How to Quickly Find and Catch Bluegills Along Bottom Transitions

Video by James Lindner
Throughout the winter months, there are a variety of different locations to catch bluegills. You’re going to catch a lot of them along the weed edges during the early ice period. As the season progresses, a lot of those fish will move out towards the deeper basins, Pay attention to the hard-to-soft bottom transitions along that path because gills will often congregate in those areas.
Mapping technology can be an extremely powerful tool for this application. In the video above, James Lindner has isolated a group of panfish on a hard-to-soft bottom transition in 18-24 foot of water. He uses the depth highlight feature on his Humminbird Helix 5 ice unit to highlight that particular depth range. This allows him to more accurately identify fish-holding areas and cut holes there quickly and efficiently.