Bluegill Fishing: When Artificials Out-Fish Live Bait

Spending a day on the water chasing bluegill can be some of the most fun an angler can have on the water. Not only is the action generally fast, but for their size bluegill are some of the scrappiest fighters you’ll catch in fresh water.To catch bluegill, most anglers rely on live bait like nightcrawlers, leaf worms, crickets, or waxworms, and they do it for good reason. Live bait catches the snot out of bluegills.That said, just because live bait is most effective for catching bluegills doesn’t mean that artificials shouldn’t be an important part of the bluegill specialist’s arsenal. There are definitely situations where artificials will allow anglers to have greater success than those that are using strictly live bait. Here are a couple situations in which artificials will out-fish live bait for bluegill.

1. When you’re trophy hunting

Big bluegills, often called bulls will almost always respond better to artificials than to live bait. Sometimes it’s because they are looking for a little larger target, and others it’s because bluegill school and live bait is usually be snapped up by the more aggressive littler ones before the big ones have a chance to eat it. Either way, throwing small one inch tubes, grubs, and even inline spinners is a great place to start if you’re targeting trophy bluegills.

2. When the fish go deep

In many lakes and reservoirs, the bigger bluegills head out deep and suspend once they come off the bed and the water temps soar. These fish form vast schools that roam around the thermocline and gorge on zooplankton. Targeting these fish with live bait can be difficult due to their depth and propensity to move. When targeting suspended bluegills, drifting or slow trolling with small tubes, crankbaits, or even vertically fishing ice fishing jigs is much more effective than fishing live bait. It also allows anglers to quickly cover water, which makes locating active bluegills much easier.So, the next time you’re out on the water for bluegill don’t be afraid to reach for the artificials in your tackle box as you may find yourself having greater success than just using live bait.