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Honestly fishing in the creeks and rivers has been some of my favorite fishing this year.

I love fishing for them. We are finding some big ones already this winter. Knocking on the door again of the 10 incher. I had several 10s in May but haven't caught one since. A ton of 9 to 9 3/4 but none over since May. I had 31 over 9 inches a week ago but never had a 10. Crazy how that is like the hardest bar to get over for bluegills. It's something to do with life cycle. They basically die before they get there on our lake because their metabolism stays high for so many months. They get cold and slower metabolism for like 2 months and fast for 10 months so they don't live as long as they do up north where they are dormant half the year.

Sorry. Wasn't planning on filming but wanted to share what I was seeing on a very cold windy day. We'll bring the mics next time. The next one was on a very calm day so should be a lot better.

I like hearing the wind. Makes me feel like I'm there.

@@brythegeek I am the same way so long as it doesn't block audio or become a distraction and take away from the video. I have had a lot of guys ask me about winter gills so I figured I better share it while it was happening. I'm going to try to shoot another soon with some different techniques like spoons and such.

@@jason-sealock Awesome looking forward to watching those!

Thanks man. Yeah I love those little Piscifun reels. I have something like 7 of them now. HAHA.

Thanks man. Yeah they are some great bugs. I tie a lot of my own these days but still use his a bunch too.

Thanks so much! I will have a bunch more!

The Curado BFS is an okay reel. There are better options though depending on budget. The Tsurinoya Ultra Wolf or Genius are both good and a better price but have to find them online usually. I am using a Shimano Calcutta Conquest BFS reel which is very pricey but hands down the best BFS reel in my opinion. I get mine from Digitaka (straight from Japan). The rod is a Crony Stream rod. They are best quality rods out of China. They are JDM quality buy CDM made. They make rods that have a ton of sensitivity and very light actions for panfish and trout.

@ thanks Jason I’ll look them up.

They will be anywhere from 20-50. Normally I start out at the river channel and start working in and you will find a group if there is one in that area. They basically are just on the big flats off the main river or mouths of the bays.

I use 2 pound, so I agree, 4 pound is plenty. Thanks for watching!

Thank you!

Thanks man! I really appreciate that! I've got a bunch in the hopper and will get a bunch more. My goal is to elevate panfish with much better content.

@@jason-sealockfollow @FishAnything if you haven’t already! I love ultralight myself. I have thought about getting a BFS, but man I love spinning reels.

I don’t think so. It takes a bit of setup and there is a bit to learn to feel the weight of the flies and match that to the speed of the water. And then it’s just learning to lead your flies downstream and watching your sighter line for bumps and stops.

Only as insane as the rest of us! 🤣

Thanks so much! I've got a bunch in the hopper and working on several more with some biologists and more to really dive deep into what they eat, why the move where they do and more. So be a lot of cool stuff coming. Been hammering them this fall already and having a lot of fun catching 9 inch gills consistently. I haven't had one over 10 since May. But hoping that changes soon.

@jason-sealock Wow, that sounds awesome!! Looking forward to more videos for sure!! Awesome to hear your fall is going great!!🙌🏻 It's snowing here 😆

Thanks man. It was a fun day for sure!

@@scottshepley7619 thanks bud. I live in Kentucky but go to Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri and more to fish besides here. I live in the far western part of the state so I can be to a lot of good waters in under 4 hours.

It's a Shimano Calcutta Conquest BFS. Made to throw light lures with a shallower spool and different gearing.

Thanks, Nick! Appreciate the support. I got a lot in the hopper. It's been a while since I've made content I really wanted to make. 😄👍

Thanks for subscribing. I've got a lot coming and am happy to be working with some of the top biologists doing thesis work around panfish like red ear. Really excited to see what we can uncover. I have a lot of good stuff in the hopper already. I too love to fish small waters. I mostly fish Kentucky Lake but I have small lakes in Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas and Tennessee that I try to hit regularly throughout the year just to expand and fine tune what I learn about panfish in a variety of places and conditions. The more you can make stuff work in a lot of places the more you find it works everywhere.

Thanks for watching. Got a bunch in the hopper and a bunch more I plan to make this fall and winter around both.

@@knowitallfishing6990 thanks! Great insight in your comment! Keep in mind too that bluegills only live 5-6 years on Ky Lake. Red ear live 12-13 years. So Im a lot more protective of big red ears as a big bluegill won’t live much longer here. I’m more of keep big ones sparingly and mostly those midsize ones. I mostly keep those 8-inchers and let all the over 8s go. And I usually only keep 12 -15 when if any at all because that feeds the wife and I plenty.

@ bluegills grow an inch per year. shellcrackers can be 9" in like 3 years. it takes a bluegill on average 5-7 years to become sexually mature, if there is a good population of bull bluegills to keep the pecking order of the colony in check. if not theyll become sexually mature in a year or two and will become stunted. i have cracked and stained some oliths on south ky lake and so far 8" fish are averaging about 6-7 years of growth. i do the same, i try to keep 8" or midsize with a few 6-7 " ones thrown in. anything over 9" i release back on ky lake. the other lakes i fish i try to do the same but they also have a creel limit on bluegill as well.

@@knowitallfishing6990 That's awesome you check out otoliths. Our local fisheries biologists said they find most of the population never makes it passed 9 inches. And why you almost never see 10 inchers on Kentucky Lake because they age out before they reach the full potential. The way it was explained to me, bluegills will like 15 years up north but the further south you go, they live a lot less time. Their metabolism stays revved up and then apparently die earlier because of increased activity and stress on their system feeding all the time. I have caught 3 bluegills over 11 inches in the 17 years I've lived here and all three were this year. Until last year I had never caught a true 10 on Kentucky Lake. Now I have a bunch the last two years. But I'm hunting big ones more now than I used to as much of my time was spent bass fishing except for spawning season. But I treasure them more now because guys like you and I understand the deck is stacked against them to get to trophy size for sheer lack of time and and the massive biomass they contend with. Do you fish for them in the winter? I find dozens of schools of thousands of bluegills on the main river. I assure you anglers are not hurting the population. They just don't grow here like they do in other places, but I feel like the bluegill biomass has improved dramatically over the last 6 years in the down cycle of bass and other fish on the lake. It seems like we never had the amount of bigger ones we have now. But be interested to see if you've seen the same thing on the south end. I'm working with Murray State and local biologists to share intel back and forth on diet and migrations as well.

@@castandchill it’s the nature of spinning gear unfortunately. Lighter lines tend to be more susceptible to twist. Most of the twist comes in from either fish pulling a lot of drag or by reeling in lures fast that are fouled and they spin the line really hard. I try to stay in the habit of closing the bail, pulling my line tight and then retrieving slowly. Also every so often, I will make a long cast pinch the line to my rod with my off hand and reel the bait back in with the line pinched tightly. Doing this can unspin your line. You will notice if you have a lot of twist in your line if when your lure gets in, it is spinning around quickly (uncoiling the twist). It’s also why I use BFS some of the time.

That has been one of my staples for years. I love them and they are dynamite for gills and shellcrackers too. The tails tear off pretty easily. I talk about all my favorite baits here: currentfish.substack.com/p/7-best-panfish-lures-to-catch-big

I’ve been fishing them. I actually shot this video in Nov 2023. Just never released it. I’m loaded for bear on the wormz and the new Guppy Grub that should be out in a week or two.

Thanks bud! I got a bunch of these shot. I shot this one last fall. That was my first fall with the micro finesse baits from Z-Man. Now I've fished a full year and am releasing a bunch of these videos now. I have a bunch of winter deep vidoes also. And a bunch of shallow videos too. So will be pouring them out now here and through the newsletter. -Jason

Amen brother! I replaced the hooks on the hard baits with a single barbless hook. Means I miss a few fish as you can see in that video, but trying to stay in the sporting graces of the purists. 🤣I love to fly fish too. But I find really short trips and first trips to new water, conventional breaks the water down a little faster. I actually think I could have done really well with streamers which is the way I prefer to fly fish.

Thank you! Just getting started on my own channel after running one of the big channels for a while. So I'll have a lot more to come.

Thanks man! Was a cool little detour!