Story by Nate Skinner for Lone Star Outdoor News
The spawning season for bluegill kicked off at the beginning of June, and TexasParks and Wildlife Department biologists say the panfish will continue to reproduce throughout the summer months. Swarms of large bluegill are congregating over beds in shallow stretches of water anywhere from 1-10 feet deep. Areas around docks, bulkheads and piers, as well as shallow, protected coves, are loaded with these fish.
TPWD Inland Fisheries biologist Rick Ott said the bluegill spawn is in full force.
“Bluegill are stacked up on beds in the majority of lakes across Texas,” Ott said.“The species will produce swim-up fry all summer long.”
The bluegill spawn is important for Texas reservoirs because it follows the spring spawning season for bass.
“When bass fry begin to make the transition to eating fish instead of invertebrates, bluegill fry are available for them to prey upon,” he said. “This stage in the food web allows juvenile bass to make significant gains in growth and body size. Most of our bass populations would not make it without the bluegill spawn.”
Ott said male bluegill will often choose a sandy, gravel bottom to fan out a bed and attempt to attract a female to spawn. The species doesn’t always create beds around structure but they tend to prefer it. Ott said this is why docks, piers, bulkheads, flooded vegetation, and flooded timber tend to hold a lot of bluegill.
“The water depth that bluegill choose to bed up in is highly dependent upon sunlight penetration,” he said. “They need to spawn in waters that have enough photosynthesis taking place to promote healthy oxygen levels for their eggs. In clearer water they spawn in deeper depths because there is plenty of sunlight penetrating the water column. In turbid water they will make beds in depth as shallow as 1 foot.”
Lake Travis guide John Syer counts on the bluegill spawn every summer to help him target large bass.
“We specifically use crankbaits in a bluegill color pattern in areas that have a lot of beds, because most of the bigger bass in the lake will feed on large bluegill,” Syer said. “Recently a friend of mine fished with me along the bank of a shallow cove, and he caught several 3- to 5-pound bass on a shallowrunning bluegill-colored crankbait. You could actually see the bass swarming in the shallows, chasing bluegill, so it was no secret why that specific bait presentation was working so well.”
Toledo Bend Reservoir guide Mark Robinson has been seeing a ton of bluegill beds in 1 1/2 to 3 feet of water.
“In many areas on Toledo near docks and flooded vegetation, it looks like an elephant has been walking around in the shallow water because there are so many beds from the bluegill,” Robinson said.
According to Robinson, plenty of anglers targeting bluegill on Toledo Bend are catching them on crickets and nightcrawlers.
