Blue Gil

[wisehoosier]

I am planning a fishing trip the week after labor day and was looking for a good place the catch blue gil, does anyone have any ideas were to go? I appreciate the suggestions

[bassmanic1]

It all depends on where you live in IN . If your in the Evansville area check out New Lake in Oakland City . Up around Terra Haute I would hit Greene Sullivan pits or Sullivan Lake .

[Moose1am]

Here is something that may help you catch more bluegills. This month the In_Fisherman magazine has an article on where bluegills live and hang out. It's a good read.

Also the magazine called "Crappie World" is has a special edition for this summer that talks about sunfish and pan fish fishing. It's a must read magazine.

These articles along with a good topo map of the lakes you fish will help you zero in on the fish.

One thing to remember at this time of the year is that the warmer the water the higher the fish's metabolism. That means the fish have to eat a lot. Unless they get too hot and become stressed. Then all they have to do is go down into deeper darker cooler waters to rest.

Blue gills and crappie like to suspend over the deeper water away from the bank or ledges.

I took up Scuba Diving when I was just getting out of High School. I worked as a life guard at a private resort and swimming lake and had the opportunity to dive in this lake for many summers. I learned a lot about where the fish hang out by scuba diving in the local lake, rivers and pits.

The water visibility in these old abandoned coal mines pits clears up in the hot summer months when we get little rain. I dove in rock quarries where the you could see the bottom on the quarry in 40 ft of water while standing along the edge of the quarry. I could see the fish swimming in the water easily.

I have found big bluegills spawning on rocky roads that lead into the quarry. I have observed huge bass swimming along the bottom in 40 ft of crystal clear water. Swimming just ahead of me and easily staying out of reach. Now a diver without external devices (power sleds of subs) can only swim about 1 to 2 mph. Even with fins the drag created by the scuba tanks in those days slowed one down. I was a strong swimmer but when you put on fins and scuba gear it's a different type of swimming and you tire out quickly. Thank god for Buoyancy compensator and rubber boats.

I wish everyone that fishes could dive and see what the fish do.

I have been diving in stripper pits and observed huge schools of bluegill suspended out in the middle of the lake about 10 to 20 ft below the surface. What they were doing out there only god knows! If they were resting or feeding I really could not tell. But there were there in huge schools of hundreds of fish. I was diving about 30 ft below the surface and looking up at the school of bluegills watching them in awe. If you have watched any nature shows on TV you may have seen films of this type of scene on TV. Fish swimming in the ocean form huge schools too. I have been diving in the ocean off Panama City, Florida and in the Keys and observed this same schooling behavior in salt water fish.

I took a course in college that studied the various types of fish found in fresh water. We had to lean the scientific names of all the fish and how to identify them visually. It was a fun course but I wish I could have learned more from that class. One semesters of a 3 hour credit college course was not enough for me. I found the class fascinating and wanted to learn more. I wanted to know more about the fish's behaviors as a fisherman as well as a student. We all could use more information on where the fish will be so that we can catch more of them and bigger fish. LOL

One more big hint. Fish in hot water need lots of dissolved oxygen to survive and to fuel their bodies. Oxygen gets into the water due to surface action between the air and the surface of the water. Winds create waves which increases the surface area of the water and also mixes more air into the surface waters. There will be more oxygen on the windward banks than on the Leeward banks. If you can maintain good boat control in the wind you may catch more fish. Also wind blowing across points or weed flats will push the food along as the winds setup small currents in the water. So the downwind areas will hold not only more dissolved oxygen but more food. follow the current.

And one final suggestion. Fish the submerged weeds. The edges of the weeds and holes in the weed beds may hold a lot of fish. Even when the water surface temps in these shallow waters is in the lower 90 deg F range they can hold huge fish. Fish get shade, dissolved oxygen and food in these submergent (under water weeds) weeds. Emergent weeds are those that break the surface of the water and get sunlight in the air. Lilly pads are an example of an emergent vegetation. Cattails are another plant that classified as emergent vegetation.

Leafy pond weed and Eurasian airfoil are two examples of submergent vegetation. Depending on the water clarity these plants can grow from 1 ft deep to 10 to 12 ft deep in Southern IN. Some stripper pits that have very clear water will have weeds rooted as far down as 15 ft deep. As long as they can get sunlight they will grow. When you get deeper than the sunlight can penetrate the water then the weeds will stop growing and become sparse. That's a good transition spot to fish. The weeds will follow the contours of the bottom and a good spot to check out is the inside edges of the weeds. Inside turns of the contour lines and weed lines along with outside turns or points in the weed lines.

I am planning a fishing trip the week after labor day and was looking for a good place the catch blue gil, does anyone have any ideas were to go? I appreciate the suggestions