Spring has come late this year in Upper Wisconsin as we are now in the second week of June and the Bluegills are just starting to make the beds and spawn. In a typical year the Bluegills would be just finishing up and moving back to deep water.

Bluegills On The Beds

The weather has finally warmed the water up enough to spring the Bluegill Spawning season into action, so focus on the shorelines in water depths of 4 – 12 inches. If Temperatures continue to stay in the upper 70s and lower 80s, which looks like the case this year, then many of the bluegills will start spawning in deeper water as well. So don’t overlook spawning areas in water of 4 ft – 8 ft.

Finding The Spawning Beds

Here are a couple of methods I use for finding the Spawning Beds:

1- On calm days use your trolling motor and work close to the shoreline, 3 feet of water, until you visually can see the beds. Once you find them back off, anchor, and start fishing. Even if you happen to troll right over the beds they will only move off a few feet until you’re gone. So again back off, get set and start fishing.

2 – If the wind is blowing and causing poor visibility of the bottom then you will need to back off from the shoreline and use your fly rod to locate the Bluegills. Start by working down the shoreline until you get a strike, then drop the anchor and work the area for a minute or two. If you do not start catching nice Gills or get any other strikes pull anchor and continue working the shoreline.Once you find the Bluegills re-position your boat so the wind is to your back, making it easier to cast your fly-line, and enjoy fishing.

Action – Action – Action

When it comes to catching Bluegills on the beds with a Fly-Rod there is no better Action! Here you will see nothing but great action in this video, also note we use the same homemade Dry Fly (spider) all weekend, catching over a hundred gills. So check out how to make your own dry spiders for ~$0.02 each.

So Good To Eat

There are many ways to prepare fish, but when it comes to the Bluegills my family and I prefer only one way, Deep Fried!

Preparation & Cooking:
A- Fillet the Bluegills, removing all bones.
B- Take each fillet and cut them into bite size pieces, ~3 pieces per fillet.
C- Soak the fillets in buttermilk for 3 to 5 minutes.
D- Put the fillets into a container of flour (mixed with a little Lawry’s Seasoning) and shake.
E- Toss the fillets into the deep fryer (peanut oil works great) until they are golden brown.