Hi all, I’m Dan the CEO here at Dominate Fishing and I’ll guide you through this execution plan. I started from scratch, so if that’s you… don’t worry. I began Bluegill Fishing 25 years ago with hardly any knowledge of Bluegill behavior. Over the past 25 years I’ve learned how to find and catch Bluegill  in lakes, ponds and reservoirs and the strategies that actually work, that I can’t wait to share with all of you inside this execution plan. In this Execution Plan, I’ll be going in depth within the word of bluegill fishing from learning how to find them, to the techniques to catch them. It will be up to you to “execute” on this Execution Plan. But if you do the hard work, the sky is the limit. Dan Meyer CEO Dominate Fishing

Here’s how to get the most out of the content in this Execution Plan,

1. Read the entire EP once – Read through this entire EP.  Don’t execute on the steps until you have finished reading the entire EP.  This will help you understand the progression of the steps and put them into context.
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Ice fishing season is a great time to catch bluegills. If oxygen levels remain adequate, bluegills bite all season. Ice fishing for bluegills is a favorite pastime for a lot of anglers. You do not need a lot of gear, they are usually some of the easiest fish to find, and often they bite.

Catching big bluegills is more than just a pastime, however. This takes strategy, finesse, and a knowledge of big bluegill seasonal patterns.

Big bluegills are as elusive as any other game fish and can be as finicky as well. But by following the approach outlined in this course and having the knowledge of their seasonal moves, you will be able to hunt them down and experience frequent success.

The ice fishing season can be broken down into three phases,  early ice, mid-winter, and late ice. Each segment will be covered in detail in the following lessons.

Early ice is a tremendous time for fishing. It seems that the fish are always biting. Oxygen levels are good, food is plentiful, and bluegills are on the move.

Early ice can be broken down into two time periods, first ice and then the general early ice.

First ice is when the lake first freezes, and the ice becomes safe to fish. The shallowest and calmest areas are usually the first to freeze. First ice has a very distinct advantage. Most anglers do not fish bluegills in the fall, and no one can fish as the ice first begins to form and is not safe. For this reason, the bluegills have not had any pressure for at least a few weeks, and maybe longer. This allows bluegills to set up in their preferred locations. This translates to a lot of times you can find bluegill “where they should be,” if there is such a thing.

Good first ice areas include shallow bays, sloughs, coves, and canals; anywhere safe ice forms first.

Look for bluegills to hold in weeds in these areas. Bluegill can be spread out throughout the weed bed. In thick weeds, look for pockets and the weed edge to contain the most fish.

If you can find areas with changes in depth, changes in bottom content (e.g., sand to mud), or a variety of weed types instead of one weed type, these areas can hold more fish. One reason for this is that different bottom texture or different weed types can hold some different bugs. So, by having a variety of weeds, for example, there may be more quantity and variety of food.

Drilling plenty of holes to cover the area is critical. Drilling more holes is also going to help you catch more fish a lot of times. On a good spot with a good bite, I like to fish a hole until I stop catching a fish every few minutes or so, or the fish get small. Then I move to a different hole, and fish that hole out and then move again. After a while, your original holes probably will have “filled back up” with new fish moving in, and you can fish them again.

Fishing bluegill in shallow weeds like this, there is no point in sitting in one hole if there are no fish. You are going to catch way more fish by fishing a hole out and then moving on. If you are continually catching fish in a hole, stay there and fish it, but when the fish stop biting, move to a new area, and catch the fish that are there. You may only need to move over a few feet to be back on fish.

Hitting these early ice spots before the mass of ice fishermen get there is important. After the area is pounded, the fish may be all caught or scared out of the area.  There will most likely still be some fish, but the big bonanza will be over.

If you find your own little area of a lake, or find a little-known lake, these areas can hold good numbers of fish through the entire early ice period.

Early ice areas are the same as first ice areas, but are the areas that take a little longer to form safe ice.

Shoreline points, bars, bays, humps, and shoreline flats are all good early ice areas as long as there are weeds.

Show each of the above locations

One thing to keep in mind is that the bigger the spot, the more fish it can attract. A big, weedy bay can attract more fish than a small, weed-covered top of a small hump. So, the bigger the area, the more fish it can hold and the more fishing pressure it can take.

I often find nice bluegills on shallow weed beds near deep water. I like weed beds on shoreline flats that drop into deep water, typically 20+ feet. The best way to find the edge is by drilling holes until I find thick weeds, then drilling from there out toward deeper water until I find a hole with no weeds.

Doing this allows me to fish the area where the weeds are low and tapering off, the thick weed edge, and up into the thick main weed bed. This way, I can see where the bluegills are on a particular day.

Another area I find good is big, deep weed flats, areas where there are thick weeds on the bottom that come up a foot and a half to two feet off the bottom. Areas like this usually hold a lot of predator fish, so the bluegills are generally down in the weeds.

Finding pockets in the weeds helps because it is easier to get your bait down in the weeds where the fish are. To find pockets in the deep weeds, an underwater camera is extremely helpful.

When fishing weeds for bluegill, the key is to move around till you find a good school of fish. You cannot enter a huge, weedy bay, for example, and expect the fishing to be evenly dispersed everywhere in the bay. A good way to locate fish is to use an underwater camera. Drop the camera down a hole, and if you do not see fish, move to the next hole. I usually do not start fishing until I see fish on the camera.

You must search around for the densest concentrations of fish. Many times, that spot will be where a few structural elements come together, like a depth change, multiple species of weeds, changes in the bottom content, and so forth. The reason for this is the more structurally diverse an area might be, the more different types of food the area will attract. Therefore, the more food in an area, the more bluegills.

When you do find some good fish, pay attention to the conditions. A lot of times, if you find similar areas of the lake, the fish will be there also. For example, if you find good numbers of bluegills on the top of a five-foot hump in milfoil, chances are if you find another five-foot hump with milfoil, the fish will be relating to that hump also.

As the season progresses, finding weeds near deep water becomes more important.

Highlight the weed edge near the deep water

At first ice, you can be quite sure there will be bluegills shallow. As the season progresses, bluegill will be shallow sometimes, but other times will slide down into deeper water. While many bluegills will be shallow throughout the season, there will also be gills that are deeper, roaming the edges of the basin or suspended out over open water.

There have been many times I have caught big bluegills on the deep edge of drop-offs into deep water, just as the ice becomes safe. This is a pattern I fish on some lakes every year.

A good approach for the first ice period transitioning into mid-winter is to utilize a mobile strategy, meaning you should be prepared to move and jump spots. Don’t set up camp until you found a good school, and even then, you need to be prepared to move with the school if you have to, or find a new school altogether.

To find fish, start with where you caught them last in the weeds to see if they are there. Typically, bluegills will move in and out of the weeds later in the season. Pay close attention to the conditions when you catch fish.

Changing winter weather can change fish patterns. For example, if you had a good bite in the weeds on a cloudy, 28-degree day, make a note. If you come back another day and it’s sunny and -3 degrees and fishing is slow, that tells you something.

Usually, cold, unstable weather will send bluegills deeper or into the thickest cover.

On your search for fish, after you checked where you caught them last in the weeds, if they’re not there, move further down the break. Check for them on the nearest drop-off into deeper water. If it’s a slower, more gradual drop, you’re going to check the whole drop-off. If it’s a sharp drop, you still need to check the whole drop-off, but the base and the bottom third will be the highest percentage spots.

Spend extra time drilling down the drop-off, especially if it’s a point. Drill out the area where the drop-off meets the main lake basin.

In the image above, you see a four-foot gravel bar with some weeds that drops down into 25 feet of water. The base of this hump in the 20-25-foot range is a likely spot to look for bluegills.

Mid-winter can find bluegills in a lot of different places. The snow and slush can make conditions treacherous, and the bite can be tough.

Even in these conditions, big bluegills can be found and caught. And when you find them, the fishing can be fast, or on some days, it can be finicky, but still doable.  It depends on the day and conditions.

Snow and ice thickness are the driving factors for mid-winter fishing. As the snow and ice build, more and more light gets blocked from penetrating the ice, and weeds stop photosynthesis and begin to die. This either kills the food (aquatic insects and the like) in the weeds or pushes the food sources into deeper water. The bluegills, in turn, follow the food deeper.

If the weeds don’t die and the fishing pressure is not too heavy, bluegills can stay in the shallow weeds all season long. Many areas in the snow belt have long winters with thick ice and deep snow. In these conditions, it gets dark under the ice in a lot of lakes. Again, the darkness stops photosynthesis, which in turn decreases oxygen. With oxygen counts dropping, bluegills move deeper, and in some cases, it could be deeper weeds if they are still alive.

It could also be the deepest nearby water. It does not necessarily mean the deepest water in the lake. In most cases, bluegills are not going to swim across a huge lake to get to deep water; they are just going to slide into the deepest water available.

Deep holes are a good spot to look for bluegills. In some small lakes, the deep hole will be the deepest part of the lake. In other lakes, the deep hole could be a deep hole in a bay. In some lakes, it won’t be a defined hole, it will just be the bottom of a drop-off into the basin of the lake.

Deep water is a relative term. In one lake, deep water could be twelve feet and, in another lake, it could be forty feet. The same could be said for one part of a lake to another.  So when I say deep here, I refer to deep in relation to the surrounding water.

In deep water, the food bluegills eat is usually on the bottom, so bluegills are normally near the bottom too. Any deep cover like wood or rocks can concentrate the food so that those areas will hold good numbers of gills. In some lakes, oxygen on the bottom may be depleted, forcing bluegills to suspend to find more comfortable conditions.

Big bluegills will also suspend over deep water to feed on plankton. Plankton can change from different depths in the water column, and bluegills will adjust to these levels.

I fish a number of deep, clear lakes with very few weeds in the winter. In some of these lakes, the bluegills will suspend in 25-45 feet of water all winter, feeding on plankton. It is not uncommon to have fish come through ten feet down in 35 feet of water, then catch it to find out it is a big gill.

Fishing for these suspended fish is extremely easy with electronics but would be very hard without electronics because you need to be able to see what depth the fish are coming in at. Without a locater, you could be fishing too deep and never catch a fish. This could happen even though fish came through your hole, but higher (or lower) than your bait.

In some lakes that do not have inflows from feeder creeks or streams or do not have springs, oxygen levels may become depleted in both the shallow and the deep water. In this scenario, bluegills will be forced to suspend over deep water, where the oxygen levels are the best.

During mid-winter, some small to mid-size bluegills may remain in the shallows, but most of the big bulls will move deeper.

Bluegills will relate to:

• Humps
• Points
• Bars
• Steep breaking shorelines
• Inside turns

After the bluegills leave the shallows, the best place to find them is suspended over deep water or on or slightly off the break line. Some bluegills will roam the basin like crappie do or stack up in deep holes, also similar to crappie.

The winter habits of big bluegills are similar to those of crappie, with a tendency to be a little more structurally orientated. Crappie may spend more time suspended off structures, while bluegill can and do as well, but they seem to like to be closer to the break line on average.

The exception is when they are suspended in open water, feeding on plankton, or looking for suitable oxygen levels.

Look for bluegill to concentrate on break lines that are near the weed beds they were in during early ice periods.

In the image above, we have a nice point with gravel and weeds on it; a great spot for early ice bluegill. As the winter progresses, look for the bluegill to slide down the break line into the 25-foot hole. Because this is a small hole, the bluegill could be at the base of the break or swimming around the entire hole.

In this image, we have a nice main lake hump, and along the south side of the hump is a nice steep break line with deep water on the bottom. Look for bluegills to congregate on the bottom of this break in 25-30 feet of water. The steep dropping side is a great spot to start, but you could fish all around this hump.

On this same hump is somewhat of a point on the west side. Look for gills to be in the 25-30 foot range. In both of these spots, the gravel-to-muck transition point may be a key spot.

Deep rock piles are another spot to find mid-winter bluegills. The rocks attract food, which attracts the bluegills, and the rocks also provide shelter from predators.

The key to catching mid-winter bluegills is staying mobile if you ice troll. Ice trolling is drilling holes down the structure, fishing each hole as you move down the structure, which could be humps, points, steep dropping shorelines, etc. You can pick off the active fish and end with a good day.

When fish are suspended out in the basin and constantly moving, you can fish a hole longer because fish should periodically swim through it. If you go five, ten, maybe fifteen minutes without a bite, it’s time to try a different hole.

By studying lake maps, trying prime-looking spots, and utilizing a mobile approach, finding and catching winter bluegills is fun and fairly easy.

One final note is that the biggest bluegills in a lake are often by themselves. Big bluegills do not have the strong schooling tendency smaller gills have. So, on a lot of lakes, you will find the biggest bluegills roaming, searching for food by themselves, and usually a little deeper than the rest of the fish.

This does not mean you won’t catch big gills in the same spots or same schools as smaller ones because you definitely will. I have also marked schools of bluegills especially suspended in open water where almost every fish was a jumbo.

On most lakes, however, it seems the big mid-winter bluegills roam the mud in the basin or the break line alone or in small groups.

Late ice can be what dreams are made of for fishermen; the fishing can be incredible. If you find the right school of fish and the right spot, you can sit in one hole and catch fish after fish. On those magical late ice days, the weather is warm, and the fish are biting fast and furious.

Before the classic late ice bite, the bluegills have moved deeper or suspend. By late winter, the oxygen levels in a lot of small lakes are depleted, causing the bluegills to suspend. When a lake gets an oxygen deficiency, it can be hard to get the fish to bite.

During late winter, bluegills usually suspend and feed on plankton, or they feed on the bottom, eating worms, insect larva, or small minnows.

Light penetration can also play a role in where bluegills are on any given day. During the day, bluegills might be out over open water, suspended, feeding on plankton. Then, as evening approaches, they may swim up the break and feed on top of the bar, hump, or point, whatever structure they are relating to.

Look for late winter bluegills to relate to the same structure as they did mid-winter, especially if they are adjacent to spring spawning areas. Structures like points, humps, bars, and steep dropping shorelines are all good bets. As spring approaches, bluegills will start to move toward their spawning grounds and stage near the bottom of the break.

In the image above, the bulrush cove contains prime spawning grounds. Look for late winter bluegills to stage at the base of the break.

The break line on this big point is a prime spot for late winter bluegills. The point is adjacent to the bay, which is a key spawning area for bluegills year after year.

As the weather warms and the snow melts off the ice and water starts to pour down the old fishing holes, cracks, and spring holes, the fishing picks up.

The water from melting snow and early spring rain works its way under the ice. The influx of fresh water raises the oxygen levels and can really turn the fish on. With no snow on the ice and stronger sun rays, light penetrates the ice and increases plankton counts and photosynthesis in the weeds.

At this time, schools of bluegill will return to the weeds, especially weeds adjacent to spawning areas.

If you can find green weeds, they can be full of aggressive late ice bluegills. The weed bite during late ice can be really good; some big caches come during late ice.

A jig and wax worm or a jig and spike can be all you need to catch the limit of nice gills. I like to start jigging high in the weeds, then slowly lower the bait toward the bottom. If there are gills around, they will hit it!

The bluegills can be found throughout the weed bed. Check the edges of the weeds for some of the biggest bluegills. If the weeds grow right up to the drop-off to deeper water, check the drop-off just beyond the weeds for some of the biggest bluegill in the area.

To catch bluegills, there are a variety of rods to choose from, and there are many rods that work and have worked great in the past.

I like a noodle rod with an extra fast action tip. Noodle rods are great for sensitivity and detecting bites. With a noodle rod, you don’t need a spring bobber. You want an extra fast action, so your rod has enough backbone to get a good hookset.

Many companies sell noodle rods, and they range all over in price. And they all catch fish.

I use a higher-end “Tuned Up Custom Rods” precision noodle. I like the feel of the fighting with the rod, as well as the sensitivity for detecting light bites.

As with rods, you can catch bluegills with any cheap reel. I like a little nicer reel that has a smooth drag and bail roller that turns easily.

I use relatively light ice lines, so I want a smooth drag that pulls easily on big panfish, or more importantly, a bass, pike, or walleye.

I use the Pflueger President and really like it. I use four-pound mono. I also use one-pound micro-ice braid. It works fine but doesn’t seem to catch any more fish, so I prefer the slightly heavier line overall.

Bluegills have small mouths, so when you are choosing a lure, you want to keep that in mind. When selecting a bluegill lure, you also want to keep what the bluegills are feeding on in mind and match it.

Bluegills feed on plankton, especially zooplankton like daphnia and copepods. You want to match your lure size, shape, and color to the food source.

For big bluegills, there are a lot of soft plastic options to match these.

• Little Atom Wedgie
• 13 Fishing Paralyzer
• J&S Custom Plastics Ice Mite
• Clam Jamel

Jigs like the list below are also proven to work well.

• Custom Jigs N Spins Rat Finkee
• Custom Jigs N Spins 2-Spot Jigs
• Custom Jigs N Spins Rocker Jigs
• Marmooska Jig
• VMC Tungsten Fly
• VMC Pug Bug

Bluegill also hit very well on live bait; actually, they hit the best on live bait. Wax worms and spikes are some of the best bluegills bait. Crappie minnows also work for big bluegills at times.

If you have taken the time to read all the way to this point of the manual, you should have all the knowledge you need to be a master at hauling in bluegills.  Knowing how they feed, swim, spawn, and react to seasonal changes should elevate your game.  I hope that you not only have learned about bluegill fishing but that I’ve also passed on a little of my love and excitement for the sport.  Thank you for reading.