Why do I catch more bluegill when I am bass fishing then when I am fishing for gills? I catch gills on brushhogs, on top water poppers, I even caught one on a buzzbait last week and caught on a frog yesterday. But when I fish with bluegill baits I don't catch as many. I am beginning to think that I am doing something wrong. Anybody got any thoughts. By the way, I am in south Louisiana on the calcasieu river this week.

later...don

I don't fish for gills but love following these guys. I have picked up some nice Bluegills over the years while fishing for LMB and White Bass! I also pick up some fishing for Crappie. For what I have been reading in this section over the years all you need is a carton of worms and a properly rigged ultra light and you will catch em. You should get some pretty good advice from some very good anglers who fish for em all the time.

Thats what I do, I use worms and I fish on the bottom, dropshot and with floating cork, and I catch a few. But I tend to catch more when using normal bass baits. I enjoy fishing for gills and crappie, it just seems I can't catch them when I want to. But again, right now I am fishing the rivers in south Louisiana, when I am home in east Texas, I don't catch as many on bass baits.

Take some pics of these hogs in LA and post 'em up.

Just like bass; they are apparently feeding on larger baits fished more aggressively. I would bust out the Rebel Crickhoppers and larger more aggressive lures and presentations like that. Most can still be fished on UL gear. I am also prone to fish more Rapala Floating Minnows when fish are eating larger baits. Hope this helps!

What size Rapala floating minnows?

I like F 03's and F 05's.

I made some adjustments yesterday and caught a few more gills. I used a smaller hook, 1/0 ewg with a baby brush hog, I bite about a 1/2 inch off of the brush hog so it would be smaller and caught several gills that way. I tried removing the tenacles off the brush hog but the gills did not like that. I missed a few and I think the reason is my rod is to heavy, so today I am going to use a lighter rod.
This is one of the things that I love about fishing, always tinkering and trying something new.

later...don