Big bluegill cadence “closer” ?

How’s it goin. I’m lucky enough for my brothers neighbor to be a ice team champion. However it’s pretty frustrating watching him catch 9”,10” plus bluegill one after another out of a hole I just fished. Lol. With the same bait and same line. I can catch em but, about 20% of fish as him. (And same goes for everybody around us) I think I have the cadence down but what is the move to seal the deal at the end ? I know it changes but In general is it just slow it down a touch when the red bar is on your bait and slow raise ? If ya go with the dead stop, they could inhale/ exhale it without knowing right ?I’m also using the same spring bobber and watching for the up bite. I caught some 9” yesterday but I know i failed on the big ones that came up higher. Had em chase close way off the bottom but couldn’t seal the deal

I usually raise slowly and when I drop it back down keep a tight line. As soon as it stops or moves set the hook

What does your brother’s neighbor say? Ask him, I’m sure he’ll be willing to teach if you show interest.

Thanks guys. He is a super nice guy, and has told some tricks just don’t wanna push too much. Don’t wanna lose the invite for future fishing. I’ll have to stand behind him once maybe while he’s setting the hook on one. I just watched the panfish seminars on Thorne bros YouTube. They said the red bar flickers when inhaled. I’m goin tmrw gonna watch for that. He has showed me the cadence, but fish seem to back off from me in the same hard chase and he catches em. It’s just something split second at the end. I’m a musky guy in musky season. I thought a 50” was the toughest fish to catch. Now I think it’s the 11” gill. Lol

I don’t know how’s it for you, but for myself…even if I’ve got the same bait/lure/line…and the rods are different or different reel. That subtle difference at times is the difference.

Part of the reason why I use a bait casting reel or a fly reel.

The one difference is he’s using 2lb fluero. Vanish or sunline. I got micro ice and I hate it. He taught me the straightening trick where ya almost burn it thru your hands but it consistently keeps coiling up throughout the day. And I suppose if I have mono I’m missing some bites due to stretch. I can’t find the vanish or sunline where I live gonna have to order it online today.

We are both usin Shimano siennas. I like the drag on that reel for the price. The one difference is he’s using 2lb fluero. Vanish or sunline. I got micro ice and I hate it. He taught me the straightening trick where ya almost burn it thru your hands but it consistently keeps coiling up throughout the day. And I suppose if I have mono I’m missing some bites due to stretch. I can’t find the vanish or sunline where I live gonna have to order it online today.

The biggest rule in fishing is location. Have you ever tried fishing those same holes he’s slamming them on? Sometimes the difference is having another hole 3’ away from a slow hole. One may catch 30 fish when the one next to it is catching low single digits if any. I’ve seen it happen lots of times.

Sometimes the fish just bite extremely light, especially big old smart bluegill, and that takes some experience to know when to set the hook. Just by holding my noodle rod makes the tip quiver like crazy and one thing I look for is when the tip stops completely. Then I know there’s tension on the line (stopping the quiver motion) and I set the hook. Sometimes it stops for a split second, sometimes in stops for a second or two. It’s all very subtle and if you don’t know what to look for, I guarantee you are missing bites you don’t even know are happening.

Practice makes perfect though. Not everyone gets to fish next to a pro so absorb everything the man has to say about fishing. It will make you a better angler. Observe the little things. Twitches, cadence pattern, jigging style, rod/reel motions, hook setting and look at the reactions of the fish to all of that on the flasher. Then try to emulate that. I truely belive presentation trumps color and size. If it moves right and physically looks close enough, size and color have little to do with it.

Jigging big panfish can be a lot of attention to detail at times. The trick is finding out which detail they want that day. You’ll get there man.

Thanks. Your right on color vs lure presentation cause he doesn’t change. And when we’re on fish he doesnt stay long in a hole. Your right on that too. He’s probably passing on non-aggressive fish in 1 hole and moves 3 ft over and catches an aggressive one first drop and keeps moving.Im probably wasting more time on some finickier fish than he is.

If you have a good noodle rod get the tip moving up and down about a inch smoothly. Never stop,when fish gets close quit watching flasher watch your tip, if your tip neither goes back up or down you just got bit. If you have the fish coming up hard, I usually stay in place move up slowly if you have to, but never stop. DK. Many ways to catch a fish, this is just one.

Thanks. Supposedly I’m gettin to fish a lake where 12” fish live this sat with a different guy see how it goes. Yesterday I tried stopping the cadence when the 2 marks met then slow raise. It worked but just found crappies. They were much easier too catch.

Any 12″ers yet?

Dusty Gesinger wrote:

Any 12″ers yet?

Yep, that’s the right question too ask. I’d like too see the big fish also.

8-9 inch gills are darn nice fish here. 10″ here equals a 1# bluegill or close to it. Not many people will every see a 10″ bluegill in their life.

Well I learned a lot last 2 wknds. I did go to that private lake with the big gills. (With a bunch of guys that pretty much partied and just put tip ups for pike out so I fished alone. Lol) we started deep(basin 40ft). I left there started looking for gills shallower, got to 25 ft found some caught dinks on tungstens so tried James green uv 1/16 or 1/8 flash champ and was still catching only 6,7” then a guy caught 16.5 crappie so I I went back out to basin. just caught on a bobber and minnow so wasn’t any skill in that. Then these guys wanna leave at 4 pm right at prime time so that was it. Fish in every hole was just hard to weed out dinks. My brother backed out with his Milwaukee/6” laser to hole hop also. Only had a old gas auger with dull blades that took about 7 min per hole so that screwed me also, but did catch probably 80 crappies with a slab rap and plastics on tungstens but never caught over a 14”.(mostly 7-9”)I did go with the ice team guys on public the next wknd and finnaly caught around 70 8-9.5” gills sat/sun consistently while 40-60 other people weren’t catching any. The closer was they were biting the whole time and I didn’t know it. That’s what the pro guys said and they were right. I got 2lb frost fluero sunline . Stretched it out so there wasn’t a wrinkle in 30 ft and watched for the tiniest flicker on my spring bobber. Or looking for the spring bobber goin up. That was the difference between a 70-100 fish day and a 10 fish day the previous visit to that same spot on the same lake. Even the dinks weren’t letting
That slab rap make it to the bottom. Maybe should of used walleye size. Only had half a day after the drive and leaving at 4

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One of the gills just caught off the dock in summer at that private lake. Don’t know if I’m goin back. Private lake buddy’s kinda mad I’m not giving up the ice team guys spots. I’m not screwing up the invite with the ice team guys.

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And here was the average size we caught this last Sunday once I figured out how to catch em. On public pressured lake

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Lots of guys post video and its fun to watch the fish connect but its just as interesting to see the fish ignore or turn away from the jig. When the jigging is too agressive they turn away or if the motion stops they turn away too. You can see that it sometimes takes big jigging motions to get your lure on their radar but if you stay with that cadence they turn away. Good Luck

Thanks. Yep it is amazing how finicky they are if you change the cadence. They’ll be gone. This last Sunday it was pretty aggressive cadence to get em excited, then kept sane cadence but slowed down almost to deadstick but not quite and stopped raising it after about a a 3 ft chase. If I kept raising theyde turn away. I could see all the people around me continue to raise like ya normally do and they weren’t catching a single fish with the same bait as me. (6hrs). So that day I stuck to that and caught fish just about every 2,3 min

My camera made me a better fisherman. Watching the take on the screen helped me see the rod. I ran the flasher overtop as well. I now have a precision noodle thanks to what I learned through all this. There are a lot of guys feeding fish all weekend and never know it. Pretty crazy once you see everything come together.

@tony6 wrote:

I thought a 50” was the toughest fish to catch. Now I think it’s the 11” gill. Lol

11-12″ bluegill length is flirting with state record territory… Yes, state records are tough to catch! I wouldn’t beat yourself up too bad over it.

One of the things I’ve found for hesitant panfish is to go with a lead jig. I know tungsten is the expensive “I saw it on a fishing show” fad, but there is still a time and place for the smallest lead jigs. I’ve seen it time and time again where a tungsten rocketed down to a school of fish results in the most curious, smaller fish hitting first. The lightest of lead jigs sometimes fall at a noticeably slower pace and can be a turn-on for those shy (and often larger) fish.

Also, don’t believe all the people who talk of “hammering gills in the 10″ range.” 99% of 10″ gills reported are likely pinching the tail to get 9″ at best. A true 10″ gill is going to have a nearly vertical profile starting right at its mouth. It takes a unique body of water and some major time to come across those fish.

I agree I haven’t seen over 9.25 yet this year out of hundreds of gills. People say they caught em but no pics. I have a vid if 10.5 last year I’ll see if this site will let me post it. And my other trick this last Sunday was downsized to a 2mm from a 4

10.5 last year caught on accident. Didn’t have a tape so marked length on jig box with sharpie. Fishing for small trout. 8” hole

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We were fishing for these guys.

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My typical Gill cadence closer is the ultra slow barely moving after convincing them to look at it.