3 Top Summer Bluegill Strategies

Many anglers target bluegill during spring, when the fish are spawning, but abandon their pursuit once summer arrives. That approach ignores a wealth of outstanding fish catching opportunities. The truth is that bluegills offer dependable fishing action throughout the summer for anglers who know how to target them.

We’ll break down three highly effective summer bluegill strategies, all of which use only artificial lures. Collectively, these techniques cover the most common positioning and behavior of bluegills through the warm months.

It’s worth noting that while the official focus is on bluegills, the benefits are broader. The same approaches generally work well for various closely related sunfish species, such as redbreasts, redears, longears and green sunfish. Mixed catches are the norm, with the specific mix varying substantially from one waterway to another.

From my perspective, casting a Rebel Crickhopper to the bank or near shallow cover and working in on the surface is THE most fun way to catch bluegills, and from late spring until well into autumn, it’s also among the best ways to summon fast bluegill action along with being a technique that tends to favor larger specimens.

A Crickhopper, which is shaped like a cricket or grasshopper, has a crankbait design, so it will dive and wobble if cranked. It naturally floats, though, and the magic for me occurs at the surface. Worked with quick snaps of the rod tip and pauses, it dance on top like a terrestrial insect that has found itself accidentally afloat and is trying to find dry land. This presentation works best near the bank and by shallow cover because that is where bluegills are used to seeing insects errantly afloat.

The presentation is simple. First, cast to likely holding areas and be ready to set the hook. Many fish will hear the splash of the lure landing, investigate, see the insect-like profile, and attack before you do anything else. Lacking a quick strike, after a few seconds, do a couple of light twitches – just enough to make the Crickhopper dance. Wait another couple of seconds and work the bait on top with twitches and pauses. Periodical pauses are important for mimicking the behavior of a disoriented insect. Be extra ready when you move the bait again right after a pause.

An alternative presentation that draws more strikes some days is to reel very slowly with the rod tip kept high. This causes a Crickhopper to “wake,” wobbling right at the surface. Usually, the more erratic twitching works best, but occasionally they prefer the steady waking action.

When bluegills are holding around shallow cover but won’t quite commit to a Crickhopper on top, my go-to approach is to rig a small jig with a set float two or three feet above it and suspend it close to the cover. Brushpiles, stumps, weed edges, docks, seawalls, flooded bushes and other pieces of cover hold bluegill through the summer, and a jig and float is ideal for working this type of spot. It’s also good for casting near sloping rocky banks.

Lindy B-Max Little Nipper Jigs (especially the 1/64-ounce size) and Bobby Garland Itty Bit Mayflies and Itty Bit Slab Hunt’Rs on Itty Bits Jigheads are ideal for this approach. A small pear-shaped weighted foam float provides a good match. A weighted float allows for accurate casting with small jigs. The pear shape is easy to rock in order to add action to a jig without dragging it far from the cover.

Bluegills will respond to different actions from one day to the next, so it’s wise to experiment with twitching the rod tip, doing short sweeps and reeling slowly, with all approaches broken by pauses. Once the rig gets away from the cover, it generally works best to reel it in and make another cast.

An alternative to a jig when the bluegills seem extra tentative is a fly-fishing nymph fished a couple of feet beneath the same type of float. A size 10 or so Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear, Prince Nymph or Pheasant Tail is a good choice, but in truth bluegill aren’t super selective about patterns. If it has a buggy profile and sinks slowly, it’s apt to get nabbed. 

For flies, the best strategy is to cast to a key area, let the fly sink and watch for the float to go under or race sideways. If no fish bites on the initial drop, you can drag the float a foot or two and let the fly sink again. After a few pulls and pauses reel in and cast again. Most strikes will occur as the fly is sinking right after a cast or just as it settles.

While many bluegills stay shallow all summer, others drop a bit deeper, relating to brush, boulders, deeper weed edges or hard structural features like humps, roadbeds and the deep ends of points. Specific depths vary by lake, but these fish are commonly in in the 5- to 20-foot depth range and are usually near the bottom.

Bobby Garand’s 1.25-inch Itty Bit Series is tough top for this situation and each of the four Itty Bit shapes (Mayfly, Slab Hunt’R, Swim’R, Slab Slay’R) has its own virtues and can be best at times. Rigging an Itty Bit on a drop shot allows you to present the bait slowly and precisely, just off the bottom, where the most fish feed.

Start by stringing the bait on an Itty Bits Jighead, just as you would for other presentations. Tie on the jig with a polymer knot but leave 15 to 18 inches of tag end. Add a drop shot weight to the end of the line, and you are ready to fish. The ideal amount of weight varies with water depth and according to whether any wind or current make it tougher to keep a tight line and good contact with the rig, but 3/16-ounce is a good average weight size.

Minimize movements when presenting an Itty Bit on a drop shot. The slightest of jiggles add far more action than it would seem, and sharper jigging motions usually are more apt to spook fish than to prompt strikes. Often the best strategy is to tighten the line with the weight on the bottom and to simply hold the rod still.