Summer bluegills on the rocks, with a Trigger X twist!
Navigation:
Summer bluegills, especially the hand-sized (or larger!) bulls prized by panfish anglers, can be quite elusive during the heat of the summer. While finding these fish during their early summer rush to the shallows to spawn is easy, following these fish through the rest of the season represents a significant challenge. Conventional wisdom indicates that, on most bodies of water across the Northland, big summer bulls will suspend off the deep weedline, transitioning towards the weeds to feed or feasting on open water forage (primarily small minnows and bugs). However, under certain conditions, big summer bulls can be found right where they were during the spawn....in a foot or two of water, just off the shoreline!
Dr. Jason Halfen
Professional Walleye Angler
Navigation:
One set of conditions that will draw big summer gills shallow is high water in a river system. High water levels generally correlate with significant flows, and larger panfish, with their rather flat/tall bodies, cannot handle the combined stress of high current and high water temperatures. With little possibility of locating persistently cool water, panfish will focus on low-flow areas....and shorelines with abundant flooded cover represent perfect examples of such areas. Flooded cover on rip-rap shorelines is easy to identify above the water line, and rocky stretches with flooded trees or shrubs should be the starting places for your search for summer gills.
Complicating the search for summer gills is the fact that not all shorelines with flooded cover will hold large numbers of bull gills....and this is where your Humminbird Side Imaging fishing system comes into play. Side Imaging is an excellent tool for dissecting the cover found under the waterline, even in very shallow water.
I have found the key to finding bruiser gills to be rocks....not the smaller ones that form the rip-rap shoreline, but big boulders that are the sizes of compact cars. On a river system with high turbid water, these rocks are totally invisible to the eye....you simply cannot see them, no matter how good your polarized sunglasses are! These same big rocks stick out like sore thumbs in Humminbird Side Imaging, however. The screen capture at left shows a big handful of boulders (to the left of the boat), sitting just off the flooded woody cover on shore. The locations of these hidden boulders are given away by the large sonar shadows that they cast. I believe that these boulders serve to further slow the current impacting this productive stretch of flooded cover, and also provide a source of forage (especially small minnows and crustaceans) for the bull gills (and smallmouth bass) inhabiting this area. There may only be a couple of such boulder areas along several miles of shoreline, and Humminbird Side Imaging allows you to quickly focus your attention on the most productive areas.
My preferred presentation for these shoreline-related summer gills is to fish small, soft plastic-tipped jigs under a bobber or as a tandem rig with a Rapala F7 (watch the video below to see the tandem rig in action). Specifically, I rig the last inch of a Trigger X walleye minnow on a light (1/16 or 1/32 oz) jig, either a VMC Hot Skirt Jig, VMC Tinsel Jig, or a feather jig. The Trigger X bait provides enhanced action, but more importantly scent and taste stimulants to help Trigger big summer gills into biting, and to ensure that they hold onto the bait long after they bite. I tend to fish brighter colors of Trigger X (either chartreuse or orange) in the turbid waters of our high-running rivers, but you should feel free to experiment with other jig and Trigger X colors to trigger your local bruiser gills....like the ones below:
Enjoy this short video that illustrates some of these tips and techniques for big summer gillers!
