This last week we’ve been catching alot of bluegills in a backwater of the Wisconsin river. Alot of the fish are males squirting as we landed them. Usually most of the fish around here have spawned by early June. Hopefully this isn’t a sign that alot of these males didn’t participate in spawning earlier. Also, alot of these fish were caught in deeper water so I don’t think they were guarding beds. Has anyone else had similiar expieriences like this???
Bluegills will have 2-3 spawns per year, if conditions are right. Ussually starting around the first full moon in may or june and sometimes ending in august. Here in s.e. Ia. I’ve caught squirting gills in mid september if the water hasn’t cooled too much. That one I call a false spawn because the females that are near the squirting bulls are full of eggs except they are black eggs. Just remember the full moon and you’ll find some spawning gills.
Fished the zumbro this weekend and got some crappies. When we cleaned them some had eggs in them, do they have more then one spwan?
Lifes to short to fish with dead minnows! Jim
Great to see you guys posting on here. We can all learn alot from each other. Thats what so neat about this website. People from all different areas can post back and forth as alot of things are the same under the same conditions in different areas. For example, our new friend birdman, who fishes the Wisconsin River, can share things here that will relate to the Mississippi River and the other way around too. Everyone has alot to share whether they realize it or not. We can pick up something from everyone who post. Jim, how deep were the crappies? Thanks guys. 
Thats kind of strange. But we did have up and down weather this spring which could of caused some of the fish not to be able to spawn. Normal temps for spawn would be aeound 68 degrees and the water should be way pass that now. 
Bill tell nate great job! On the zumbro we were fishing in about 15-17 foot and they were at 8-10 foot. You could hardley tell they were biting, some you would get by raiseing and lowering your bait. We started with just a brass hook, minnow, and light sinker, later we went to slip bobbers. With the slips you would see the bobber go on its side, or it would go down slow. We missed a good number of bites because they were bitting so light
Lifes to short to fish with dead minnows! Jim
It’s my opinion that the bluegill will take ANY opportunity to spawn during the summer that they can. Just a survival type thing. Crappies definately have a spawning time and any crappie you clean with eggs this time of year has just not spawned out. You can tell by the locations that you catch them. You can catch crappies in October that will have eggs in them. Just my 2 cents worth.
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