A Blue Day

[BigBassin144]

We heard about a reservoir about 45 minutes south of Toledo that was supposed to be awesome bluegill fishing. We decided to check it out on Sunday. So Saturday night we took a trip to Gander Mtn. My dad didn't want to go to the new BPS cause it would be too expensive (not cause of their prices, because of me )

We bought a couple little 1/64 and 1/32 oz jig heads, and some itty bitty tubes. We also got some wax worms and night crawlers. Oh, and a spool of 4lb test Stren. We ended up adding 10-20ft leaders to our main lines (8-10lb mono) which turned out to be more trouble than respooling all 4lb test would have been.

We packed up a bit Sat. night and plugged the battery in to charge. I brought some bass gear just in cast (what does it hurt just sitting in the storage compartments in the boat), and we packed the rest sunday morning. Anywyas, we left not even know whether we'd be able to get our 16' Tracker Deep-V boat in the reservoir. We got directions from an ohio fishing forum cause we never had been down there.

Before we could get on our way though, we had to drop off some garbage to the dmpster at my dad's work, and my uncle's pressure washer we borrow to clean our front porch. That put us farther behind than I wanted to be, but oh well. Before we got our of the toledo area, my dad realized we forgot the nightcralwers and wax worms. Luckily there is a baitshop in Maumee (suburb of Toledo) that isn't far out of the way. Now we're even more behind schedule. We got there to find the boat ramp almost too shallow to get the deep-v boat in, but we managed. There is no dock, so I used the paddle to hold the boat at shore while my dad parked. He got in and we shoved off. We dropped the trolling motor in the water (electrics only reservoirs, like most of them around here) only to find the battery is dead, completely. So I paddled from the shore the wind blew us to, out a ways and we anchored.

We fished, and landed a 7" in the first minutes, and kept him just in case. The knos connecting our leaders proved to be a problem cause the line on the spinning reels was getting caught on them in the spools, and we had never used slip bobbers before either, so that was a bit challenging. Another 7" that we threw back cause we figured we'd have a good day.

After a while, watching more small aluminum boats come and go to the opposite shore, my dad decided to run to Findly, OH to get a new battery. It was about 10-15 minute drive there. I stayed with the boat anchored on the shore and fished. First fish I caught was a 10 incher. Then a caught quite a few more dinks and a 9"er in teh 50 minutes it took my dad ot get back (he had to go to a couple stores to get the battery)

With that accomplished, we moved over to where a guy said a couple trees were (there is no other cover besides that). We hd a hard time finding them, and a harder time staying on them to fish. My dad caught an 11" perch (yellow perch for you southern boys) which immediately went into the cooler. We caught a few more 7"ers and an 8". We headed in when the sky turned dark and we saw lightning.

It was nothing compared to the 150-200 gills in 6 hours people where catching before the storms we had saturday night, but it was fun, and we now (in combination with the couple bass fillets from G-ville and our fish from ice fishing) have enough for a fish fry.

For you southern boys, the top one is a perch, a real one. I guess you'd call them Yellow Perch or green perch. The 3 biggest fish.


Here's the rest we kept.








BB

[MississippiBoy]

Yessir...as we say down here, "Them'll eat!"

[pignjig]

Nice going BB. Thanks for the story- You got a real talent for telling a good story. Ditto Miss'ippi- "Them'll eat." Nice job, man!

[Fishnngolfn]

What are the ones that look like the blue gill?

[BigBassin144]

Thanks guys. We had fun, and Pig, I've been told that before.

Most of the things you call Perch down in the south are bluegill, sunfish, pumpkinseeds, redears, etc. But a real perch is that yellow beauty. The fish has lost a lot of it's color by now, but they are very cool lookin fish, and one of the best eating. The fish from the inland lakes and reservoirs are a different color than from say Lake Erie.

BB

[Fishnngolfn]

What is the one on the bottom right (two under the blue gill)?

[Jim80]

they also call those grass perch up here and they are tasty but so are the blues .

[BigBassin144]

Originally Posted by Fishnngolfn

What is the one on the bottom right (two under the blue gill)?

All of them but the perch are bluegill. Some have different color than other, but it is mostly differnce in male and female.

BB

[Fishnngolfn]

Originally Posted by BigBassin144

All of them but the perch are bluegill. Some have different color than other, but it is mostly differnce in male and female.

BB

Which color is the male? We have blue gills coming out of our ears in a small creek that feeds our retention pond in our neighborhood. You put a live cricket on a small hook with a bobber and you will catch a blue gill about 1 out of every 3 casts. The problem is that the fish are not good to eat. Too much fertilizer and junk gets into that water with all the new houses and development.

[BigBassin144]

Well, down south, they may not be bluegill, but other sunfish. But mainly the males are a lot more brightly colored than the females.The two bigguns in my pictures are both females. Their colors have faded quite a bit, so I couldn't tell you which were males. They were also the only ones that had a sufficient amount of eggs. A couple of the smaller females looked like they had spawned already. and if they are spawning, it could explain why we didn't catch the 100+ people had been talking about.

BB

[stevomac59]

Now that's a REAL perch!
Imagine casting one of those down there where the BIG 'Ol Bass are!


-stevo

[Buzz Wing]

HOLY CRAP! Those 'gills haven't even spawed yet. They spawned up here like two weeks ago. We were slayin' 'em about two-three weeks ago.

Way to go, man!

-Buzz

[BigBassin144]

Buzzie, I know it is weird isn't it. The gill in my pond have spawned too. The smaller femails had spawned already, just not the bigguns. It is very strange. Maybe that reservoir is behind for some reason.

BB

[bamabassman]

great fish bb. we are having bass filets right now as i tying hungrype this. mmmmmmmm gett as i smell em cooking and looking at your pics,mmmmmmmmmm.

[bamabassman]

hahaha so hungry i can't type, hahahahahhaha.