly rewarding.

Trust me i'm out there on the water fishing the Lulls! Guys!!.. I’m retired… I’m out there in the lab (BOWS) 20-25 days / month… excluding Inclement weather ice fishing.

Just yesterday I spent nearly 7 hours ice fishing… physically I avg 2-3 hrs per trip for the ice. If one has a physical condition that limits his time on the ice to 2 to 3 hours per trip... an addicted fisherman finds a way to be out there during the good bite. That’s what I had to do for any productivity ice fishing. On the open water different story I could be out there longer physically floating in a boat. Always on my spots during the Minor or Major.

Hadn’t tagged a Master Angler Trophy fish till I was 58 Years old … then the flood gates opened… many wall hangers since then working not only solunar periods but a simple equation…

Location + Solunar + Methods = Success

Ive truly simplified fishing for myself with just this equation. My tackle fits into one Plano 3600 tackle box.

The thing about fishing… many have also their own patterns of success… that’s why I like fishing with others that are successful in their own ways. Most take sunrise/sunset/weather into their fishing protocol, adhere by it, and have become successful without being lunar aware… so happiness is achieved thru the sport with some kind of success… catching fish… there is no argument.

Thru trial and error most fishermen find some level of success…

There are a lot of young folk out there searching for success in fishing, searching for answers on the social media… and there are several paths to success… yet very little info on patterns of success for any other protocols.

I respect everyone's success and methods, barometer, wind direction etc and im not trying to force any method on anyone… im producing vlogs on my fishing journey solunar tables, location principles, detailed methods and tackle… etc

All I know is I have 7 hrs of video logged yesterday on the ice encompassing a Major.Period, a painful Lull.Period, and a double trigger Minor.Period that was truly fortifying and predictable for me.


Bay BornNRaised sounds and looks like you are a well seasoned pro (some great fish pics)and could probably coax a limit from a road pothole... the reason you probably never looked for any other guidelines is your probably on your own pattern of success with some great waypoints with some great methods.

For me i never quit learning what could tilt success more in my favor.

weather is a minor trigger for me... i had one of my best days with a full moon massive coldfront with 25 mph sustained winds casting micro-jigs for Lepomis... high blue bird skies in 95 degree heat... with no other fishermen in sight winching them in.

Keep Those Lines Tight!
Slip

Day #1 Three Days of the Full Moon

Day #1 Three Days of the Full Moon

Fished a local lake and timed the drive time and long walk to a decent spot that looked good on the map… if it looked good to me on the contour map it looks good to everyone… once at waypoints the spots looked like a war zone!...

Drilled the first holes right at the Major.Period start (should have got there earlier)… almost immediately started getting hits on the first three holes… fish were active but small. The action only lasted about a half hour during this 3 hr long Major.Period… I slowly started making my way back to the launch.

Very disappointed in the activity levels I experience during the Major.Period

My initial intentions was to only fish the Major.Period. but at the last minute decided to fish the 3 hour Lull.Period thru and explore more areas and probably fish the Minor.Period till dusk. Hoping to pick up on a fish here or there. The Bite during the Lull.Period never happened.

At most of the time of the Minor.Period I had a rough time even finding sniffers to look at my bait… very brutal.

During summer peak periods with water temps in the upper 70’s-low 80s… fish’s metabolisms are jacked. Unexpected Lull.Period bites will most often occur.

Once the Minor.Period started I was on a new spot in 25’ fish started to fill the screen in the bottom third of the water column. The bite increased at a pace with many small fish B.Gill/perch with a few good ones in the mix… lost a good class fish at the hole viewing it’s profile before it departed.

The bite was longer than I experienced at the Major.Period hours earlier..

I forgot to spring forward on my sonar clock and lost track of time for a bit.

I checked the sonar app “Fishing Points” for an end time on the solunar end for the Minor.Period when the bite waned to a complete stall… the time I recorded on the app was an exact match with the current time… 19:06

As I packed up and left I looked at the eastern skyline at the near full moon rising and gave a little nod.

So at the end of the day I was greatly disappointed at the catch rate during the Major.Period… I was glad I roughed it out thru the Lull.Period to fish the double trigger Minor.Period/Sunset.

Possibly a follow up video…

Fishing Day #1 of the “Worm” Full Moon (3 Day Period)

The forecast was for a beautiful early spring like day out on the ice. My intentions were to fish the Major.Period for the three hours and head back home. I experienced a slow bite during the Major.Period with 8 Bluegills stretching from 7.5” down to 2.0” a very sorry bite for a Major/Major

I slowly made my way back working part of the Major.Period to the launch.

Since the weather was so nice I decided to fish the Lull.Period and the Upcoming triple trigger.. Full Moon/Minor.Period/sunset overlap.

I completely skunked out on the Lull.Period with 0 bites and just a few sniffers… I could see them on sonar but could not get them to react… live bait, gulp waxies threw my best stuff at em, could not get them to move.

Once the Minor.Period rolled around I had my first bite with a lost 9” class b.gill at the hole… was the first bite in 3 hours plus.

Then the flood gates opened somewhat and the hole filled with fish moving up and down in the bottom 1/3 of the water column… the bite finished as quickly as it started with fish moving to the bottom and rejecting. Got a few mid sized perch that seemed to be in spawning mode.

7 fish during the Major.Period and 13 during the Minor.Period/sunset… half were in my eater slot no gills over 7.5” and perch approaching 8-10”

Very disappointed with the Major.Period…

the Lull. Period was confirmed with 0 fish… was expected.

the surprise was the triple trigger Minor.Period near dusk… some great action… no trophies… but some good eaters slot… all were CPR’ed. The Lull.Period seemed to end right on the money at 19-06pm.

Keep those Lines Tight!

Slip.Sinker

Count Down to Last Ice... Trophy Blue Gill Pursuit

Pursuit of the Trophy Blue Gill/ Ice Fishing Fail/Angler Down

Pursuit of the Trophy Blue Gill/ Ice Fishing Fail/Angler Down

20190308-Today I felt to go the extra mile (literally) and seek potential trophy spots away from easy access. Once on the spot my Sciatica kicks in with a major muscle pull in calf and hamstring… relaxed the leg for awhile while fishing the Major.Period in holes already drilled… got the leg back to walking status. I was able to work a few spots back to the launch while tagging a few dinks here and there… a nice chubby Y.Perch in the eater slot.

Thanks for following my journey for the Master Angler B.Gill tag thru the ice.

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Thanks for viewing my friends!

https://youtu.be/NqDCRl35lSI

Three Days of the New Moon March 2019 (Mid-Michigan)

Three Days of the New Moon March 2019 (Mid-Michigan) 

... best times to fish during the period