Bluegill?

What does the water temp have to be for them to start spawning?

Thanks,

FDR

This should answer all your panfish spawning questions.

Panfish Spawning

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This should answer all your panfish spawning questions.

Panfish Spawning

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THANK YOU!

FDR

Is someone getting hungry

Just remember during the spawn the big girls are very easy to catch, not that a guy shouldn’t be able to fry up a few but, selective harvest is a must during any spawn and it is not hard to tell the males and females apart from one another

In our local area the bigger gills seem to move in first for the spawn, water temps in the mid 60’s to low 70’s. After that you will find spawning gills for weeks as the water keeps warming up but the average size fish will run 7 inches and under.

LM Bass and the gills will use the same sites for spawning.

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Is someone getting hungry

Just remember during the spawn the big girls are very easy to catch, not that a guy shouldn’t be able to fry up a few but, selective harvest is a must during any spawn and it is not hard to tell the males and females apart from one another

In our local area the bigger gills seem to move in first for the spawn, water temps in the mid 60’s to low 70’s. After that you will find spawning gills for weeks as the water keeps warming up but the average size fish will run 7 inches and under.

LM Bass and the gills will use the same sites for spawning.

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Thanks for the info Bret. I am actually asking for two reasons. The most important being, I want to get my 3 1/2 year old son addicted to fishing! He caught his first few fish last year and he won’t let me forget it. So I want to keep his excitement level up. The second is, I also like to fish for BIG toothy critters. And I know that we are bound to run into some in the same areas. Every year I have tried to catch a fish bigger than him…so far so good.

Thanks again Bret!

FDR

How do you tell the difference from males and females?

Thanks again,

FDR

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What does the water temp have to be for them to start spawning?

Thanks,

FDR

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It is getting closer. Water temps in the 60’s in some places, but I have seen gills tearing up the ground. Not real active yet, but it is getting there.

Good luck.

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How do you tell the difference from males and females?

Thanks again,

FDR

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As far as bluegills go I was told by my grandpa that the females have yellow on the belly and the males have orange. Please correct me if i’m wrong… When crappies are spawing I do know that the males become almost black.

Bluegill
(Lepomis macrochirus)

Common Names – bream, blue bream, sun perch, blue sunfish, copperhead, copperbelly, roach.

Description – Bluegills have small mouths and oval-shaped, almost rounded, bodies. Body coloration is highly variable with size, sex, spawning, water color, bottom type, and amount of cover. In general, they are somewhat lavender and bronze with about six dark bars on their sides. Males tend to have a copper-colored bar over the top of the head behind the eyes. The breast is silver to slightly blue most of the year, with some yellow or orange during spawning season. Females are generally lighter colored than males. Two distinctive characteristics are the prominent black spot on the rear edge of the gill-cover and a black spot at the base of the posterior portion of the dorsal fin.

Thanks Targa!