Chances are they are the first fish that you caught. With summer winding down, when many gamefish have become tight-lipped, bluegills provide dependable action, for both the veteran angler and the beginner alike.

Typically farm ponds contain good numbers of bluegills. If the landowner grants permission to fish such a water, a person can expect good action on such a small venue. Bluegills are more accessible on a farm pond than on a larger body of water. Chances are good bluegills will see your bait, and when they see it, they usually eat it.

While bluegills will now be spread thinner on our larger public lakes, in contrast to springtime when they are found thick in the shallows, there should still be enough ‘gills close to shore to keep things hopping for the bank angler. The key will be finding fish-holding cover close to shore. Good cover includes the inside edges of submerged weedbeds. By late summer many of these weeds will have reached the surface, making it easy to see the edge where they stop growing. Floating weeds like lily pads and spatterdock attract bugs and small minnows, which in turn call in the bluegills. Shore and wading anglers should be on the lookout for habitat of this type. Wood cover, most commonly downed shoreline trees, too draws bluegills to the shallows.

Smaller to medium sized bluegills are eager biters, perfect for new and/or young anglers that have a short attention span. More experienced folks may enjoy the challenge of catching larger, bull-sized ‘gills, the kind that cover up your hand. As is common with many fish species, larger bluegills aren’t as naive and easily caught as their smaller, younger counterparts.

Tactics wise, catching average sized bluegills is the description of simplicity. A light spinning outfit rigged with a small baithook (number 8 or 10), a split shot or two to keep the bait down, and a clip-on bobber are all that’s needed, that and a bit of bait. Natural bait like a piece of nightcrawler, a small ribbon leech, or a mealworm will usually bring the bluegills in by the swarm. Keeping live bait in the still-alive condition during the hot summer months can be a drag. There’s a host of soft bodied artificial options available that work nearly as well, without the fuss and mess. Examples include Berkley Power Bait’s one-inch Power Nymph and Northland Tackle’s two-inch panfish sized Slurpies Tube. The nymph can be fished on a bait hook; the Slurpies Tube comes packaged with a light leadhead jig.

Light action spinning rod/reel combos handle the light line needed to fish bluegill rigs, but can cause a few headaches in the hands of inexperienced anglers. If there is much slack in the line when the reel is engaged after a cast, monster snarls can develop within the reel’s spool that seem to defy physics. Underspin reels, like Shakespeare’s Synergy Ti6U spincasting reel, can provide hassle-free fishing in such cases. Underspin reels combine the best features of the conventional spincast reel and the open face spinning reel. Like a spinning reel, the underspin hangs under the rod, not in the awkward position of a standard spincaster. But like the spincast reel, it also has a closed face, which minimizes the chance of winding a loose loop of line onto the reel.

Boat anglers can test their skills by targeting larger bluegills, which are often found in deeper water this time of year. Look for schools of bluegills off mid lake humps, off the deep edge of weedlines and along the edge of ledges that drop into deeper water. The fish show up readily on sonar equipment. Presenting jigs by way of a slip bobber, or fishing vertically with a small jigging spoon, are two options when attempting to get bigger summertime ‘gills to bite.

Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.