Family and I are camping at pines on Memorial Day. I grew up fishing pines with my grandpa for everything that swam including big blue gill. Of course my grandpa knew the lake well as some of his family land flooded when they impounded it.

Is this a good time if the year to catch big blue gill? If so what depths? Any tips?

Thanks

Right now a lot of Bluegills are spawning and you can catch some big ones. Fish are usually nesting on dirt, gravel, or at the edges of weed beds. They can be nesting in water 10 to 2 feet deep. Look for the nest either by graph or seeing them from the bank. If their spawning or not, Bluegill (Sunfish) are very active and aggressive on the bite. I mainly bank fish and have been catching nice fish in 2 to 5 feet of water. Some spawning and some not. I use live worms. Sometimes I use a float and other times fish off the bottom by bouncing my worm off of the bottom with a slow to medium retrieve. Look for weed beds and reeds. Hope this helps you out some. I never have fished the Lake of the Pines. There is a nice Bluegill and Redear record on that lake. The Bluegill was over a pound and the Redear just under a pound. Hope some other anglers can give you some pointers as well. Good luck and let us know how you do.

Bream have been on and off the beds since first full moon of May at Pines. Lots of visible beds but most have been picked over by other anglers so fish size is running small. If you find a bed try fishing out deeper in front of it with a drop shot rig or deeper slip float. If you have side imaging sonar look for deeper beds vs. the ones you can see. They will have bigger fish most of the time and less pressure. For a sure thing dump some range cubes in 2-20ft of water. You will have all the catfish you want to catch. Pines is loaded with 10-14" fish.

As mentioned above. Look for them on beds.