After today, I am wondering if when the Largemouth Bass are too sluggish, the Bluegill take advantage? I got lots of Bluegill bites today on otherwise standard Bass baits. 

When the bass move offshore, away from where the bluegills are hiding, they come out of their hiding spots, much like any prey animal does when it senses there are no/fewer predators nearby. 

Thanks Bluebasser86, that gives me something to think about. I was fishing a Texas rigged Senko in green pumpkin and had several hook ups of Bluegill and a few less Bass bites than usual. The hits were very hard, (with low percentage hook ups) but I don't know what that means. I read somewhere that the larger fish don't hit as hard...

23 minutes ago, Josh Ross said:

Thanks Bluebasser86, that gives me something to think about. I was fishing a Texas rigged Senko in green pumpkin and had several hook ups of Bluegill and a few less Bass bites than usual. The hits were very hard, (with low percentage hook ups) but I don't know what that means. I read somewhere that the larger fish don't hit as hard...

I don't know if I'd call that a universal truth, but they are well known to hit lures more softly, it's mostly a function of how bass eat, they create a vacuum and suck in your lure, smaller fish often dart out of cover, and take a hit or two in order to get the whole lure, then turns to go back to cover, a big fish can consume most of your soft plastic offerings in one shot, then they just sit there, so you won't often feel as much. 

7 hours ago, Josh Ross said:

Thanks Bluebasser86, that gives me something to think about. I was fishing a Texas rigged Senko in green pumpkin and had several hook ups of Bluegill and a few less Bass bites than usual. The hits were very hard, (with low percentage hook ups) but I don't know what that means. I read somewhere that the larger fish don't hit as hard...

I find that bluegill will grab the tail of my work and yank on it like they're all that.  They frequently grab and run in the opposite direction.  I've learned not to set the hook on those type of "hits" as it usually results in no fish and a damaged (or lost) worm.  I could be missing a few bass this way but, I'd wager that 90% of bass that hit like this are dinks.

7 hours ago, gunsinger said:

I find that bluegill will grab the tail of my work and yank on it like they're all that.  They frequently grab and run in the opposite direction.  I've learned not to set the hook on those type of "hits" as it usually results in no fish and a damaged (or lost) worm. 

 

It feels more like a "tick tick tick tick" when its a bluegill pecking at the plastic.  I've learned not to even set the hook on these little buggers.  The good part is that there are often bass nearby when bluegills are present.

 

I've been wacky rigging and had bluegills pull the entire stick bait out of the o-ring before too.

We call the feel of the bite "bluegillish"

I can't tell you how many bass and pike I've caught while bluegill fishing during the summer months. I know it's blasphemous but try live bait.

15 hours ago, gunsinger said:

I find that bluegill will grab the tail of my work and yank on it like they're all that.  They frequently grab and run in the opposite direction.  I've learned not to set the hook on those type of "hits" as it usually results in no fish and a damaged (or lost) worm.  I could be missing a few bass this way but, I'd wager that 90% of bass that hit like this are dinks.

I'm guessing you don't fish around spots or smallmouth much? I've had lots of big smallmouth and spots tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, my bait until I decided to swing on them only to be surprised by the amount of weight I found on the other end of my line. 

7 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I'm guessing you don't fish around spots or smallmouth much? I've had lots of big smallmouth and spots tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, my bait until I decided to swing on them only to be surprised by the amount of weight I found on the other end of my line. 

No smallies in south MS.  May be spots, but I don't recall seeing one.  Maybe I missed them because I assumed they were bream ?

I’ve caught some nice largemouth that bit like a bluegill. 
 

ive also never seen a time when it was too hot for largemouth to attack anything, and I’ve fished a lot of 90 degree water with air temps at 100 

On 8/23/2021 at 8:08 PM, slonezp said:

We call the feel of the bite "bluegillish"

I can't tell you how many bass and pike I've caught while bluegill fishing during the summer months. I know it's blasphemous but try live bait.

Live bait is only blasphemous to lure manufacturers because they cannot profit from it ?