When do bluegill spawn in michigan

Bottom types vary. In one lake, bluegills spawn on lily-pad roots, right at base of the pads. That lake gets choked with vegetation. When I don't know a lake, I look for bulrushes. Hard-stem bulrushes grow in the perfect substrate for spawners in most of these lakes.

That's where the big fish are. When I spot a few, I put the bowmount down and zoom in with SideScan to get a better picture. Big ones spawn in 12 feet of water. You can count the number of fish on the beds with SideScan. It blows people's minds. Another great location to look for spawning 'gills is an inside weededge with sparse sandgrass. That's prime. Svir finds that the biggest bluegills in the systems he knows tend to be first to spawn and first to finish.

But if we're catching all females or mostly females fishing a postspawn pattern, it pays to go back and recheck spawning beds with StructureScan and SideScan for big males. They sometimes remain, protecting nests. After a slow grind we boated two males in the inch range.

Side-imaging with the HDS Carbon is a game changer. Wolter says bluegills recovering after dropping eggs and defending nests won't move far from spawning sites for weeks. That lasts a few weeks and then they split into various patterns. Svir's experiences bear out many observations of biologists and guides from other regions. Getting tight to the thick edge produces fish.

Clients hire me to catch trophy fish for a reproduction or photo. Fishing slightly deeper adjacent to cabbage and coontail edges in the to foot range is the big-fish pattern most days. The best areas on these flats have isolated patches of cover just starting to grow. Bull bluegills are risk takers and roam slightly deeper because of their size. They stray farther from cover to take advantage of better feeding opportunities.

The blanks feature a zonal spun carbon that provides backbone where you need it and maximum sensitivity. A whippy noodle can't produce the jigging cadence I like.

Time and again, a harder jigging action catches the biggest bluegills. I try to jig in place with something they can feel in their lateral line but without much up-and-down movement. I place a large split shot about 18 inches above a Northland Gill Getter Jig.

That's my confidence rig. I can move with the trolling motor and keep the rig vertical. You want to jig it hard and work an area slowly with the bowmount while keeping the presentation completely vertical. During postspawn, I switch from plastics to a whole redworm. Isolated cover off the beaten path hides those "virgin populations" Diana described. I use down-scan to pick fish out of the vegetation. Looking for suspended bluegills is a waste of time during postspawn.

Key spots may be related to the location of burrowing insects. There, the bottom isn't really firm, not really soft, and 'gills are pinned to it.

Bottom contact becomes critical. I like to shake the rod hard—not a lot of up and down but making the jig actively work in place. Shepard says the last chance to intercept Okeechobee bluegills after each spawn, before they evacuate into "the abyss," involves crickets, Beetle Spins, and flyrods.

I like 6- to 7-foot rods. In tall grass we use crickets under floats on bare hooks. Sometimes we fly-cast with 4- to 6-weight equipment, floating lines, and poppers or slow-sinking bugs. They become territorial and aggressive as they protect their beds and go through the spawning process.

My favorite way to target bluegill during the spawn is with small moving baits like small swimbaits, spinners, and crankbaits. As we have discussed in this bluegill spawning guide, bluegill will begin spawning in the spring when water temperatures reach 68 degrees and they will typically finish spawning when water temperatures reach 75 degrees.

This typically occurs in the early spring all the way until the fall with the peak season being May and June.

The spawn can be an exciting time to target bluegill. This is by far one of the best times of the year to fish for bluegill and makes for some great angling opportunities. Understanding when bluegill spawn, what signs to look for, and how you can use that to your advantage as an angler is super important.

This information will help you catch more bluegill and make you a more efficient and effective angler. Aaron Warner is an avid angler with over 15 years of experience. He has participated and won fishing tournaments all over the country and enjoys fishing for bass, trout, walleye and other species. Caught or bought, there's just nothing quite like home-cooked fish! However, just like every other meat, it's important to understand how to safely store and cook your fish to prevent sickness or If you are wondering if you can fish with live bait in your state, then you have come to the right place.

Live bait is not permitted in many areas due to the possibility of unwanted species or Skip to content. The Bluegill Spawn As water temperatures start to increase from a long winter season, bluegill will feed heavily during the pre-spawn phase as they prepare to head shallow to spawn.

For avid anglers, the newly-open water of a lake known for its booming bluegill population is a welcome sight. The moment the solidified surface disappears, water temperatures quickly rise and panfish immediately start migrating towards the warmest areas in the system. The water is the clearest it will be all year, and the likely locations bluegill will be are easy to spot with nothing more than a pair of polarized sunglasses, you may even see the fish.

The fish are hungry, and fooling them with artificial offerings over live bait is a great way to go. And once you figure out what bait, exactly, is triggering the most strikes, the catching will come easy.

Generally, anglers head for the shallows to find panfish in the spring; which, overall, is a good ploy. Shallow bays with a dark, silted bottom will warm first as the blackened lake base absorbs sun rays and heats the surroundings. But a springtime cold front can kill a good shallow-water bite.

Depending on the lake, the fish may move off into the water in the to foot depth. If the weather turns severe enough, the fish may belly-up to bottom amongst the structure and become lethargic. As the cold front passes, however, the fish will start to rise higher in the water column along the steep breaks before it turns warm enough for fish to head back in the shallows.

Rose displays a nicely-colored pumpkinseed that he caught using a jig in early spring. Pumpkinseeds are very similar to bluegill and can often be caught on the same lakes.