WV Bluegills

[WV Sawmiller]

  Yesterday afternoon I decided to take my 17 y/o (#2) granddaughter, Abbie, who is spending a few days with us, to the lake to catch a mess of bluegills. It was hot but I figured we'd find shady spots that time of day. We loaded up, stopped and got a dozen worms, ice, gas for the outboard and a cold drink for Abbie and got to Bluestone Lake about 4:30 or so. Of course we brought Sampson along.

  I motored to a spot across the lake about 1/2 mile away and cut up my first nightcrawler into 3-5 pieces and baited up 4 poles for us to use. Each of us started with a 10' and a 13' fiberglass pole with a #4 circle hook, a bb shot and a float set to about 3' deep. We got to the spot and Abbie had landed 2 bluegills before I could get a hook in the water. We quickly found 2 poles was too much to use because while we unhooked a fish or rebait one the other one was stealing the bait or wrapping you around an underwater root. We eased along under the trees in the shade pitching the baits near underwater limbs and logs and steadily picking up fish as we went. Mostly I was baiting and taking fish off. Once in a while Abbie would take one of her own off it it wasn't too floppy or hooked too deep.

    One young man passed us in his boat and we talked a bit. He was down to his last, dead minnow and he asked if we had an extras we could sell him. I told him we only had worms but he could possibly buy some more minnows at the Marina 1/2 mile away. He said he had never been there and did not know they sold bait. I suspect they were still open because there were boaters and kayakers on the lake who had rented from them. You can access it from the water side. I hope it worked out for him.

  After about an hour or so we had probably fished a couple hundred yards of shoreline and I heard another fisherman grinding the starter on his 50 hp Johnson motor but no luck starting it. We took in our lines and went over to check and asked if he needed a tow and he did so we towed him about 1/3 of a mile back to the landing. He offered to pay and I told him to return the favor to someone else when he got the chance. Turned out he was parked right beside me.

    We left him there and returned to fish some more just up from where we had been before. We fished till a little after 8 pm then returned to the landing and loaded up with a total of 54 bluegills. None were real big but all were fairly decent eating size of 7-8 oz I guess. We stopped and got some sodas and ice cream at the grocery store for Abbie then came home and I cleaned fish till 1130 or so.

  It was great to spend another afternoon fishing with Abbie. It has been a couple years I guess since she has been with me. Truth be told she probably caught more fish than I did. Usually the first I would know she had a fish on would be when I would hear that monofilament line singing as it ripped through the water and I'd look back and see her pole bent double then at the end of his run she'd jerk him out of the lake and toss him in my lap to unhook and maybe re-bait.


Not huge but a good 2 gallon pan full by the time I got them cleaned. This would have been a great time to have had one of those rocket scalers you tow behind the boat. I know they scale the fish as you tow them and I've heard if you gut and maybe de-head them they will be pretty well cleaned and ready to cook by the time you get to the landing. I may have to keep my eye open for one of them but I don't remember seing them much up here. Most of the time when I'm fishing for bream it is for live bait for my catfish lines but, in fact, a big ol' bluegill is my favorite eating fish.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I keep thinking that easing a boat along a shaded shoreline (I love my trolling motor - as a kid we had to scull a johnboat from the rear using an oar in one hand to move the boat along or hold in place in the wind or current while fishing with your other hand) and pitching crickets (we can't get them up here) or worms for bluegills or minnows for crappie is the epitome of fishing. Its relaxing and quiet and you never know what you will see overhead or along the bank. 

    For their size bluegills are much harder fighters than crappies and I hate to clean crappies (Specs for Caveman and others there in central Fla and such) because I always get stuck on their fins. We used to use ultra-light spinning rods and reels with a float 1'- 2' deep and pitch them under overhanging limbs and along steep banks with a worm, cricket or baby crawfish and such. We could not fish deeper because we could not cast it with 4.5'-5' rods. A simple pole is much easier to control and more laid back. With a foot controlled trolling motor you can often use poles with different baits or depth or just to cover more ground quicker. If a fish steals your bait on one rig immediately move the other one to the same spot.

   It is even more fun with grandkids or an older person who does not get to go fishing very much because it makes memories for the kids and brings back memories for the old timers. I think we should have a national day where we all go take an old person out of a nursing home or such and take them fishing with a simple pole rig. My mom is 95 and loves to come up here and help me catch little bream for bait to use on my catfish (droplines) hooks and watch the limbs shaking as I take the big catfish off. She never baits a hook or ties on a line or takes a fish off. That is my job - same with my younger (okay older ones who should know better too) grandkids. The goal is not to catch fish - it is for the kids and old timers to have fun.

   With my kids when they were little if the fish did not bite we'd go catch green frogs in the cattails or look for eggs and baby birds in the nests in the bushes on stumps in the lake or go let them play on a sandbar and collets shells and such. They were always excited to go again. I don't ever remember them saying they were ready to go home.

   Yesterday's trip keeps reminding me of those enjoyable times and I look forward to more of them with the grandkids.

[thecfarm]

I'm looking forward to more stories. 

[Onthesauk]

75 years ago my grandfather use to take me fishing for perch and sunfish, a retired farmer in Minn.  I would have been about 4-5 years old.  Fished for them exactly as you describe, or a piece of corn kernel.  He use to fry roe, breaded with corn meal.  At that age thought that was pretty fancy!