The wing dams are full of blue gills right now. How do you rig to catch them out in current on the wing dams? I’d like to take the grandkids out to catch a few. I’d appreciate a few tips on what works best. Thanks in advance for your help.
I’ve been catching a lot of them on 8th oz jig and crawler while fishing for walleyes. A slip bobber that you let swing towards the face would work too or a simple split shot rig and crawler.
Great question…. 
I’d like to add… 
How do you rig for wing dam gills to keep them from swallowing the hooks …. 
I have been right on them and they still seem to get them all the way down 
No swallowing on the jig and crawler so far.
I’m not a river fisherman, but a friend took me out bobber fishing the wingdams on Pool 5 and we caught a ton of fish. Most of them were bluegills and perch. There was just enough current to slowly drift the rig over the wingdam. I like an aberdeen hook for bluegills. They might still swallow it, but its easier to unhook them.
I use a drop shot rig and a #4 Aberdeen hook. On the tail end where the weight goes, pinch on a couple splitshots. If they get snagged, they’ll slide off without losing the entire rig.
I like a #4 sized hook because the Bluegills have a harder time swallowing that hook and smaller ones don’t eat it much if at all.
1/16th oz round ball jig and chunk of crawler is killer on pool 8 right now. Pitch to the face of the wing dam and jig back. I fish them just as if I was pitching the wing dam for walleye.
Does anyone know if the dams are above water on pool 4 with the low water ?
CARNIVORE
I know that Blue and Brett have put in a ton of hours on the WD Gill bite.. Any info they are willing to put out will cut the learning curve 10 fold..
thanks guys !!
Quote:
I use a drop shot rig and a #4 Aberdeen hook. On the tail end where the weight goes, pinch on a couple splitshots. If they get snagged, they’ll slide off without losing the entire rig.
Run over to Fleet Farm and pick up some #4 abd #6 Spin Shot VMC hooks and add the light line dropper for the weights from the bottom eye. If you’re doing bait there’s little changce of sunfish inhaling this hook.
On the border water you can use a light jig as a dropper weight too. Hang a plastic on the jig….bait higher up on the spin shot hook.
I catch a lot of them on 1/8oz jigs and half crawler, or #4 hook, 1/8 oz barrel sinker and swivel when walleye fishing. I haven’t had much for issues with gills swallowing #4’s. Once every summer or two, when hitting dams for eyes, I’ll decide to keep 10 nice gills. Usually takes about 45 minutes.
The gills seem to have been on pretty much every dam this year, regardless of flow (low to moderate).
I typically use a #4 aberdeen hook, 1 #5 splitshot (or two if you NEED to, but go on the lighter side), and about 1/4 to 1/2 a nightcrawler depending on the size of your worms. Leave your weight about 8″ from the hook.
Toss it up river (or parallel to the dam, depending on how your boat is positioned) and drag it back to you slowly along the bottom, give it about 4-5 second pause between drags. If you feel them ticking, set the hook. I use 1/16 oz bullet sinker when I can find them cheap, but otherwise a #5 split shot is usually plenty. A #5 split shot is right between 1/8 and 1/16.
Be warned, you will get a lot of sheep and small cats doing this!
I do a lot of the same with the drop shot direction, but use about a two inch tag to a gold hook. Have not tried it on wing dam, but in deep, or suspended water fishing. I use two hooks and tags. It would be one of the options I would start with there as well.
Something I have been using for two years now… 1″ gulp minnows. Catch a ton of gills, plus a mix of anything else out there. I pinch the barbs down, and don’t think I loose many because of it… and it is much faster to unhook, and if they get it a little deep (doesn’t happen often with the gulp minnows) it removes easier as well. The gulp minnows ion un weighted hooks, with a slight current would have great action. Lighter weight to just tick bottom and move real slow….
Simplest for me is a 1/32oz jighead with crawler. It’s also fun to use a Mini-mite tipped with a tiny bit of crawler – you’ll catch a few more smallies that way, which are also fun. In either case the gills hit hard and don’t end up swallowing it.
Not to hijack this post or anything but when the gills are on the dams, the flatties are not far away. If you find a big concentration, that is spot one on the milk run after dark.
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I like the slip bobber idea myself. I’m not trying to hijack the post, but I was wondering if you need more flow or less flow to catch the pannies compared to the 
