Fall Gills

There's something special about catching fat fall gills. We started in the morning looking for bluegills in various spots, searching in a large basin, we moved slowly jigging the bottom.

We caught a few gills, but not what we were looking for. Checked a few more well-known spots, but they already had anglers fishing those popular locations. I decided to make a quick pass trolling a thumper jig through the area to see if there were any takers.

We caught one crappie but did not see any other angler catch anything. I decided to pull up the trolling motor and head to the other side of the lake. This time, looking for a weed line I've had good luck on. Again, not much luck just few small perch and gills.

With the day winding down, we headed back to the very first spot and decided to try again. Going back to my way points I marked earlier in the day that looked promising, we began again jigging the bottom with tungsten jigs.

Then just like that, a fish here and a fish there, I anchor locked and just fished that spot without moving. We were in 7 ft water. The gills slowly started coming to us until they were so thick under the boat that every drop was resulting in some very nice gills.

My dad was in heaven just reeling in one after another, then I saw his pole bend like it hasn't. He said I think I got a good one as he hoists a big fat gill over the side! Now that's what we are looking for.

We measured her at 9.75 inches and weighed 14.1 oz. my dad’s heaviest gill. After releasing her and laughing how he thought it was a bass, his rod doubled over again. Same thing, hoisted another fatty over the side. This one was thicker. This one only measured 9.25 but weighed 15.7 oz. Now that's a fat gill.

It was a special day catching gills and watching my dad beat his personal best 2 times back to back. Just because you fish a spot and it doesn't produce, don't be afraid to go back hours later. I often hit the same spot twice in a day if it looks fishy. Sometimes it pays off! Oh and I caught a few myself.