Running of the Bulls: Big Bluegill Fishing in the Midwest

With the bluegill spawn underway, now is the time to catch bruiser bulls in shallow water.

June 16, 2025 By Frank Sargeant

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Chasing big bluegills is a bit of an art, and it’s usually rare to catch them by accident. However, as summer arrives, your odds of finding some whoppers peaks with the annual spawn. Even better, because fish are shallow during the nesting period, you’ll often enjoy some of the year’s most exciting sight-fishing—and bring home some tasty fillets in the process. Still, even during this prime window, targeting big bluegills can prove challenging. Let’s examine some tricks for tempting the largest of these panfish.

FIND THE BULL BLUEGILLS

Bluegills typically spawn in water 1 to 5 feet deep, though as deep as 10 feet in clear lakes. They like a shell or hard-sand bottom if available, and usually close to cover, though not buried in it like crappies prefer. They’re also “communal spawners.” Find one bed and there are likely dozens more, all just a few feet apart.

Beds are roughly the size of dinner plates, appearing as small indentations in the bottom, often lighter colored than the surrounding terrain. You can usually see fish sitting on the beds, but even if you can’t, know that there are bluegills close by. (A pair of polarized glasses is ideal for spotting beds, as is a ball cap to shade the lenses.) You’ll be able to see the beds best between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on calm, sunny days, so plan accordingly.

A big bluegill caught on a small lure. — Bluegill beds can often be seen in clear water with quality polarized sunglasses. On side-scan sonar, they show up as a cluster of black dots. (Photo courtesy of Z-Man)

When fishing any new water, use Earth View 360 or Google Earth first to pinpoint likely areas for bluegill beds. Any shallow spot with firm bottom, including those well away from shore, may hold beds. Usually, shallow areas show up lighter on satellite views, though visibility on murky lakes may be too limited to help much. Images taken on different dates can be clearer or less clear depending on lighting and the amount of mud or algae in the water. For murky lakes, find potential spawning areas with free online charts (several options exist) or more detailed maps using Garmin’s Navionics, Humminbird’s LakeMaster and Lowrance’s C-MAP. Studying these maps at the dock before heading out can pay big dividends.

Once on the water, a well-tuned side-scan sonar can reveal bluegill beds as well, allowing rapid probing of shorelines. Beds show up as masses of black dots, and sometimes you may see dozens of them in a very small area.

Monitor your water temperature gauge and concentrate on areas where water is warmest. Broad shoal areas on the north and east sides of a waterbody usually warm up quickest due to the afternoon sun angle. Canals and spring creeks are similarly attractive to early spawners. Bluegills in the Midwest begin spawning at water temperatures of 65 degrees and up—typically late May to early August. The spawn appears to be strongest around the full moon each month. Big colonies of spawning bluegills put off a faint, fishy odor above the surface. Ease along shore with the wind in your face, and your nose may lead you to a bonanza.

After the spawn, the big ones typically drop off into deeper water of 10 feet or more. Shift toward deep-water weed beds and prospect these areas by slow-trolling tiny jigs and spinnerbaits.

FOLLOW THE FOOD

While spawning bluegills are a gimme, finding them between peak spawns can be more challenging. Stay alert for natural feeding opportunities. Anywhere there’s a mayfly hatch, there’s likely a concentration of bluegills. Mayflies typically start hatching in June, emerging from the mud bottom and working their way toward the surface, where they spread their wings, fly off to mate and then die. The process makes them easy targets, and where there’s one mayfly, there are often tens of thousands.

Colonies of grass shrimp, tiny transparent freshwater shrimp that live in shoreline grass, are another major big bluegill food source where available. Sometimes, you’ll even hear bluegills sucking in these shrimp and other small edibles around floating weed mats. It makes sort of a soft kissing sound.

Bluegills will also eat all sorts of terrestrial bugs that fall into the water. Find a spot where honeybees fall off a flowering tree onto the surface or where small grasshoppers get blown off a weedy shoreline into the lake, and you may have a sure thing. Upon finding one of these feeding stations, toss out a live worm under a cork and start reeling in fish. Or you can match the hatch with flies imitating mayflies, hoppers or bees.

GEAR UP

Tackle Considerations

Ultra-light spinning gear is great for tossing bluegill-sized lures and lets the big ones show their stuff. A 6- to 7-foot ultra-light rod, 1000-size reel and 4-pound-test mono works perfectly. (Four-pound line will catch more fish than 6-pound or heavier line in most cases due to better lure action, and it also casts better on the small-diameter reel.) Some anglers use ultra-fine 6-pound-test braid for long casts and because its sensitivity helps detect light strikes. An 18-inch, 4-pound-test mono leader is tied in with a double uni knot to make the attachment less visible. Fly-fishermen should utilize 4-weight rods, floating lines and, similarly, a 4-pound-test leader.

Live Baits

If you just want a mess of bluegills of any size, the best bait is undoubtedly a live red worm. Fished on a size-8 or smaller hook below a bobber, this catches any bluegill that comes within range. Crickets and mealworms also work very well. Fan-cast live baits around small pockets in shorelines and around docks, brush and bulrushes and let them sit near cover for a minute or two. If they’re anywhere nearby, bluegills usually home in on the scent and latch on quickly. One caveat to live baits: Little fish often take them even quicker than bigger ones, so you may go through bait rapidly catching the dinks.

While artificials usually catch fewer bluegills, they often tempt bigger fish, which seem to prefer minnows and fry over the worms and bugs that smaller bluegills like best. Tiny floating jerkbaits, like Rapala’s Original Floating (F-03), Creme’s Ultra Lite Crank and Rebel’s Minnow (F49) and Crickhopper are deadly options. Fished over shallow beds, these are almost unbeatable. Drop them out over beds and let them sit until the fish forget about them. Then, make a few little twitches and hold on tight. Tie these little lures on with a loop knot. Even supple 4-pound-test line can affect their action, but with a loop, they move freely and look more lifelike.

In deeper water, slow-sinking baits, like Rebel’s Tracdown Minnow or Strike King’s Bitsy Jerkbait, work well. Johnson Beetle Spins and Blakemore Road Runners are also effective, especially with darker plastics. Choose smaller 1/32- or 1/16-ounce options for bedded fish and 1/8-ounce models for fishing deeper water. The 1/16-ounce Z-Man Flashback Mini ChatterBait is also great.

Suspending a small jig just off the bottom under a float and retrieving it slowly through beds works wonders. Various weighted Thill Fish’N Foam floats work particularly well for this, making casting easy. Use a slip bobber if beds are deeper than a couple feet, again suspending the jig just off bottom. Add a small bit of red worm or mealworm to boost the bite. If you prefer plastics, look to Z-Man’s Micro Finesse line, which utilizes their tough, high-flotation ElaZtech superplastic. The Shad FryZ and Micro TRD work especially well.

Fly anglers should lean on size-10 black or tan sponge spiders or poppers for topwater action and slow-sinking plastic grub or maggot flies for subsurface fishing. These grubs, molded on size-10 hooks, look like fat, white maggots and are about $1 each from Amazon and other sources.

TRICK THE GIANTS

While big bluegills seem eager to be the first one on the hook at times, after that they can become very cagey. To fool several at a time without spooking the group, fish beds closest to you first and pull a hooked fish away from the others quickly. Then, work the next closest bed and so on.

Eventually, survivors get wise and slide out to deeper water. That’s the time to move on and look for another set of beds. But, if you return to the original spot 30 minutes later, the fish will likely be right there and ready to bite again.

As the spawn ends, most of the largest bluegills leave the shoreline and move out to deeper cover to keep cool. They’re big enough that bass and walleyes offshore don’t try to eat them. This is when sonar helps in graphing weedlines, brush piles and ledges in water 10 feet and deeper. Where there’s one big bluegill offshore, there are usually a dozen, so just getting that first one is half the battle.

BULL ’GILL BASTIONS

Explore some of the Midwest’s best big-bluegill waters.

Boat docks at West Okoboji Lake — West Okoboji Lake in Iowa has carried good year classes of 8- and 9-inch bluegills in recent years. East Okoboji also offers solid shots at big fish. (© Jesse Kunerth/Dreamstime)

Biologists and pond management specialists note that many very large bluegills come from smaller lakes and ponds. These waters typically have limited, shallow water and a good population of larger bass that eat most of the smaller bluegills, leaving more food for survivors. Gain access to a lightly fished farm pond with plenty of big bass, and you may find a mother lode of big bluegills, too. Asking for permission at the farmhouse may get you access, especially if you offer to bring the family a stringer of fish.

Those who don’t have—or can’t obtain—access to private ponds shouldn’t fret, as the Midwest has ample public lakes known for consistently producing nice bluegills. Michigan’s Houghton Lake, particularly the flat west of the Cut River inlet, yields large bluegills May through August. Other Michigan favorites include Hamlin Lake and the Fortune Lakes Chain. Wisconsin’s Pelican Lake, northwest of Green Bay, and Nelson Lake, southeast of Duluth, Minn., also grow big ’gills. Minnesota’s Big Stone Lake and Lake Osakis and Iowa’s West and East Okoboji lakes are all noted for big bulls, as is Ohio’s Indian Lake.