Landing Super size Bluegills in Rock Creek on Smith Lake

Rock Creek was the target for today’s fishing trip. I wanted to go back to some of the areas I had fished three weeks ago on my bluegill quest; with a new plan in mind. The overcast skies and low humidity made the conditions much better than three weeks ago. I decided not to concentrate so much today on the bass, because here lately the topwater action has been extremely slow for the Spotted Bass and Largemouth Bass. I wanted to see if I could find the big bluegills back on the beds since I was fishing right after a full moon. As a lot of you know the moon phase triggers the spawn in early spring and again in June and the last one in late July or early August. This, of course, can vary in different parts of the country. I knew the bluegills would be back in the nooks off the main creek channel. As fate would have it I found my first big cluster of monster beds in a pocket of the main Rock Creek channel at 7 AM. I counted twelve huge beds with three big bluegills located on three of the beds. I have found that not all the beds are occupied on the second and third spawn, and in this cluster, there were only three beds being guarded. I positioned the boat so I could be horizontal to the back of the nook. It was a perfect set-up with no wind and the water surface like glass smooth. The water was extremely clear so I knew I couldn’t get close or they would jet out to deep water. My first cast was at least 50 ft. and the Betts popper landed gently on the backside of the bed clusters. I never move the popper, I just let it sit there for a few second and wham the popper was gone, and the big bull-headed straight for deep water. All big bluegills in this lake have the same objective when they take the popper to go deep and try to find the structure to break off. This one lost the battle in a depth of 30 ft.  I repeated this process six different times throughout the morning, locating beds and enticing the big takes and having a blast fighting these brutes on my 9 ft. 3 wt. The great thing about today’s trip was the hit, I could actually see the fish come up from 8 to 10 ft. deep to nail the fly. In fact, they would create a small wake towards the popper as they inhaled it. I can’t begin to tell you guys what a rush it is to experience that kind of action towards your offering, but of course all you know this I forget sometimes I am not conveying all this stuff to armatures. I ended the trip around 10 AM with at least 2 dozen bluegills which included some smaller females and males, a couple of small bass, and of course the 6 big boys I kept for my quest. I am now 26 away from my goal of landing 100 supersize bull bluegills during the spawn. It is going to be close but I think I may make it during the last spawn.  

First, of the morning, a great way to start the quest

Taking a picture while trying to get the boat back in position--little awkward

Popper for the morning, a Betts # 8 Yellow/chartreuse

All counted toward the goal--I need 26 more of these beauties

This one was the last of the morning --he was the only bluegill in a cluster of 6 beds, I lost one popper in a tree trying to get to him. I could see him, but he wouldn't come out from under a tree branch to get the popper.  After a number of casts the popper landed right in front of the bed he was guarding; he inhaled the yellow/chartreuse and the fight was on---a lot of effort but well worth it!!!!