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Taking advantage of the bluegill spawn

Well-known lady angler Dianna Clark’s recent victory in the Women’s Bassmaster Tour event on Tennessee’s Old Hickory Lake demonstrates once again the important role bluegill can play in summer bass fishing patterns.

Clark, who has won two other WBT events as well as the 2006 WBT Angler of the Year title, keyed on bluegill bedding areas in the back of a shallow creek. Despite very warm water temperatures, she boated more than 36 pounds of bass, including a 6-pound, 4 ounce beauty, from water just two feet deep.

“It’s a pattern I discovered two years ago while fishing a WBT event on Lake Norman near Charlotte, and I’ve been able to use it on Kentucky and Barkley Lakes, as well,” she explained. “And I know it will work on other lakes around the country.

“The bream move to the backs of the creeks to spawn, and the bass come with them. It’s not necessarily easy fishing, but from my experiences it does tend to produce quality fish.”

Many anglers have seen the tell-tale “truck tire” bedding colonies of bluegill along shallow shorelines in quiet coves (sometimes numbering more than a hundred beds.) Bluegill build their nests over both sandy and muddy bottoms and spawn multiple times between April and September whenever the water reaches around 70 degrees.

Each female is capable of depositing as many as 60,000 eggs that she spreads among several beds and which hatch about 30 hours after fertilization. With sheer numbers of fish like this present in a relatively small area, and with the buffet continuing throughout the summer, it’s no wonder bass station themselves close to bluegill bedding areas.

“This pattern seems to work better in the very backs of spring-fed creeks, possibly because the water temperature may be more critical to the bass than the bluegill. I do know I have actually seen bass in bluegill nests waiting for the fish to return so they can catch them, and I’ve seen schools of bass running a shoreline hunting for bluegill.”

Probably the first and most obvious giveaway that you have a chance to work this pattern is if you start getting a lot of bluegill bites, and especially if you catch several of them. Clark recognized the Old Hickory opportunity when she and her husband started catching bluegill while practicing for the tournament.

Because bluegill do spawn in such shallow water – some of Clark’s bass came from less than a foot deep – bass will need some type of cover themselves to remain in an area, no matter how plentiful the food supply may be. Thus, if you’re catching bluegill and have timber, laydowns, stumps or vegetation nearby, the chances of working this pattern increase even more.

“You key on the flat bottom, too. Even though deeper water may be nearby in the creek channel itself, the bluegill beds will be on the flat side of that channel. You may not see the beds, but just remember bluegill rarely build their beds deeper than four or five feet, and often much shallower.”

Clark’s favorite lure for this type of fishing is a ½ ounce B&M jig, which she helped design. She fishes it on 65 pound braid, and basically flips to the visible cover.

“At Old Hickory, the bass were not on the most obvious cover. Instead, they were on smaller, more isolated sticks and vegetation. I’ve seen this in other places, so when I am fishing this pattern, I pay particular attention to less obvious targets. I caught three bass off one small stick, but I can’t give you any reason why the fish specifically preferred that stick. At the same time, my biggest bass came from behind a log, right where it should have been.

“Since the water is generally so shallow, however, I also try to be as quiet as possible, and I use almost a dead sticking presentation. I’ll flip to a target, then leave the jig on the bottom for five or six seconds, sometimes shaking it just slightly. I think this helps attract bass that come to see what’s just fallen in the water, and it gives them time to investigate.

“This pattern is normally a less aggressive bite, but the bass that do hit are better than average.”

Anglers will also need to be aware of water level fluctuations that may affect this pattern. Falling water will pull both bass and bluegill into slightly deeper water, perhaps into the creek channel itself where the bass may hit a small spinnerbait slow-rolled near the bottom. Rising water will often push the bass closer to the “new” shoreline, where again a spinnerbait can be productive.

“Although the bluegill spawn can continue throughout the summer,” Clark concluded, “I know that when the bluegill leave, this pattern ends abruptly, even though the bass may have plenty of cover to hide in. When the bluegill do leave, I think they do, too.

“When it is working, however, it’s one of the most exciting patterns I’ve ever experienced in the heat of summer. In very shallow water you’re flipping a jig and catching quality bass you’d never dream were there.”