Fishing the Late Season Spawn For Huge Bluegills

 Cathey and I spent Thursday morning on Smith Lake searching for some late-season bluegill still in the spawning mode. This may be the last spawn of the season. The lake is on the pull-down, getting ready for next Spring's rains, so we will be fishing falling water, which means the fish will be moving out of the nooks into deeper water. I hope I am wrong.

We started the morning in Rayon Creek, which, of course, is my favorite place to fish Smith Lake. This quality bull gill inhaled a size 6 Boggle Bug Popper near one of many floating docks on the lake. I am amazed at how these big bluegill have enough suction power to get this size popper wedged in their mouths so quickly. I thought I had hooked a spotted bass, because of the fight of this fish. My 5 wt. was tested during the fight. Sorry to say, this would be the only bluegill I would take on the fly rod this morning. The rest of the morning was consumed with Cathey and me landing bluegill in four spawning areas where there was one or two fish still on their beds. Towards the end of the spawning season, one is lucky to find more than a couple still guarding their beds. All the beds were still in water 5 to 6 ft. deep. As the lake is drawn down even more over the next couple of months, these beds will be exposed on the dry bottom. Once the spawn is over, they move to cover, which is the rock walls, where there is the insect larvae to keep them well fed until next year's spawning cycle starts all over again.

The cricket is the perfect insect to mimic the insect larvae found in the crevices of the rock walls on Smith Lake. The boat traffic is churning the water, keeping the larvae moving for the bluegill to feast on.

This size bluegill will produce two nice fillets. When you add french fries, coleslaw, and hush puppies, along with some tartar sauce and ketchup, you have a great meal. To me, the bluegill tops the crappie when you compare both of these fish for a meal.

The way I like to fish for this size bluegill is with a fly rod and small surface poppers in April through June. Then, from July through October, I use my micro light 7 1/2-ft rod, rigged with a slip sinker and 4-lb test vanish mono line. This time of year, they go 15 to 20 feet deep, and using a cricket with a nibblet in red or white color attached to the tip of the hook gets the hits. Letting the cricket sink to the desired depth, showing on the depth finder, and working it with a slow retrieve gets their attention. There is no mistaking when they hit. In fact, my Micro light is duplicating my 7 1/2-ft fly rod. A ton of fun for sure when you connect with one of these beauties down deep!

I can’t end this post without showing you this average male spotted bass I landed a few minutes after landing the big bluegill. Nothing really special about this fish but the FIGHT! I was using my 4 wt. fly rod trying to get another big gill to take my size 8 Bullet Boggle Bug popper when this bass exploded on the popper. The fight this fish put up on the 4 wt. was amazing, making me think I'd hooked a 2-lb spotted bass. He got me hung a couple of times before I finally released the fish. I was thinking I wish I had my 5wt. It was lying at my feet, but the 4wt. got the job done. This fight was amazing coupled with the numerous runs it made trying to free itself! This one fish today reminded me why I love this sport so much, especially pursuing them with the fly rod. 

 Guys I am sharing this video so you guys can see the fight this small male spotted bass gave my 4wt, 9ft Redington fly rod. What made me think he was a much bigger bass was the explosive hit. I was using a 7 1/2 ft. leader with a 6X tippet. Just goes to show you never underestimate the spotted bass. Sorry for the video being angled at times; my wife was learning how to film.

The Spawn is Still On!!

Cathey and I have become quite a team when it comes to fishing with Micro Light combos. One of the combos is 7 1/2- and the other is an 8-foot rod. We used both micro-lights this past week while fishing on Smith Lake during the last bluegill spawning cycle of July. There may be another spawn in August if the lake level does not drop too quickly. I hope we get to fish that cycle as well.

I've been using both micro combos for over 30 years. When I purchased the rods, they had a half-dollar-size front guide, which I removed and replaced with a quarter-size guide, resulting in increased casting speed and distance. At the time I purchased the rods and reels, I didn't realize I was fishing with a 3/4-weight fly rod. Thirty years ago, I was into baitcasting reels and spinning reels, fishing for bass. The reason I purchased the micro-light rods and reels was to use them to fish for the super-sized bluegills I kept catching with my bait-casting and spinning reels combos. Little did I know at the time that these micro light combos would become a massive part of my fishing experience for the rest of my fishing days. 

Cathey would rather use the 8-foot micro-light instead of the fly rod. She isn't into fly fishing because of the line management and casting. I'm good with that, because she is landing fish!

We caught these bluegill early last Tuesday morning. We were using crickets with the hook tipped with a red crappie nibblet. Fishing with crickets is Cathey's favorite way to fish Smith Lake. One thing I haven't been able to do is get her to bait her hook and remove the fish from the hook; I'm still working on that. We always look forward to the spawn on Smith. I fillet all the bluegill I land on Smith, and we freeze them to eat in the winter months. 

We landed this group of gills on Thursday morning early. The fight this size bluegill exerts is unbelievable, using a micro-light rod. As I said, it's like fishing and landing bluegill using a fly rod. We landed all these fish in water 10 to 12 ft. deep. One never finds this size bluegill in shallow-water fishing at Smith Lake. The reason is the clarity of the water. We never use corks. We are tight-lining and waiting for that light hit. They never slam the bait. Slowly raise and drop the bait, working it back to the boat; most of the time, they hit the cricket on the fall. Loads of fun, especially fishing with your wife!!

Guys, I wanted to share this image of our youngest grandson, who landed this monster carp in one of the small ponds in the subdivision where they live. Cash is really into fishing. He turned eleven on July 10th and got a spinning combo from his parents for his birthday. What a way to break in the combo. He had the reel spooled with 8lb test line, and fought the carp for a while before he finally got to whole the fish. Congrats, Cash, you're on your way to becoming a great fisherman!!

Cathey's Largert Bass and Bluegill Fishing Ryan Creek

I've been fishing a lot since March and most of it was alone on Walker Lake and the rest of the time was on Smith Lake with some of my buddies. A few trips to the tailrace were worked in when the generators were not running. Hopefully, most of the rains are gone and the tailrace will start to fish well in the coming months. 
One of my fishing buddies couldn't make the fishing trip we had planned for this past Tuesday so I started looking for a replacement. To my surprise my wife said she wanted to go, so we headed to Smith Lake for four or five hours of fishing. It turned out to be a special trip for both of us because it had been 25 years since she had been in the boat with me. She wanted to fish for the bluegill using live bait in the form of crickets. The only rule I had to follow was; she wasn't going to bait her hook, touch the fish or touch a crappie nibblet. In other words, I was her guide which was fine with. I was just glad to have her on board!

This largemouth put up quite a fight. I was really proud of how well Cathey handled this fish. She finally landed the fish using a 7 1/2 ft. Microlight with 4 lb. test line. We released the fish to fight another day. 

Hopefully, I can get her into fly fishing in the coming months. She has agreed to give fly fishing a try---really a special day for both of us, one that I will remember!! 

Fishing the Micro Light Spinning Rod



The blooming of the Dogwood Trees are always the sign that the crappie has begun to spawn here in the Deep South. I’ve been noticing the Dogwood buds but no bloom yet. That didn’t keep me from joining one of my fishing buddies the other day to test the waters for some slab crappie.

My 7 ½ ft. microlight spinning rod paired with the Pflueger President XT spinning reel is perfect to handle big crappie. I’m using 4 lb. test vanish line with a small curly tail shad jig to duplicate small minnows. The balance of this rod makes it effortless to cast for distance and accuracy. Using the micro light combo parallels the light 7 ½ to 8 ft. fly rods.

The dark male crappie is one beautiful fish in the early spring.  All the crappie today was landed using the micro. I had the 4 wt. fly rod with me but the wind was too strong to get a dissent case in place; in other words, my patience has worn thin dealing with the gust coming from all directions.

The in results, using my new fish cleaning table from Bass Pro Shops; these ten beauties yielded 40 mouth-watering fillets.