By Louie Stout

Tricks for Spawning BluegillsTricks for Spawning Bluegills

Darrin Schaap runs one of the most sophisticated tackle shops in Michiana.

He caters to hard-corps bass fishermen, Lake Michigan trollers, river walleye fishermen and steelhead anglers as well as the panfish crowd.

He does all of that with vigor, but nothing gets him more excited than bluegill fishing.

“If time allowed, he could do it every day,” he said with a huge grin.

So it’s no surprise that Schaap has spent quite a few days the past week fishing with his kids on lakes around his Edwardsburg home.

After all, the gills are beginning to spawn.

Now is the most popular time for bluegill fishermen because it can be easy fishing. Once the panfish lock down on dished-out beds they fan out with their tails, they are easy to spot. Sandy shorelines, around lily pads, behind scattered weeds and around docks are good places to look. They prefer to nest in areas relatively close to deeper water that provides them a safe escape route if bad weather rolls in.

Some will spawn fairly deep, depending upon the lake, but most of the deep spawning activity occurs later in the summer.

They’re community spawners, too, as you generally find several clusters of beds within the same area.

For the most part, they’re aggressive when they’re at peak spawn. Drop a bait over the nest and they’ll bite it.

However, Schaap says we’re still in the early portion of the spawn.

“A lot of the males I’ve cleaned aren’t even spitting milt yet,” he offered. “We’re going to have bluegills spawning into July.”

While most bluegillers use basic tactics; a livebait threaded on a small hook beneath a split shot and a bobber.

Schaap says that works well when the fish are on beds or in a combative mood, but he’s found other tactics can produce better when the fish are edgy, like they are early in the spawn.

“That’s when I cast and drag without a bobber,” said Schaap. “You have to remember that bluegills this time of year are bottom oriented. They’re not looking for bugs right now. So if you can catch their eyes by dragging something on the bottom, they’re more likely to bite.”

His cast-and-drag rig consists of a half of a small nightcrawler threaded onto the shank and hooked one time with part of the worm dangling off the end. He puts it on a No. 4 or 6 hook a few inches beneath a split shot sinker. The deeper the water, the less distance he puts between the split shot and the hook to help keep the bait closer to the bottom.

“My hook is a little larger than most guys use, but I’m targeting bigger bluegills and the larger hook reduces the chances of hooking the fish too deep in the mouth,” he described.

He says leeches are good substitutes for the small crawler.

He fishes with a 5 1/2 –foot ultralight spinning outfit spooled with 8-pound Stren Magnathin line. It’s got the diameter of other brands’ 6-pound line, he says.

He casts it over an area that he suspects the fish are using and begins winding the bait ever-so-slowly back to the boat. The sinker kicks up debris on the bottom and draws the fish to the bait.

Schaap says that once bluegills are locked on beds, bobbers work fine. However, a big mistake anglers make is they use too large of a bobber. He likes thin, lightweight bobbers.

“I don’t need a big bobber standing up,” he said. “If it’s just lying on the surface, it’s not nearly as obtrusive and looks like a weed or stick lying on the water.”

If the bobber takes off or stands up, he knows he has a bite.

“When using a bobber, I will probably use red wigglers, hooked in the middle so the ends dangle,” he added.

Sometimes he’ll bait an ice jig tipped with a tiny soft plastic bait for fishing under a bobber. You can use wet (sinking flies) but it’s generally not necessary when the gills are bedding.

“It never hurts to try something different if your primary method isn’t producing,” he said.