Reelfoot Bluegill this weekend advise or tips

[spoonie]

taking the camper to Reelfoot SP for the 1st time this weekend, Thinking about renting a jon boat and trying out the bluegill fishing I've always heard about? Any advise, tips, or tricks for the gills this time of year there? I've been on reelfoot a dozen or so times bowfishing and duck hunting back in college but never with a rod and reel. From my research seems like crickets or jigs tipped with meal worms?

 

[RUGER]

I was just there this past Friday.
The week before the facebook page for reelfoot had picture after picture of people catching 100-300 bream.
There were three of us fishing and we caught about 20 keepers.
I caught a lot of fish but most were small ones.

I put in at Kirby's pocket and fished the lilly pads with very little luck then just fished the edges of the grass in the cut throughs.
There were 4 boats fishing the same cut through that I was so that might have had something to do with it but I didn't see very many people catch much at all.

I guess the key there is to find the beds but the soft muddy bottom makes it hard for my fish finder to point them out.
That place drives me nuts because EVERY tree looks like it should have crappie and bream all over it. LOL
Don't work that way.

We were using jigs and crickets. The crickets outfished the jigs 20 - 1

Good luck!

 

[TNGunsmoke]

Crickets under a bobber is hard to beat. Might try fishing around some of the duck blinds, it may not be quite warm enough yet for them to be gathered up under and around them yet. Edges of the lilly pads and up in among the cypress roots/knees are other good places to try.

 

[David]

Went there a few years ago for a few days around this time of year. Couldn't hardly catch a bluegill. Haven't been back. lol

 

[ronnycl]

I was told most use side scan to locate beds off bank for big bluegill

 

[spoonie]

Re: Reelfoot Bluegill this weekend advise or tips (update)

Thanks for the advise! The wife and I took after the fish Saturday morning after having a issue at the original location we had picked to rent a boat from ( they didn't have our reservation information they said and no boat available because they had several breakdowns that week) Ended up paying a more to get a boat from Cypress Point Resort but the guy at the dock was top notch with customer service and very professional compared to the other boat rental location and gave some advise on where to find some of these famous reelfoot blue gill. It was a little windy and chilly early in morning so we went to find a place out of the wind and shortly after begin catching a few gills. When the sun got up and warmed up it seemed the fishing got better we went across the lake and started catching more gills and even added a few good catfish to the cooler. Around 1PM we decide to shoot back across the lake to the campground and check on the pup we left in our camper. The wind was probably blowing 10 mph nothing terrible but did make for a bit of a rough ride in the little flat bottom boat. As we were making our way back in we spot a boat in the middle of the lake and something doesn't look right about it, as we get closer we soon realize the boat is floating up side down with an 8 year old standing on top of the turned over boat and two adults ( Dad and Granddad holding on to the side of the boat) Neither Adult or Child was wearing a PFD!!! Long story short Rescue everybody kid crying sucking on his thumb, granddad worried about his fish falling out of the cooler floating off, and the father curious to see if his home owners will cover is old jon boat motor!! Get their boat and all them dragged to the nearest ramp and finally found a friendly local who was able to flip there boat over at the ramp with a four wheeler and strap( I had to jump in the water and help lost my favorite flip flop), I take the Granddad back up the lake in my boat to the ramp where is truck is parked. It's now 4 oclock wife ask if I want to continue to fish, we drive straight back to return the boat and I enjoy the rest of the day watching the sunset, cleaning fish and brushing off the day with several cold ones.

 

[RUGER]

Wow! Glad you were there at the right time.
Dangerous lake.

 

[cbhunter]

WOW, right place at right time!

 

[Dodge Man]

Thanks for the advise! The wife and I took after the fish Saturday morning after having a issue at the original location we had picked to rent a boat from ( they didn't have our reservation information they said and no boat available because they had several breakdowns that week) Ended up paying a more to get a boat from Cypress Point Resort but the guy at the dock was top notch with customer service and very professional compared to the other boat rental location and gave some advise on where to find some of these famous reelfoot blue gill. It was a little windy and chilly early in morning so we went to find a place out of the wind and shortly after begin catching a few gills. When the sun got up and warmed up it seemed the fishing got better we went across the lake and started catching more gills and even added a few good catfish to the cooler. Around 1PM we decide to shoot back across the lake to the campground and check on the pup we left in our camper. The wind was probably blowing 10 mph nothing terrible but did make for a bit of a rough ride in the little flat bottom boat. As we were making our way back in we spot a boat in the middle of the lake and something doesn't look right about it, as we get closer we soon realize the boat is floating up side down with an 8 year old standing on top of the turned over boat and two adults ( Dad and Granddad holding on to the side of the boat) Neither Adult or Child was wearing a PFD!!! Long story short Rescue everybody kid crying sucking on his thumb, granddad worried about his fish falling out of the cooler floating off, and the father curious to see if his home owners will cover is old jon boat motor!! Get their boat and all them dragged to the nearest ramp and finally found a friendly local who was able to flip there boat over at the ramp with a four wheeler and strap( I had to jump in the water and help lost my favorite flip flop), I take the Granddad back up the lake in my boat to the ramp where is truck is parked. It's now 4 oclock wife ask if I want to continue to fish, we drive straight back to return the boat and I enjoy the rest of the day watching the sunset, cleaning fish and brushing off the day with several cold ones.

There have been a few people die on Reelfoot in the past few years. When the wind gets up it can get dangerous quickly. Especially for people that are new to the lake.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dbllunger]

Good thing you were there to help those people. If the adults choose not to wear PFD's then thats on them. No excuses for not having one on that child though. Any idea how they flipped the boat?