Spike
Well-Known Member
Anyone noticing bedding activity?
Bluegull
- Thread starter Spike
- Start date
trealtree
Well-Known Member
I saw one nesting in a tall tree. Seriously I have not seen any Bluegill on bed yet. But I am sure its near.
Football Hunter
Well-Known Member
Full moon in May
East TN Bowhunter
Well-Known Member
Yea we usually catch em all morning and mid day long one right after another after a full moon in May.
Both May and June are good during the full moon. Maybe you'll get a kick out of this.
Outdoors With John L. Sloan
May 18, 2011
Some of this is a true story, maybe most of it. Even the parts I made up provide good information, information based on fact, legend and myth. See what you can glean from it.
Yesterday and for the Next 10 Days.
Winston, �Pap� Beeson tongued the well-chewed snuff stick to the corner of his mouth, leaned forward and spat between his knees. He adjusted the greasy, sweat stained felt hat on his head and twirled the willow twig in his can of Tuberose. He returned it to his mouth. He hit me with his maroon, and yellow eyes. We were sitting on the sun-spackled cypress bench in front of Pop Drott�s bait shop at the intersection of Colony Road and the Kingsville Highway.
� Bes I can I can cipher,� he said, �it should have started yeserday and be going on full bore till a week Friday, lacking two days.�
I made that to be next Wednesday. A week of the best bream fishing known to man. However that was a half-century ago so we need to recalculate for here and now.
The moon went full on Wednesday, May 17th here. That was yesterday and that was the starting gun for us. The frenzy on the bayou would go on for a full week and then slow slightly to ignite again on the next full moon. Same as it will do here. The full moons have always forecast bream bedding, closely akin to an aquatic street fight, through fact, legend and myth in May and June.
Back during the time of my relationship with Pap, I caught swamp bream and Chinquapins (our redear or shell cracker) and of course, always in the mix would be specs, (black crappie) and sac-a-lait, (white crappie). �Dem two big cypress knees out in front of that mud hump be a fine place for the chincs. You can smell the beds. Git you some red worms and gin pole em.� A gin pole is a limber, cane pole with hook and bobber. Used for worms and crickets. When fishing for swamp bream, you never know what you will catch.
I knew the place well. It was a two-foot deep hump we often stood on to shoot squealer ducks as they zipped and zagged into the swamp to roost. In May, spring water time, you�d need a boat but I had one. It wasn�t much but I figgered it would not sink. The problem would be getting out of school. I knew I could solve that the same way I always did. Just not go. Start out, leave the bike in the roadside brush, get the tackle and head out. I�d get caught but so what?
Now is the time of year to catch one of the fishing fraternities� best eating and most fun fish to catch. Panfish, as they are often called, provide superb table fare but they are valuable for much more than wrapping a tongue around. They are the single best starter fish for kids�and sometimes wives. They give sport like you wouldn�t believe for us gnarled old bass anglers whose hands and wrists can no longer take the strain of big fish and they are hard to beat when the grey outnumbers the black hairs you carefully preserved on your head.
The moon �fulled� here yesterday. That means this is the bes time for the tittie bream, the bull bream, the specs and sac-a-lait. Look shallow; they won�t be deep. Panfish bed in shallow water, the bream on mud or gravel or a mixture thereof. Look for willow trees hanging out over the water with willow flies in attendance. The crappie tend to bed around sunken tree branches or other shallow, underwater structure. A barbwire fence is great. Some of the sunken logs and brush around boat docks on Old Hickory would be a good starting point, here. On Center Hill, I�d be looking at the willows in the near backs of creeks and coves and along shallower banks. For priest, same as the Hill.
�Fo dem bream poich, use crickets.� Said pap as he leaned forward and spat again. �Caint beat red wigglers fo dem chincs and a medium shiner is good for specs and sech but I catch a lot on a little bug thing on a slaughter pole.� A slaughter pole is a cane pole with at least 10-feet of length and a small fly, called a flea fly on the end of 8-pound line. It is slowly jigged and swirled in a figure 8 over sunken cover.
I have caught a lot of panfish. I love to fish for them and I love to eat them. I have fished for and caught them in deep water rivers and lakes, vegetation filled swamps, meandering bayous and farm ponds. I have caught them in all sizes and varieties. I have caught them on just about every manner of bait known to man. The last few years, I fish 4lb line and 1/16 ounce artificial lures and do well.
One damp spring weekend, maybe 55 years ago in the rural country outside Pineville, Louisiana, some friends and I camped on Flagon Bayou and spent a humid afternoon catching whatever bit. We had a stringer full of perch that included everything from sunfish to catfish. We cut off the heads, gutted and scaled them and put them on slowly melting ice we had in an old, red Coke cooler. Then we all jumped in and �bathed�. Did not matter one bit that a couple or three of us were of the female persuasion. I don�t think a one of us was over 11. Back then it was safe for kids to camp out alone.
Suppertime. We shook the fish dry, dipped them in batter and fried them over an open fire with French fries and luke warm Kool-Aid. We went to bed slap full and with every finger sore from fins. The little ones fried up crispy like a potatoe chip and were flat larrupin. The frogs sung us to sleep. Even the requisite ghost stories couldn�t keep us up.
These bream or bluegill can range from just under hand size to up to two pounds. The chinquapins, in my estimation, are the best eating however, it is a race. The crappie speaks for themselves.
So. Right now is the time. The moon �fulled� at 6:05 yesterday morning, (May 17). It is time to go. Do you know where your kids are? If they are anything like I was, they are playing hooky. Odds are they are playing some dang video game. Why not grab them up and take them fishing. Take the wife, too. I�ll write you a note to get it squared with the school.
Pass me those crickets, Jackie.
###
Outdoors With John L. Sloan
May 18, 2011
Some of this is a true story, maybe most of it. Even the parts I made up provide good information, information based on fact, legend and myth. See what you can glean from it.
Yesterday and for the Next 10 Days.
Winston, �Pap� Beeson tongued the well-chewed snuff stick to the corner of his mouth, leaned forward and spat between his knees. He adjusted the greasy, sweat stained felt hat on his head and twirled the willow twig in his can of Tuberose. He returned it to his mouth. He hit me with his maroon, and yellow eyes. We were sitting on the sun-spackled cypress bench in front of Pop Drott�s bait shop at the intersection of Colony Road and the Kingsville Highway.
� Bes I can I can cipher,� he said, �it should have started yeserday and be going on full bore till a week Friday, lacking two days.�
I made that to be next Wednesday. A week of the best bream fishing known to man. However that was a half-century ago so we need to recalculate for here and now.
The moon went full on Wednesday, May 17th here. That was yesterday and that was the starting gun for us. The frenzy on the bayou would go on for a full week and then slow slightly to ignite again on the next full moon. Same as it will do here. The full moons have always forecast bream bedding, closely akin to an aquatic street fight, through fact, legend and myth in May and June.
Back during the time of my relationship with Pap, I caught swamp bream and Chinquapins (our redear or shell cracker) and of course, always in the mix would be specs, (black crappie) and sac-a-lait, (white crappie). �Dem two big cypress knees out in front of that mud hump be a fine place for the chincs. You can smell the beds. Git you some red worms and gin pole em.� A gin pole is a limber, cane pole with hook and bobber. Used for worms and crickets. When fishing for swamp bream, you never know what you will catch.
I knew the place well. It was a two-foot deep hump we often stood on to shoot squealer ducks as they zipped and zagged into the swamp to roost. In May, spring water time, you�d need a boat but I had one. It wasn�t much but I figgered it would not sink. The problem would be getting out of school. I knew I could solve that the same way I always did. Just not go. Start out, leave the bike in the roadside brush, get the tackle and head out. I�d get caught but so what?
Now is the time of year to catch one of the fishing fraternities� best eating and most fun fish to catch. Panfish, as they are often called, provide superb table fare but they are valuable for much more than wrapping a tongue around. They are the single best starter fish for kids�and sometimes wives. They give sport like you wouldn�t believe for us gnarled old bass anglers whose hands and wrists can no longer take the strain of big fish and they are hard to beat when the grey outnumbers the black hairs you carefully preserved on your head.
The moon �fulled� here yesterday. That means this is the bes time for the tittie bream, the bull bream, the specs and sac-a-lait. Look shallow; they won�t be deep. Panfish bed in shallow water, the bream on mud or gravel or a mixture thereof. Look for willow trees hanging out over the water with willow flies in attendance. The crappie tend to bed around sunken tree branches or other shallow, underwater structure. A barbwire fence is great. Some of the sunken logs and brush around boat docks on Old Hickory would be a good starting point, here. On Center Hill, I�d be looking at the willows in the near backs of creeks and coves and along shallower banks. For priest, same as the Hill.
�Fo dem bream poich, use crickets.� Said pap as he leaned forward and spat again. �Caint beat red wigglers fo dem chincs and a medium shiner is good for specs and sech but I catch a lot on a little bug thing on a slaughter pole.� A slaughter pole is a cane pole with at least 10-feet of length and a small fly, called a flea fly on the end of 8-pound line. It is slowly jigged and swirled in a figure 8 over sunken cover.
I have caught a lot of panfish. I love to fish for them and I love to eat them. I have fished for and caught them in deep water rivers and lakes, vegetation filled swamps, meandering bayous and farm ponds. I have caught them in all sizes and varieties. I have caught them on just about every manner of bait known to man. The last few years, I fish 4lb line and 1/16 ounce artificial lures and do well.
One damp spring weekend, maybe 55 years ago in the rural country outside Pineville, Louisiana, some friends and I camped on Flagon Bayou and spent a humid afternoon catching whatever bit. We had a stringer full of perch that included everything from sunfish to catfish. We cut off the heads, gutted and scaled them and put them on slowly melting ice we had in an old, red Coke cooler. Then we all jumped in and �bathed�. Did not matter one bit that a couple or three of us were of the female persuasion. I don�t think a one of us was over 11. Back then it was safe for kids to camp out alone.
Suppertime. We shook the fish dry, dipped them in batter and fried them over an open fire with French fries and luke warm Kool-Aid. We went to bed slap full and with every finger sore from fins. The little ones fried up crispy like a potatoe chip and were flat larrupin. The frogs sung us to sleep. Even the requisite ghost stories couldn�t keep us up.
These bream or bluegill can range from just under hand size to up to two pounds. The chinquapins, in my estimation, are the best eating however, it is a race. The crappie speaks for themselves.
So. Right now is the time. The moon �fulled� at 6:05 yesterday morning, (May 17). It is time to go. Do you know where your kids are? If they are anything like I was, they are playing hooky. Odds are they are playing some dang video game. Why not grab them up and take them fishing. Take the wife, too. I�ll write you a note to get it squared with the school.
Pass me those crickets, Jackie.
###
Spike
Well-Known Member
Thanks guys
sango
Well-Known Member
I ran into lots of Bluegill on Kentucky Lake in a brush pile in 14 feet of water on Kentucky Lake Thursday (4/14/2011). I was fishing for Crappie and the bluegill were cleaning my minnows off my hook.
