what is the best

good old night crawlers

They love crickets too.

I've done my best on live bait, plastics, feathers, flies, spoons, and spinners.

Any live bait is top for b'gills. Crawlers, crickets, waxworms, I've even caught them on cicada/locust. But in my neighbourhood retention pond Gulp red wigglers and grubs are money.

My secret weapon for warm weather is a very small dry fly.  They're practically the only thing I've been using for summer Bluegill for eight years.  For cold weather I use nightcrawlers cut in half on a very small jig head.  When the Bluegill are spawning I target them by running small inline spinners through their beds or by dancing a little plastic grub in the middle of their beds.

The Classic Michigander 

I've had the best luck with a little inline spinner or a BPS Stump Jumper, never had much luck with live bait for 'gills, the crappie seem to beat 'em to it.

a really good bait is the new gulp alive 1inch minnows you can catch 100 on them in a days trip quick.

i been tearing up the gills this past week with the berkley gulp maggots-- the yellow 1's --i started out with an ice fishing jig on my line until i lost it, it was my only ice jig i had with me. then i put on an #8 adberdine hook in green, put to maggots on the hook-- 1 thread on the hook to make a body, then the 2nd 1 pierced one time in the middle, pushed just past the barb.

I grew up catching them on worms, grasshopper's and tiny popper's.

WARNING ON USING LIVE BAIT AROUND CHILDREN!  Children easily overcome fear of worms & crickets?
If you are not playing close attention, they will turn them lose one or more at a time.  Usually, it begins with the fattest worm but not long until the fat ones are gone.  I made the mistake of dumping old worms into newly cultivated flower bed so my grand daughter decided all the boxes in the bait refrigerator could do better outside.  She lost her fear of crickets by putting slices of potato or orange in the cricket cage.  Then she decided she liked tossing them in the lake and watching the gills snap off the top of water.  I thought she had reached her limit until she got bored catching gills and make the Catawba worms crawl up her rod one at a time.  Of course, she named them before they had to walk the rod.  Noticed she might need a bigger tackle box as hers is a bit crowded.  Sure wish she hadn't seen me add paint to my crank baits--you can't imagine?
But she did tell me she had a good collection of paint she had procured from Mama's & Grannie's closet and I could use it but not all of it because she had to paint Grannie's toes after she did my hair!  Sorry I just couldn't resist warning all of you!
Good luck and Great Fishing!!!  Yep, its me again.  Uncle Tom

lmao tom..........kids do the darnest things........don't they

red worms wiggler, crawlers, bee moths are my favorites but there are times when its hard to beat crickets too. When I was alot younger I was fishing with worms one day and struggling to get em when my grandpa walked to the lake with a fly rod and a tiny green and yellow fly and just started raking them in!!

I site fish alot for Bluegill, which is important if you're using a small dry fly.  Once you see them take it you need to react immediately or they'll become deeply hooked.  Always carry some hemostats with you, just incase.

All of the baits suggested are very good, live or artificial. I usaully take more than one because they like different things at times. It will vary from pond to pond even if the ponds are only 100 yds apart or connected.

lmao tom..........kids do the darnest things........don't they

Ha ya they do!

Have found VERY small leeches hard to beat, grainery worms (corn worms?) also some durable bait. Cold water scuds were #1 HANDS DOWN with no weight, pulling line off gently to allow them to SLOWLY spiral down into the depths.

My best luck has been using Meal Worms. In my experiences they are unbeatable, red wigglers and cut night crawlers work good too but they go crazy over Meal Worms.

If you want to save alot money, just buy some dry flies!   They work just as good or better than nightcrawlers for most of the year!

The best blue gill bait I use is fly with with gulp maggots/wax worms.  What are some other good baits?

Posted By Zakman1195 on 02 Oct 2010 07:16 PM
The best blue gill bait I use is fly with with gulp maggots/wax worms.  What are some other good baits?

My favorites are:

1.  extremely small dry flies
2.  little Roostertails
3.  sections of nightcrawlers on very small jig heads
4.  small Mister Twisters
5.  small Beetle Spin

I always use Gulp maggots. My buddy uses crickets with smelly jelly on them. He seems to catch more fish with the crickets.
I also use very small poppers, #1 or #2 in line spinner baits, and casting spoons with small treble hooks.

1. Spikes (maggots). 2. Waxworms (moth larvae). 3. Nightcrawlers. 4. Redworms (some guys call them "manure worms"). Soft plastics: either a nail tail or twister tail in black, white or yellow. Hard baits: Rapala ice fishing minnows in black back/silver sides/white belly, jigged over the side of the boat or off the end of a dock.

There are so many things that make great bluegill bait that its hard to say what's the best. But, I guess, good old worms are my handsdown best.  

Make you our bait, Thats what i do alot

Best gill bait in my area: 1. spikes (Chicago slang for maggots); 2. waxworms; 3. nightcrawler pieces; and 4. redworms (sometimes called "manure worms"). All of these baits work good for inland trout, yellow perch and other panfish as well. Best all-around bait for those "I don't care what I catch" days: nightcrawlers. EVERYthing that swims will hit a nightcrawler. Happy holidays, guys!

WORM!! what else???

Hands down, best bluegill bait in Nebraska is crawlers. Grab a couple containers of the 24 ct Canadians from Walmart (WallyWorld as we call it), rip off about a third of one, hang in an eagle claw #4 baitholder, splitshot about 8 inches up and bobber 6-18 inches up from that (depending on the depth of where you're fishing). The trick is to use the smallest weight you can to get it down to the depth you want, and then the smallest bobber that will float. The action of the worm jigging in the water due to the current/waves drives gills insane. One nice thing about fishing here is everything in the lake bites on this setup, so you can aim for gills all day and be productive and have an even better time when a cat or lagemouth runs off with it.

My favorite by far is a small 10-14 black ant fly on a 2 weight fly rod!

Posted By panfish101 on 08 Feb 2012 03:21 PM
My favorite by far is a small 10-14 black ant fly on a 2 weight fly rod!

Yep, dry flies rule most of the season (excluding most of the spawn).  I've had more luck with an a-just-a bubble and a small dry fly than pretty much anything else.

wax worms.

My number one bluegill bait is Big Bite 1inch tubes Blue with White skirt/trailer tenticles. They love it around Indiana waters.

I LIVE IN NORTH ALABAMA AND I FIND CRICKETS TO BE THE TICKET HERE ON A $6 GOLD HOOK.

I do remember when I was a kid, we fished for bluegills in a place called "Ramer Lake" between Brawley and Calipatria,CA and we mostly used minnows, shore minnows (the ones which look like guppies) and redfin shiners. We also used worms once in a while. In several years, we (my sister actually) only caught one crappie, just bluegills.

Night crawler on a slip rig tears them up for me. My second choice would be a small rooster tail (color just depends on time of day and season).

I like to use a ice jig the flat kind tipped with any of the Berkley maggots, wax worms or night crawler. I use an ultra light rod tie on a Thill shy bite float and then the ice jg 3 feet below the float. The set up is very light and the ice jig flutters as it falls let it set a moment or two then slowly reel it in. If there ar e bluegills around they'll hit it.

I use Berkley Honey Worms...if I can still find them in the local sports store. Caught a mess of gills last weekend, but used about a half a jar of Honey Worms. Had best luck with yellow, but also caught them on Natural and red color.

Natural - a good ol' juicy cricket
Artificial - 1/50 oz. split-tail yellow stripes black beetle spin
The most successful - Whatever the OTHER guy fishing with me is using.

Pieces of crawlers or small Poppers/Spider flys