The Ubiquitous Bluegill

The bluegill sunfish is abundant in Lake Texoma and one of my favorites on the table. I have been fishing for bluegill in Alberta Creek since the lake first filled up in 1945. I guess you learn something about what you are doing with over 60 years of practice.

On June 27, 2008 I caught the biggest bluegill I have ever seen. I was aware that the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) had started a new record fish certification for some of the state lakes. All fish submitted for certification would be weighed at one designated location for each lake and all would be weighed on state certified scales. I took my bluegill to Texoma Tackle and it weighed 1 pound and 2 ounces and was 10 ¼ inches in length and girth. As of now it shows up on the ODWC website as the Texoma record sunfish. Even if it is the smallest record attainable it still was pleasing to me to make the record book after a lifetime of fishing for bluegill. The last time I went online (9/27/2010) to ODWC and checked out record fish it was still there. Instead of listing weights in pounds and ounces the used pounds only. So it is officially listed as 1.1 pounds.

Incidentally, the lake record black bass was also caught in Alberta Creek on 10/10/09 by Joe Copeland of Roff, OK. The fish weighed 11.1 and Mr. Copeland won the tournament that day and believe it or not he also had the big bass of the day.

It seems that fish tend to be much larger if you don't weigh them or if you don't use certified scales. A gentleman at Alberta Creek Resort once showed me a picture of a catfish and said it weighed 25 pounds. I jokingly asked if he would sell those scales and he was highly insulted. Needless to say, I didn't make a friend that day. Ross McCorstin said, "the worth thing you can do with a fish is to put it one a set of scales; it can't grow after that. If you don't weigh the first it can grow with each telling."

I have cooked bluegill fillets for many fish-fries and people who eat them for the first time are amazed that they are so tasty. There is no creel limit on them and you can never seem to deplete the abundant number. The most I ever caught and cleaned at one time was 120 and it took me two hours to fillet them, but I had a full gallon of fillets.

I taught all three of my children to fish for bluegill and now I am teaching my five grandchildren to art of detecting a bite on a loose line with no sinker or bobber. My oldest grandson, Jerreck Moody McWilliams, caught 103 one day in Alberta Creek and I had promised to him that I would clean all that he caught. It was well into the night before I finished the task.

One the north side of Alberta Creek, northwest of the south launching ramp is a spawning bed that few people are aware of, but is a real honey hole. Writing this article is making me hungry and I haven't had any fresh bluegill since last night.

My favorite bait for bluegill is what I call meal worms. I put whole kernel corn and a small amount of water in a five gallon bucket and check it periodically. The grubs show up in the corn and eat it and live for several months. They are ideal size and it is sometimes possible to catch two or three bluegill on one grub. However, just about anything that is edible will work for bait. Bread rolled up into BB sized balls is a very good choice, but doesn't stay on the hook very well.

Catalpa/Catawba worms are also a favorite bait, but very unpredictable. One year they will show up in the spring on a selected few Catawba trees. The next year they might not show up at all or may show up in the fall instead. They are not really a worm at all, but rather the larva of a moth and they eat only the leaves of the Catawba tree. My record bluegill was caught on a catalpa worm. I have a friend who brings me catalpa worms and I reciprocate with a bag full of bluegill fillets.

A few friends and all of my grandkids want to break my record and I have no doubt that a bigger fish is lurking somewhere there in Alberta Creek. Good luck gang.