Despite all the conspiracy theories about the possible decline of the bluegill population at FF, I am here to tell everyone that they are doing just fine! Went yesterday with my cousin (TFF member jimmysnova ),hit the water about 8:30am with 80 crickets in tow,got off the water about 3:00pm with 0 crickets and 42 slab bluegills in the cooler. I will also say this was one of the better trips for quality gills, of the 42 I would say at least 25 of them were over 1lb, including my cousins pb of 1.32 and its twinkie of 1.30 caught a couple of minutes apart! also almost all were females loaded with eggs. All fish caught on crickets in 6-9 ft of water right off the bottom. Also the bite was slow most off the morning but really picked up from 11:00am - 2:00pm, the key for us was to TFF member Slsbxpress's point on the "FF help" thread was that we covered a lot of water trying different depths until we found them, because we could have easily given up considering we did not catch our first fish until 10:30am. Took a few pics will try and post them later for any of the skeptics.(lol) IMHO I think this month is the best time to catch quality possible record gills due to the fact the big female gills are loaded with eggs and have beefed up in preparation for the spawn. It was almost a year ago (6/19/2009) that I caught the current lake record (1.90) and I believe its time for me to catch that 2lber I have been dreaming of.

Midlo Joe

Sorry Eric, Slabxpress, hit the "s" instead of the "a" (lol)

Great news. Good luck pursuing that 2#er.

Thanks for the report Joe! I knew they were still there but they were avoiding going into my skillet!

Time to get back down there, now that it is getting too hot to even breathe.

Joe, I hope they continue to be so bountiful. I wonder how many people keeping 40 large bluegill per day it takes to put a dent in the population in the large ones...
I would guess, however, since FF has redfish and other larger predators that it does keep smaller bluegills down in order to allow the survivors to get so big.

fiSherwood,I dont think the population of large bluegill is in jeopardy at FF and honestly I use the same mindset as most panfish bag limits, with adjusted length limits , keeping 25 per person with the the minimum at "7in.Also I recently read an article in a panfish magazine that stated you should release the larger male fish to ensure the quality of fishing, with that being said I tend to not fish the "beds" because you usually catch mostly the bigger bulls. Another thing that presents a challenge is alot of the fish tend to inhale the crickets thus increasing the mortality rate of the fish I release, so I tend to keep what I catch up to a certain point. As far as the larger predators keeping down the numbers of small gills may be true, I think FF is an incredible fishery for big bluegills with its warm water, endless food source,and IMHO the lack of pressure on
the bluegills, I think thay play 3rd or 4th fiddle to bass,redfish and tilapia, and being 100+ miles from any major metropolitan area doesnt hurt at all.I honestly think FF will remain a quality bluegill lake for years to come as long as Big Brown is warming the water. Bert your right about that too hot to breath thing,when we left the air temperature was 95 and the surface temp was 99.2! But the bite was also hot!!
just my .02. Have not forgot about the pics but I cant find my usb cord for the camera.

Midlo Joe

Good info MJ!

And never mind the pics...we need to go BG fishing and soon!
I'll bring the stove, cornmeal, salt, pepper, hushpuppies , oil and skillet!

Sure, Joe; I wasn't meaning to call you out. I live in the big city and most places I go have a paucity of quality fish.

Sounds like you have Fairfield well measured, and it does seem
to be a quality and fertile fishery.

I was going to come up for the bream-fry in May but had to change my plans, so I'll have to check it out some other time.

Thanks for the great report!

M-Joe, I have never fished Fairfield and would like to go down there with wife to catch BG. I will not ask where specific you fished but could you give an area to start with.

Thank you,

Big Al BBQ

Do you TFF's think mill worms will work on Fairfield.

Tried mealworms with very little success. CRICKETTS are the best option on FF hands down! I live 20min away and have been catching big gills on FF for years. We've tried every type of BG bait imaginable. It's CRICKETS, CRICKETS, CRICKETS!

If the success was limited, I'd understand why folks would try different stuff. But crickets have been proven over and over as the best option on FF. Trust me!

take crickets andworms shrimp work too but nothin beats crickets at least in the summer big crickets two per hook , bait up big and a #2 hook or else they will swallow every one and slow you down. Good luck- stick and move until you find a good bed then pile them up

circle hooks, they work

Big Al,
You have pm

BBrown,
You have pm