Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 5, 1995 TAG: 9506060026
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
At dusk, the silver-sided fish would cruse into the shoreline shallows and smash a Red Fin plug with such authority that you'd best have a tight grip on your rod.
We arrived a half-hour early in order to be in position, and as we waited my heart pounded with anticipation.
After about 20 minutes of sitting there, my son got bored and said, ``Why don't we just go bluegill fishing?''
At first, the question angered me, because we were after prestigious fish big enough to eat bluegills. Then I thought, ``If the idea of angling is fun, why not go for bluegills?''
Bluegills are great for kids. They offer instant gratification. They seldom keep thier dime-size mouth closed. They are a confidence builder. This is National Fishing Week, and you can do the sport no greater service than taking a youngster bluegill fishing.
But don't make the mistake that some fishermen do when they get wrapped up in more glamorous species, such as trout or bass or stripers or muskie. Don't think, for a minute, that bluegills are just for kids.
On a recent morning, when Paul Calhoun and I launched a canoe at Loch Haven Lake in Roanoke County, there wasn't a kid in sight. We paddled past the swimming area and began fly casting to the shoreline, where bluegills held to the early-morning shadows waiting to gulp in our top-water offerings.
You aren't likely to buy an Orvis or a Tim Trevilian fly rod for panfish expeditions, but when a hand-size bluegill slurps in your fly, you wouldn't begrudge the investment. That's because bluegills will accommodate you nicely, no matter your approach, be it with a No.10 gold-ribbed hare's ear fly cast with a three-weight rod or be it with a red wiggler dangling under a red-and-white bobber fished with a cane pole.
May and June are the top months for catching big bluegills - any fish a pound or more is a trophy - because that's when they frequent the shallows, where the males build saucer-shaped nests, which the females fill with eggs.
You need go no farther than the nearest farm pond to catch bluegills, but the best big-fish producers in Virginia are in the eastern part of the state, places where you might think most fishermen are born with their feet in saltwater.
Western Branch Lake is the king of Virginia's bluegill hot spots. Some days, the key to catching them is finding parking space near the 1,579-acre water supply impoundment in Suffolk.
Most of the Western Branch fish actually are shellcrackers. Call them shellcrackers or sunfish or bream - sometimes even perch - most people classify this family of fish simply as bluegills.
On a peak week at Western Branch, as many as 300 citation sunfish will be caught, said Rick Eades, a fishery biologist for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Even then, citation-size fish aren't a pushover. Big bluegills never are. The larger and more easily spooked females tend to hang out in deeper water.
``People who fish the shoreline catch little bluegill and redear [shellcrackers] all day long, but people who want to catch the big ones, they are looking at more like 12 to 15 feet of water,'' said Eades.
Closer to home, Briery Creek Lake near Farmville, Gatewood Lake near Pulaski and Lake Robertson near Lexington are excellent public-water bluegill fisheries.
At Briery Creek, where the big fish are just beginning to show up, nearby Worsham Grocery will sell ``up to 6,000 crickets on a real good day,'' said owner Sandra Fore.
Every major lake holds bluegills, but as a rule, your better fishing is going to be in the smaller impoundments. There are a few major lakes that produce large bluegills, Philpott, Claytor and Moomaw included.
The challenge is to keep an impoundment in proper balance by harnessing the prolific nature of bluegills. If you don't, you end up with a lake or pond full of stunted bluegills, all of them about the size of a potato chip and not worth a cent.
I have a friend who owns a small pond, and if you want to fish it, you must promise to obey his ``keep all you catch'' request. That's why it holds big bluegills.
It is refreshing to know that in an era when overfishing can stunt bass, striper and trout populations, the keep-all-you-catch philosophy is ideal for bluegills. One hand-size female will produce 10,000 eggs in a single season, and the survival rate is impressive.
Keeping bluegills isn't a chore until it comes to cleaning them, but it's worth the effort. They are excellent to eat. The best method is to fillet them. A fish just 7 inches long will provide two fillets that offer three scrumptious bites each. That's a great way to end a bluegill fishing trip.
by CNB