Finding Basin Bluegills

Part of our development as fishermen has to do with figuring out that “the book” on any species might be absolutely on the money in some circumstances and not even close in others. The book on winter bluegills, in a lot of people’s minds, still begins and ends in shallow water, in the weeds.

If you live by this idea, you might be successful early and late––even all winter if conditions are right. But long-time In-Fisherman consultant Dave Genz suggests opening up to other possibilities when the shallow weed bite isn’t happening.

And when he says open up, he asks for pardon of the pun, because he wants you to consider that the biggest bluegills in the lake might spend all or part of the winter settled over the basin, away from structural elements that dominate a contour map.

“Bluegills on the basin might sound strange to some panfish anglers,” Genz begins, “but it’s perfectly normal and natural a lot of times. And you have to follow the fish out there to catch them.”

When Basin Bluegills?

Genz, as we’ve pointed out before, never stops ice fishing. He continually processes his personal experiences and conversations with other anglers, trying to make sense of it all.

It was during one of these one-man think tanks at his kitchen table in July, while Genz was working on his recent book on winter bluegills, that he crystallized his thinking on the big picture when it comes to bluegills and where they’re found.

“I stepped back away from it,” Genz remembers, “and it came to me. It always seems to come down to water color, more than depth, more than size, more than whether it’s a natural lake, river backwater, reservoir, or pond. Water clarity is probably the most important element in determining where bluegills will be.”

Why? Probably because water color (clarity) helps determine whether weeds are present in the lake, and how deep they grow. “Most of the time,” Genz says, “in clear water, where green, standing weeds are present under the ice, fish in and around those weeds when you start looking for bluegills. In dirtier water, weeds don’t usually grow in deeper water, so those weeds don’t hold as many bluegills.”

Depending on how dirty the water is, few weeds may be available even in shallow water. “Right there you begin to get a feeling for which lakes most likely have basin bluegills,” Genz continues. “In weedless lakes, bluegills may be right out in the middle of the lake somewhere.”

But even in lakes that have great shallow weed bites, especially early in winter, basin ‘gills are a possibility in the middle of the ice season. In northern climes where winter is long and snow often covers the lakes, “oxygen depletion can become a big factor by midwinter,” Genz notes. “Low oxygen levels in shallow water force bluegills into deeper water as winter progresses, even if the fish were shallow at early-ice.”

So, if your favorite bluegill lake has abundant weedgrowth, the better ‘gills abandon deteriorating weeds, something quite easy to diagnose as you fish.

“If the weeds are standing and green,” Genz says, “the weeds are bound to hold some nice fish. But if the weeds are brown and down, the ‘gills likely aren’t around. If all the weeds you hook and bring up into the hole are ugly and brown, the fish have moved away from them.”