Hey guys/girls,

Ive read many times that the "original" mattlures bulegill (the soft version) works excellent early in the season around beds. 

I have a mattlures hardgill slow sinking.  I dont think it will be heavy enough to drop in right on top of beds, but can this also be fished effectively early in the season?  if so, what are your recommendations?  I generally just slow roll it and switch up my retrieve.

Thanks

all you have to do is cast past the bed and then when it sinks enough , swim it into the bed , just as easy as that 

Oh, ok   I was under the impression the originial bluegill was to be fished with more of a jigging motion over the beds.  I guess i will let it sink as low as possible and slow roll it.

the original is meant to be fished like a jig.

Last year during the spawn I caught more bass on the hard gill than the soft gill. Most were on the floater casting past the beds and swimming it up to the bed and deadsticking it until the bass got close then twitching and swimming it like it was trying to get away. The floater worked better because I could leave it in place longer over the weeds where most of the beds were. In spots without weeds I just let the sinker sink to the bottom and started a retreive as the bass got close. Many of my strikes were from bass away from the bed or bass that were just swimming down the shoreline looking for spots to bed. I kept a soft gill tied on for bass that were locked on better . Females spend more time away from the bed than on it so I ended up using the hard gill much more to catch the fish that are tougher to catch.

Randall, excellent post...thank you for the info!!!