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| Bluegill: Fun fishing for kids (Spring 2007) |
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Everything you need to know about this popular panfish
By Charles Johnson
Frisky little Jeremiah Cope, curious and bouncy at age 2-1/2, looks sort of baffled watching his father, Clay, bait a hook with a wriggling red worm. When a bluegill bites almost soon as the hook hits the water, Jeremiah looks astonished. After his mom, Katherine, helps reel in the thrashing six-ouncer, Jeremiah is delighted, thrilled, and amazed, all at once. He claps his hands and hops around a bit.
Jeremiah, fishing in a lovely pond in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, just might be a fisherman in the making. One thing’s certain: he’s having a great time. So is everyone watching him.
Bluegills might be small fish, but they offer big payback for kids. They’re eager eaters, therefore relatively easy to coax onto a hook. Plus, ounce-for-ounce, they may be the toughest fighters in any pond or stream. Go after them with a light line and you can have a real contest on your hands.
Perfect fish for kids
All that makes them ideal for youngsters. They’re perfect for introducing little kids to the sport. And they’re great for keeping older children occupied.
You can find bluegills just about anywhere in U.S. waters. The most popular panfish in the country, the bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) goes by several other names, depending on where you are and who you’re talking to. It may be called bream, sun perch, or even copperbelly. It has a short body and a big belly, and tends to be shaped like a saucer. They’re usually a dark grayish blue in color. Spawning males can have a bright orange or red belly.
“They’re great for young families because they bite so easily, you can get them with so many different baits, and they’re found in just about any location,” says Mike Bramlett, small impoundments coordinator for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. “Bluegills are tremendous fighters on lightweight tackle. Their body shape is such that when they turn in that water, they catch the water and have a lot of pull. Absolutely, they’re tough little fish. And they’re ready to bite. They’re always ready to eat.”
Backyard fun
Over in eastern North Carolina, near the small town of Clinton, young Henry Moore IV is already an old hand at catching bluegill. He’s blessed to have a great pond right where he lives, complete with a fishing dock. His dad, Henry III, often comes home from work and takes him fishing.
“The pond is between 6 and 7 acres. It’s stocked with bluegill, bass, and catfish. The bluegills are fun to catch, they pull hard, and they’re better eating than the rest of the fish. I’d rather eat one than a bass. Henry and I like catching bluegills with a fly rod with a popping bug on top,” says Henry III.
On this day, young Henry lands a sassy bluegill, runs off the dock, and zig-zags his way across his grandfather’s big lawn.
“Kids. You have to love the enthusiasm. Everything’s fun,” says his dad.
Pond management
To maximize fishing fun, ponds must be properly managed. Six years ago, the Moore family’s pond got so out of balance that they killed all the fish in
it and restocked, giving it a fresh start.
“The ratio of big fish to little fish was off. So we balanced it with bass, bream, and catfish. Now we fertilize it four times a year to help certain grasses grow. We lime it to keep the pH better for the fish. We do our best to keep the bad vegetation out. Every now and then we put a few grass carp in to keep out the unwanted grass,” Henry III says.
Bluegills, in particular, are prolific. If their population builds too high in a pond, they’ll be smaller sized fish than you’d like.
“Having the right ratio of bluegills to largemouth bass is important. The bass will control the bluegill numbers, which is what you want. If there’s an overabundance of bluegills, they’ll be too small,” Bramlett says.
It can help to place bluegill attractors like small dead trees into the pond. “Three to five per acre is enough. Invertebrates hang onto the wood or tree limbs. Small fish are attracted to that and then it goes up the food chain from there,” Bramlett says.
“Bluegills hang around brush, stumps, logs. It can help to have a location for them.”
Stan Headrick owns the pond near Walland, Tenn., where the Cope family enjoyed an afternoon of fishing and caught quite a few bluegills. He allows only children to fish in it, and all fish caught must be carefully released.
“Parents can bring their kids here, catch fish, and have fun in the process. It’s just bluegill and catfish. Somebody put a 4-1/2 pound bass in here and I’m trying to catch the bass out of it. I don’t want bass. I just want fish that are fun for kids,” Headrick says.
Fun, after all, is what it’s all about.
“I just do this pond for the community. There’s no charge to fish. But it’s only open to kids. Kids these days just need a chance to get outside and enjoy being kids,” he says.
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