1. Pick the right temperature.

Crappie and bluegill tend to like weather that is a little cooler. In California, you’ll have your best results during the winter months, or whenever the temperature drops to around 55 degrees. Any colder than that and they’ll be a little harder to find, but we’ll cover where to look for them later in this article. If you are fishing on a very hot day, your luck may not be as good with crappie or bluegill, unless you know where to look.

2. Use the right bait.

By far, the best bait to use to land crappie or bluegill is live bait. Many people prefer to use live minnows since they are just about the right size for these smaller fish, and they have a lot of movement. You may also want to consider the use of lures, and jigs to further entire crappie and bluegill to take the bait. Anything lively will work, and even some spinner baits will work well in some situations.

3. Wait for spawning season.

If you really want to increase your take, wait for the spawning season when you’ll literally be tripping over crappie and bluegill. Lake management and park management officials can help you gauge when this season occurs, since it is temperature dependent instead of date based. Keep an eye on conditions and when the temps are just right, you’ll be able to catch a ton of these fish.

4. Look in the right places.

During the day, crappie and bluegill will commonly be found underneath docks, especially if it is hot out that day. These are usually shallow water fish, so if you’re in water that is deeper than eight feet, you may not have as much luck catching them. In spawning season, the crappie and bluegill will be in the shallows, and you can even see them right from shore since they will typically be in water that is only two feet deep or less.

5. Use the right gear.

These are smaller fish, so you can leave the heavy equipment at home. Forget about heavy weight test line and super duty rods, all you need is a basic line, and a rod and reel. In fact, that’s what makes fishing for crappie and bluegill so much fun. Anyone can do it, and there is very little expensive equipment to buy.

6. Have fun.

Fishing for crappie and bluegill should be fun. These little fish can be pretty feisty and even though they may not be as big as a King Salmon, you can still have plenty of fun testing your skills.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2008-09-17 05:57:50. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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No party boats seem to have ventured toward the albacore grounds during Wednesday's fishing. The skiff fishers that left from Pillar Point ran down toward the Pioneer Seamount, arriving nearly due west from the harbor but only after you've put about 50lbs under the boat.

The boats gathered and trolled with iron, jigs and swimbaits, achieving 10 long fins which is what it'd take to earn the highliner crown for the day. The numbers may not have been spectacular by any stretch of the imagination, but most of the people that are still out there are simply thrilled to have made the day.

Ocean:

Some of the boats have returned to rock fishing since the wind is down and the southerly roll is fading. On Wednesday from Pillar Point, the Queen of Hearts belonging to Bob Ingles took a full load worth of anglers, 36 of them in fact. The boat jogged along south to Pescadero and the water has changed a lot since the winds have died down. With chrome bars, shrimp flies and swim baits they were happy to see that all their hard work paid off. They put in 36 limits worth of black, brown and blue rockfish, and they also came across limits of cabezon and lingcod. If the weather is going to remain fine, then it is expected that the fishing is only going to improve. There are some spots of sardine off of Martins Beach and Three Rocks. The marina in the harbor area is definitely loaded up with jacksmelt and sardine as well.

The Tigerfish was out along Farallon Island on Saturday, since the water had cooled considerably and cleared up, making the rockfish much more willing. The trip was excellent at bringing about 33 limits worth of rockfish and a total of 8 lings weighing as much as 13lbs. These were good quality rockfish as well. There isn't much bait here to speak of, but there were some small gatherings out there of krill. Chin's Farallones observation was that there weren't any mammals out there either, unless you count the fishermen.

Into the Bay:

The big tides have long past. There is a meek amount of rise and fall now in their place, and this is actually suiting most fishing interests well. The Berkeley Cal Dawn has put in a total of 114 halibut. On Monday and on Tuesday, the boat fished in the South Bay close to the Oakland Harbor entrance, and the Cal Dawn achieved 90 halibut here. On Wednesday, the boat went straight down to Angel Island and drifted there all throughout the day on the west side. Bass have been relatively scarce for a little over a week now, but they seem to be appearing around Angel Island, or at least they did on Wednesday.

The Cal Dawn ended up finishing with 46 fish which were split between halibut and line sides. The bass went up as high as 14lbs; the flatfish went as high as 24lbs. Overall, the grade of the fish was mixed according to Smith.

The Lovely Martha ended up being chartered again on Wednesday by the Youth Fishing Program for the San Francisco Police. There were fourteen children on board that were taken out for a fun day of fishing. The first stop was off along the Alameda Rock wall. There wasn't anything there so the Lovely Martha was moved down to Angel Island. The total score for just a half day worth of fishing was 20 halibut up to 28 lbs, 5 bass and a 20-lb leopard shark.

Here's another good one: The New Easy Rider took a stop during the morning at Angel Island and immediately got into bass fishing with 12 limits in just a little more than an hour's worth of fishing and drifting. The boat then nosed out of the gate, worked along the North Bar as well as Fort Cronkhite, and then was at the dock early having achieved 36 limits of halibut.

As far as the east bay lakes go, it would be worthwhile to check out Los Vaqueros Reservoir, which is out there near Livermore. It looks good, at least in that it is around 87 percent filled right now, but there's not a lot that can be said about the fishing. On Monday, the lake was stocked with a 1,200 drop of trout. That day and then during the next day, shore liners were able to pull out sum of the dim hatchery rainbow trout from the South Cove area. After Tuesday went by, however, the fishing just fell off completely. There is not much worth reporting as far as catfish, black bass or striped bass either.

A slightly better bet for you to consider is the Lake Del Valle, which is where you will find anglers fishing out of boats, and they are pulling a few trout out, especially where the water goes deeper in the Narrows, and then deeper still out and around the dam. What you need to be successful here is going to be water with depths of 30 to 40 feet. From there, the bait of choice is going to be Power Bait in most cases. The fishing for black bass is slow, with the best happy getting around three and five bass per day. Most of the bass are being caught with top water offering, especially early or during the later hours, or with plastics during the sunnier part of the day. There are also catfish more casually, who aren't afraid to pass up some chicken liver or mackerel.

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