Bluegills for Survival: Here’s How to Catch Them

bluegill

Bluegills live in just about every body of water in the United States.

That makes understanding how to catch them a key survival tool for your arsenal of survival tools.

Bluegill Tackle

You should be able to catch pretty much any Bluegill on 2lb test line. You might go up to 4lb or 6lb if you are fishing near heavy cover. Make sure you use an appropriately small hook as even the large ones have small mouths. My ideal setup would be a Daiwa Certate spinning reel in the 1500 or 1000 size and an ultra light spinning rod. Really any small spinning reel should work though.

Bluegill Techniques

Bluegill are most easily caught on bait but will often bite lures as well. I have caught several on a bare shiny gold treble hook. They are a curious fish and will put things in their mouth just to check them out. You just need to make sure you are using a small enough hook to fit in their little mouths.

Bluegill Lures

My most successful Bluegill lure has been a plastic mini jig as shown below. I have never found them to be that picky on the color, but green and gold or clear with glitter are what I usually start with. I like to fish the jig very slowly, suspending it at the depth I think the fish are at and then just twitching it occasionally with the line taught to detect their nibbling bites. They often bite while the lure is falling, like most fish.

Some people like to target them with tiny poppers, either with fly fishing gear or spinning gear. I have caught a few that way but I can’t say it’s been a go-to technique for me.

Although it is not a good way to target numbers, all of my biggest Bluegill have been caught while I was fishing for Largemouth Bass with plastic worms or drop shotted plastics.

Bluegill Baits

It’s hard to beat a piece of worm fished under a bobber. If they are not biting a worm then good luck catching them on anything else. Don’t use too much worm or they will just grab the end and pull it off the hook. Crickets and mealworms supposedly work well although I have never used them.

Personally I prefer to use Berkley Gulp baits like the cricket and the earthworm rather than live bait. It works just as well and it is a lot less hassle since you don't have to worry about keeping anything alive. The Berkley Power Wigglers and Power Nymphs work well (although not as well as the Gulp) and are even less of a hassle to use since they don't get your hands quite as smelly. These are a good option for kids.

Nourishing yourself in a survival situation is one of the most important duties you can undertake and bluegills are an easy to catch and prepare a source of protein, vitamins, and minerals.

Located in virtually every body of water, bluegills, in most cases will far exceed every other type of fish you try and catch, in most cases.

For more information on catching and preparing bluegills, check out How To Catch Any Fish!


38 Comments

  1. Dakoda Trimmer said:

    Bluegill are not tasty but they are easy to catch and calories none the less

  2. Robert Croley said:

    Catching them is the easy part cleaning and filleting them takes practice

  3. Roxanne Carol Divine Aten said:

    Easy to catch. Size 6 to 8 hook and a worm. And if you know how to fillet them right, you get 2 nice nuggets and don’t have to scale or gut them.

  4. Daniel Guard Jr. said:

    You waste more calories catching,prepping,and eating blue gills and sunfish than you would consuming them.

  5. Jeff Burman said:

    Most sunfish,bass bluegill crappie ,are by The Fish n Game of California standards are unfit to eat.
    4oz per month if male,children n pregnant women none.

  6. Jesse Shubin said:

    I caught 13 this evening. Mon wed fri and sat are my fishing days and we catch hundreds a month on a 1/3 of a worm and a bobber. As long as you can spot good cover for them youll catch em all day long

  7. Mike Scott said:

    97 calories in 3 ounces of bluegill. Beats the hell out of trying to catch, not prepping, and not eating anything. BTW beef has about twice the calories. Eat twice as much fish if you are really that worried about it.

  8. Terry Pugesek said:

    We’d run out of worms and end up using bubblegum or even Red Man chewing tobacco. They went nuts for Red Man…

  9. Richard Robert said:

    Plus it’s rare when I’ve gone bluegill or bream fishing and not accidentally caught a bass or two 🙂

  10. Alan Fisher said:

    any eating in them wee fish Ronnie? ???bluegills I’ve never seen or heard of them m8

  11. Phillip Young said:

    My favorite ultra light with an Aberdeen hook with 3 red worms hooked in the middle so they wiggle good no sinker or bobber.Just line hook an bait.

  12. Joseph Mahoney said:

    Literally will eat anything! I’ve caught blue gill or punkin seeds as we call em’ with a blade of GRASS!

  13. Caleb Floyd said:

    Dude really , it takes almost no calories to catch one XD , all you need is anything for bait, a small hook and just line, when you feel them take of literally yank the line and pull them on the bank XD not hard . Burns barely any calories

  14. Caleb Floyd said:

    And if your lucky , it’s rare ,but I got a bluegill that was pretty freaking big

  15. Kip Ziemer said:

    Don’t even need bait, paint a small hook red , no weight, no bobber, they go after it

  16. Jason Michael Barnes said:

    I dont have any problem catching bluegill. There are WAY more of them than any other fish on the lakes here in TN. It is hard not to catch one. No one eats them because feel bass and other fish would be better. Personally i loke bluegill better than bass. Just takes more to make a meal.

  17. Don Clark said:

    No kidding, spit on the hook and throw it in the water. You just caught a bluegill lol

  18. Jason Michael Barnes said:

    I have been even catching monster bluegill. I caught one last week that was almost 8 inches long. Soon they will be considered an invassive species. They are like Mexicans of the lake fish. Lmao!!!!

  19. Don Clark said:

    Up here they do treat them that way, they want us to keep them or kill them instead of throwing them back

  20. Jason Michael Barnes said:

    Huh. That is cool. Here they arw just not regilated. Any amount you can keep of any size. I hate them. I will go out fishing for bass specifically with lures for bass and catch 30 bluegill and like 3 bass. Should just get a meat geinder and grind them on th3 boat and feed th3m to the other fish. Lol

  21. Ronnie Frazier said:

    Blue gill sun perch pan fish drop line over bank catch$#%&!@*load easy not bad if yhe bigger than ur hand u can fila. Easy meal if u hungry

  22. Lee Roberts said:

    Bluegill is good eating but it takes a lot of them to make a meal. Personally I use them for bait, one about the size of your hand is what big catfish like. I’ve even caught large mouth bass on them.

  23. Walter Daniels said:

    Don’t think you need explanation on how to catch them it’s harder not to catch them when fishing.

  24. Shugara Sanctus said:

    I love bluegill and gave eaten them happily when no other meat was available. Excellent for survival because they are so prolific and easy to catch.

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