Tough Bite for Big 'Gills

A morning trip to Stockade is usually one where I've got visions of catching some very nice bluegills in my head as we head down. Over the last couple of years, the lake has yielded some very nice bluegills and a few bass and pike as well.

It's usually fairly easily to find fish if you are just wanting to catch something as the perch are there to fill in the gaps between the bigger 'gills and the morning was shaping up to be a good one, with the pressure holding steady on the downside and a nice sunny day on tap. Things didn't quite work out the way I'd hoped.

When some friends and I got to the lake, we found the spot where we'd caught gills in the fall and with three Clam Conversion Kits between us, we quickly drilled a stretch of holes, covering depths from 7' to 22' along weed lines and muddy flats.

We were using a range of jigs and spoons, mostly Clam Pro Tackle jigs like the Drop-Kick or the regular Drops and we could find fish in most of the holes we dropped into. The problem was that the fish were extremely finicky and were not apt to bite on just about any presentation we showed them.

In this case, we had to downsize and downsize again to 1/64 oz jigs and microplastics or with one or two maggots when that didn't work. While we only caught a few fish each, despite our efforts, the 'gills we did catch were very nice and it was nice to see a small reward for the trip.

It was a struggle for sure to get the fish to bite despite what seemed like optimal conditions, but it just goes to show you that even on a day when you expect the fishing to be good, the fish can still throw a curveball at you.