Hey Fellas.

I am headed to Lake Athens for a "romantic" weekend with the wife at nice little lake front cottage we rented.

What romantic trip does not include a day on the kayak alone spent trying to catch what has been very elusive to me... a 10inch+ bluegill. I want one bad and figure Athens is a good place to finally close this deal.

Any tips or suggestions on what to look for in a good spot? Preferred rigs or baits? Depth maybe? We will be there the last weekend of October.

I am no bluegill expert but my plan is currently to rig a drop shot style rig with a small 1/8th curly tail grub as the "drop" and a bait holder hook about 18inches up with a piece of nightcrawler or Gulp nightcrawler and get to work with that where I am marking some suspect looking fish.

I will be fishing from my kayak.

Any thoughts or tips are totally welcome! I want to get this monkey off my back! Thanks in advance fellas.

PS I made a graph to visually demonstrate my current plan.

Also I promise yall follow up and give yall closure on this! Pics and full report.

It bums me out when guys ask for info or tips for a trip coming up and then you never hear how they did or what worked well or not. I wont be that guy!

Even give yall a review and deets on the rental cottage... in case you might want to go on your own "romantic weekend" that included fishing some lol.

Dan... Hopefully, our resident expert (Flags) on Athens will reply. It is the time of year that the sunfish tend to disappear...maybe not on this lake...don't know. I can tell you that if it was me, I would be using 4 lb test mono or fluorocarbon, and have the nightcrawler on the bottom & a Gulp Alive 1" minnow on the top of the dropshot. Hopefully, you won't be too exhausted from the "romance" to fish...

I could try it that way too!

Man I hope its not time of the year they disappear. I know the bass should be quite active feeding up for winter and chasing bait I would think the gills might be doing the same thing maybe?

So you favor the gulp alive minnows? You like nose hook those or?

4lb line!? Are the big gills line shy? I get real nervous with anything under 6lbs. I like 8lb because I feel it gives me a fighting chance if a big ole bass or catfish shows up...they eat worms and little grubs too! And I happen to have a huge spool of 8lb Big Game mono lol.

I am married my friend...the romance will last 10 mins. And that includes the shower lol. I will save plenty of energy for the fish lol.

Dan...On the lake I fish (Fayette County) we give up fishing for sunfish mid October through March...They go somewhere that we haven't figured out. The 4 lb test is just my preference on ultra lite spinning tackle....I believe I get more bites with lighter line...same for bass, only I use 10-12 for them.

Hey Dan, first off I hope y'all enjoy your weekend-
Now, about the large bluegill, we just returned today from 4 days and three nights at the bluegill lakes cabins you posted about a while ago-
Man, we loved it there!

And I have NEVER seen a mass of large bluegill at one time as I did at this place, and its right off of the front porch of the cabin-

You have the cabin, then the front porch of the cabin goes over the water, then the boardwalk from the porch goes onto a pier, all connected-
80% of our stay there I fished right off the porch of the cabin-
I would say most of what we caught were 7-9 in range, all off of a small hook and gulp crappie nibbles.
I repeat, I have never seen so many hungry bluegill as I did at this place, each day we just stopped fishing because we just tired of catching them.
I feel very sure there are 10 inch plus gills in here-
And they have various boats, kayaks, canoes you can use, not fancy like your own, but usable-
We also caught catfish and bass while there, all off the porch also.

Here is a pic of the bass the wife caught, it was pic worthy-

Man I would love to point you in the right direction but I do my Athens fishing in the summer and spring. In Oct I am hunting deer in my free time. If I was going to fish it I'd look for deeper water in front of the various boat houses. Athens has a lot of really good slabs but I don't have any clue what the pattern is this time of year since I am up in Amarillo. My favorite way to fish it is with a 1/80th oz jig head tipped with a piece of crawler.

Here is one tip: If you launch at the boat ramp and head to the left there is a series of poles in the water about a quarter of a mile away. There is 15-18 ft deep water there and sometimes the slabs are schooling there. If I don't find them in my regular spots that is where I head. Wish I could be more help but this time of year is my hunting time and not my fishing time.

Now if it was June or July I'd be on the lake and I'd take you out and show you.

Flags

I forgot to mention there is a hot tub just outside the front door, you CAN fish while sitting in the hot tub if you want, i did-

This was a pic I took from the front doorway-

Now, concerning that 10 inch gill, I have a few 10 inch gills in my pond, if you don't find one on the lake. holler at me and you can come play with my bluegills-
Its kinda like high fence hunting in this small pond, but a big gill is a big gill, right?
This is one i got a bit ago and just happened to have a tape measure handy, and I know there are bigger ones that i just didn’t get a pic of-

That is a nice fish.

That is a nice and kinda accurate drawing of what an angler is supposed to look like while kayaking for Sunfish.

Thanks for the warm wishes Steve. We will have a great trip. Looks you and the wife had a great time at Bluegill Cabins. Glad the pond is growing great Bluegill already!

Vogey great idea on the rig! Looks solid.

Flags love the tip brother... I'll look around there. Gives me a starting place.

Dfitz you recognize an artist when you see one. I'm a regular Dan-etello.

This is all you need to catch that 10+ inch bluegill. We have caught numerous sunfish water body records using them https://www.jiglyf.com/

The Jigs that "Catch anything that swims".