It’s springtime and a young man’s fancy turns to, what else? Bluegill!
Yes, the small and very game member of the sunfish family, and a fish that turns out to be a staple in most all backyard fish frys for the next three months.
It’s not that these light-tackle battlers are bunched up like they will be in the coming weeks, but they’re getting ready as evidenced by their willingness to take anything cast their way during the last several days.
This increase in activity comes follows the same timetable laid out year ago by avid bluegill chaser Tony Accardo (God, rest his fish-catching soul!)
“Check out the pecan trees,” Mr. Tony said. “Don’t go lookin’ for ’em until the pecan trees bud out, and they won’t start bedding up until the pecan trees leaf out.”
True to form, the bluegill began biting when, just last week, the pecan trees began putting a light green coat over their gray-brown bodies.
Even better, this is cheap fishing. You can do it from a bank, or a pond if you’re fortunate to know someone who’ll give you access to small, quiet waters.
Yeah, you can buy crickets from any number of places, but digging nightcrawlers from a backyard garden works pretty well, too.
And, if you follow in Mr. Tony’s footsteps, then poppin’ bugs cast on a fly rod can produce exciting action and yields more than enough for those backyard gatherings.
Now, with most sac-a-lait apparently through with their spawning ritual and bass in the middle of producing the next generation, bluegill provide another piscatorial pleasure. What’s more, their cousins, the chinquapin (redear sunfish) aren’t far behind in this parade, the will extend the panfish fishing season that much longer.
Bass Week
A week of chasing all things green – maybe brown if you include smallmouth bass – came to a screeching halt last Sunday when Canadian Jeff Gustafson took home $300,000 for his 42-pound, 7-ounce catch plucked from the Tennessee River in the Bassmaster Classic held in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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