5/21/11 - "Big Bull Bluegill"

It was a beautiful Saturday evening and as usual I had fish on the brain. Ginger was riding Chestnut around the pasture and Joe and I were kicking back in the shade with a couple cold ones just relaxing.

I knew of a couple ponds close by that I thought looked great but I'd never asked permission to fish before , no better time than the present I figured. After obtaining permission and getting the word from the owner that the pond fished well and was full of big bluegill and crappie I was more than a little excited to get on the water. I still had a #8 olive bugger on my rod and I didn't see any reason to change it just yet, so off I went. The first couple fish were small bass coming from along the dam , nothing special. I could see some submerged brush just inches under the water on the far side of the pond so that's where I headed.

My first cast off to the side of the visible brush brought a jolting strike , I figured a nicer bass until I felt that dogged tugging that told me I was into one of those nice bluegill.

A big (larger than my hand) bull bluegill full of fight , for once maybe the stories I'd been told were actually true. I proceeded to catch fish after fish around the various submerged brush piles for the next hour and a half , all of them nice big bluegill with a couple of 12" crappie thrown in for good measure.



I've caught a few bluegill in my day that were as big as these but never have I seen a pond where every fish is so big you want to pull out the fillet knife. Needless to say one of the rules is catch and release only , which I totally understand and respect. Man those gills would taste good rolled in cracker crumbs and fried in butter though...mmm..mmmm.


I'd told Ginger that I wouldn't be gone long...what kind of time frame that meant I wasn't sure but I figured I was probably pushing it. Off to the West storm clouds had been brewing all evening and they were getting ominously close anyway.

I stopped and thanked the owner on the way out and was told to come back anytime , an offer I plan to make good use of. My only problem will be not to wear out my welcome before the summers over , I'm already wanting to go back and try to find a few of those "monster" crappie that I heard talk of. Until next time.....