Percy Priest Bluegills- 5/26/11
 

Went back to my fishing area today, same time 3:30-5:30. Used the same 1/32 black/charteuse jig. The fish were a little deeper, 2-4 feet of water. Ended up keeping 50, all good size again 8-9 inches. I think the peak bluegill fishing is right now. Suggest trying the windy side of the shore, areas to check out..Stewarts Creek, Viveritt Creek, Hurricane Creek. Keep moving till you find a school of them.

Nice mess of bluegills. Are you filleting those or what?

Got me some too from Priest on the fly rod . Fished Tuesday for an hour after work. Of the few bass I caught, I keep the only KY.
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Great catch !!! <'TK><
 

Nice! Those are some bruisers.

Man all those gills making me hungry.

When's the fish fry? :D

Mr. TK...life is good. Only complaint I have is not being able to fish much. My 13-week old babyboy takes precedence right now. I'm sending his paperwork off next week for his lifetime license.

Good string of bluegills there. Bet it was a lot of fun with the fly rod.

Fisher01 it was fun as heck. It's amazing how much they fight as I'm sure you can attest. Have you been back? Would have been better had I had my 3 or 5wt rod. I was using my 7wt because I originally went out for bass using cicadas.

Right now his name is Shakey Head..for more than one reason :D

Hey drrxnupe:

Agree, the 3wt. would have been a blast, I know what you mean, these bluegills can pull. I even had some jump out of water! I'm using an ultralight 5.5 spinning rod, and its wearing me out.

I'm going for a 3-peat today. 40-Wednesday, 50-Thursday, ?-Friday.

I'm expecting today to be slow, with the cooler temperatures, we'll see what happens. Taking some cicadas with me, if I can't catch anything on the jig.

fisher01 - Any idea on the water temps where you are at? No such luck for me on Old Hickory. Water temps 66 in lower lake. could not find shallow gills in any concentration.

Buccaneer,

I don't know the actual water temperature. The small bank area I'm fishing does face south, so this location will warm more quickly than other areas. I can definitely tell the water is warmer where I'm catching them verses some of the bank areas which face another direction several 100 yards away.

Shellcrackers were bedding really strong on the lower end of Old Hickory just before we got that cold snap in mid-May that coincided with the start of the cicadas. Since then, the water has been high and muddy and the temps have not been stable, and the bluegill just haven't come back to the beds. There are lots of small fish but none of the big "bull bream" and shellcrackers. I don't know if the bluegill spawn this year on the lower lake is just going to be a miss, or if they will take another shot at it with the full moon in June. Sometimes shellcracker and bluegill will spawn all the way into early July if they can't get favorable conditions earlier in the year - I always find some good shellcracker beds on the lower Stones River near the Kohl's Greenway in early summer.

Channel cats are up getting ready to spawn now. I actually caught several on a flyrod yesterday while looking for bluegill.

bd