The places where i fished alot, bluegill was there main forage and i even saw a bass that choked on a bluegill. So my lures were choice to imitate a bluegill was an Keitech swing impact bluegill flash with an Kietech bluegill flash swim jig,An B and B or Grn pumpkin pit boss, or an green pumpkin jig with an Green pumpkin 4inch pit boss. What are your other lures you threw to imitate a bluegill/sunfish?

A swimjig is really the only lure I throw where in my head I'm clearly imitating a bluegill and not just presenting a generic forage fish profile.  The skirt gives it more height than a plain swimbait or crankbait, similar to how bluegills have a rounder body shape than most fish.

Norman thin N in bluegill, redear, 

Savage gear gill. $10. Get one buddy.

BBZ Shad, Killer Gill.

Black Dog wooden She'll Cracker, Matt lures hard gill and  Huddgill.

Tom

Sly guy lures Gill is high on my list. 

 

23 minutes ago, DINK WHISPERER said:

Sly guy lures Gill is high on my list. 

 

Perdy! ?

26 minutes ago, DINK WHISPERER said:

Sly guy lures Gill is high on my list. 

 

That looks hard to beat!

 

I use a swim jig that I hand paint with a Keitech 3.8 fat impact in ProStaff special.

 

Allen

Matt lures hard gills are first choice and his soft gills are also amazing.

I just got a Jackall Gantarel Jr. in the RT Ghost Gill scheme and I swear that looks like it's a real fish...

 

 

You can get them for around $28 - $32 online.

Any crankbait / spinnerbait with a little chartreuse in it .

 

 

Hmmmmm.... All of 'em! LOL My bass here have a pretty narrow diet. It's almost all bluegills, with some baby bass (mostly eaten by juv's), some crayfish, and some dragonflies thrown in here and there.

 

So... if my bass are mistaking my lures for BG's, then... all of 'em?

 

I try to help them out some by using "BG colors", esp in clearer water. But bluegills don't always, even often, look like what most manufacturers call "BG" color. Probably bc most fisherman recognize bluegills in spawning coloration. But most of the year, BGs are not so vividly dressed, esp in clear water, and esp for younger BGs, which most bass eat. I talk about this a bit on one of my summer videos -the "Late Summer" one, with swim jigs in that case.

 

Crankbaits, esp: What invariably gets my heart going while perusing the racks at a tackle shop, or the catalogs, are potential BG colors. And I have "bluegillized" a lot of cranks. I use and show one in my "Early Fall" video.

 

A lot of this is in my head, I know. But hey!, it's my head that going fishing, isn't it?  That said, I'm sure that accuracy in image/motion (what RichZ has called "Identity Profile" or IDP) could be important, if they could be accurate enough. And just painting some chunk of plastic or wood in spawning bluegill colors doesn't go too far.

 

What I have only just begun to do is play around with some of the high end swimbaits that do appear to offer a much more accurate look. It remains to be seen how well these hold up in the IDP department after the bass gain experience with them.

 

I've come to recognize that the what I call "economic negotiations" between predator and prey are most important. I've also found that some lures are simply more difficult for fish to learn are "not food" than others. Two that come to mind are the stick-worms, and a nifty little creation that's been around for some time but no one seems to know, is the Lil' Fishie now sold by Creme. Great little lure. Someone ought to run with that design; It needs some tweaking in the larger sizes.

i have a couple gantarels, a couple mattlure gills, a lucky craft real bluegill 155

really having a hard time not picking up a mattlures hardgill though 

14 hours ago, DINK WHISPERER said:

Sly guy lures Gill is high on my list. 

 

That looks really nice.  How much do they run?

A lot of good choices have already been mentioned. In addition I really like the Smash-Tech line thru.

1 hour ago, Paul Roberts said:

I've also found that some lures are simply more difficult for fish to learn are "not food" than others. Two that come to mind are the stick-worms

Which is why my answer to the OP's question is a 4" Green Pumpkin w/ Black FLK (#297) Senko, wacky-rigged. 

15 hours ago, deaknh03 said:

Savage gear gill. $10. Get one buddy.

I second this. It's great that you don't have to break out a $50 like other one that are similar.

27 minutes ago, npl_texas said:

That looks really nice.  How much do they run?

I paid $55 shipped for mine with spare tails. Great action and really durable finish. 

For a less photorealisitc soft plastic option, a Rage Shellcracker rigged on a 6/0 Monear swimbait hook makes a very convincing tiny 'gill imitator.  

3 hours ago, DINK WHISPERER said:

I paid $55 shipped for mine with spare tails. Great action and really durable finish. 

Can you point me in the direction for more details?

Siebert Outdoors Swim Jig/ Rage Tail Shellcracker trailer

 

 

 

57 minutes ago, npl_texas said:

Can you point me in the direction for more details?

I believe as of now he only sales them on the Gram and FB. Clayton sly lures or Sly guy lures. He makes small custom ordered batches. Has shad style as well. Customer service is excellent as well. 

Topwater guy most of the time and i like the Kelly J prop bait

 

But man after seeing the realism of some of the baits pictured above, The bait monkey is calling!!