Went fishing yesterday on a local lake near me and caught a few in 2-6 feet. Caught maybe 30 in 2 hours, and at least 25 of those were at least 6 inches. Almost every one was spewing every time I grabbed one to unhook it. Guess they're getting ready to try to spawn again. Anyone else seeing this? I was caching some monsters on beds in the same place the end of April to the beginning of May before all the rains. I'll try to post pics of both if I can.

Red wigglers and nightcrawlers were the ticket. Tried different jigs and such, but would only take worms. Fished with a small split shot about 12-14 inches above the hook.

Sounds like the spawn is on and poppin...I'm gonna go try it out later after work. The best bite should be Tuesday night, Wednesday morning

Seeing it a lot down here in the San Antonio area. Gotta a feeling the spawn is lagging behind a little due to all the rain. Hopefully we get an October spawn as well.

Plus #1.

How many times a year do gills normally spawn

Long ears were thick on the beds today at my "honey hole" sunfish spot. No big ones but lots of em fiercely defending the nest

Usually two times a year. Sometimes depending on water and weather conditions certain areas can get a third spawn in October!

I found a large bed of spawning fish on some private water the other day. All bluegill. The same area had fish spawning bluegill/redear earlier in the spring too.

There were some on beds in east Dallas on Sunday...

Nice!

When conditions are right, bluegills can spawn once a month from May thru September; sometimes October in South TX and throughout the Deep South. Conditions such as steady water level, steady water temp and steady weather. This years spawn will be a down year the further south you go. Since sunfish in more northern climes are used to such instability, their spawn and recruitment will be less affected.

I can find and regularly find spawning gills and sunfish in May, June, July, August, and once in while in September. Not the same fish spawning constantly, but for whatever reason, they don't all spawn at once. It's like they come in waves. And they seem to follow the summer full moon cycles. Got two ponds where I have proven this to myself time and again over the years. I hit em late at night on full moon weeks, each month of the summer. BIG gills and sunnies. All on artificials. Most of them on hollow body crappie tube jigs. All on 1/32 nd. or 1/16th. oz. lead heads.

I took my 6 year old out today. We caught 10 bluegill in 2 hours. We caught some big ones! We used nightcrawlers/red worms with a split shot just above the hook. They were really aggressive and the big ones put up a good fight for my boy! He couldn't get over how pretty of a fish it is compared to the bass/crappie I usually catch.

I tried some plastic 3 inch worms and my crappie jigs to see if I could get any crappie and the gills didn't eat it. They were only biting our live bait.

Happy fishing.

Cool info, thanks for posting.

What color jig heads do you like Rudy?

Ah, Jon, how about UNPAINTED ONES, LOL!

Rudy