In defense of the mighty bluegill
Late last summer, I got in a good two hours on one of my favorite ponds.
I was alone on this particular morning before the Rains of Ranchipur dampened my spirits and killed the bite.
My rain gear kept me high and dry while my spirit kept fighting to get out of my body. And here’s why.
I was having a marvelous time catching jumbo bluegills. It was one of those magical periods when all the planets seem to have aligned themselves in an order that created subsurface mayhem.
I purposely brought a 7-foot, ulralight Grandt spinning rod with me — nothing else in the rod department, thank you. The reel was loaded with 3-pound ice mono. Could I have been any more daring and reckless? Of course, I could have if I had brought one of those crummy, cartoon-like spin cast rigs loaded with 20-pound junkie mono.
The dramatist within me perked up as I pondered how I would bring justice to these moments.
This was Christmas in August, no doubt.
How many fishermen do you know would drive for hours to find 10-inch bluegills? My guess is only a handful in my telephone directory. But no worries — these monster bluegills are usually found basking in farm ponds alongside I-57 south of Kankakee.
It seems to me and a few other friends that far too many of us would prefer caching big largemouth bass and bragging about it over three beers than finding the ultimate cornucopia of jumbo bluegills.
Yes, the bass is am aggressive predator, usually on the lookout for something it can swallow in one gulp. But it’s the mighty bluegill that is at the top of my sportfishing list.
Make no mistake; this hard-charging critter is the runt of the piscatorial crowd. Yet it can drive anglers nuts with line-ripping shenanigans that routinely become fodder for never-ending debates.
My favorite ponds are like that — watery warehouses for hungry bluegills, with tremendous amounts of nutritious morsels for all creatures that inhabit the place.
Lake Villa’s Deep Lake is another of those greatly overlooked jumbo factories. The always green weed lines around the lake’s shoreline holding bass and bluegills. Jack Rhymer and I once caught more than 150 jumbo bluegills. He kept 10 fish while everything else went back in to the water.
Some of the side channels of the Fox River have managed to produce some giants, as well as several of the industrial park ponds in Itasca.
Please believe me when I tell you I am not preaching about local ponds and reservoirs. I have stopped trying to spread the gospel of the fertile, local gold mines. I’m content to simply express an abiding love for this great state fish of Illinois.
ŸContact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, and catch his radio show 6-7 a.m. Sundays on WSBC 1240-AM and live-streamed at www.mikejacksonoutdoors.com.