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!