FreeP.com – Eric Sharp
Don’t be a fool for those female colors
Have you ever caught a bluegill in drag? I don’t mean while you were dressed in clothing generally deemed appropriate for the opposite sex. I’m talking about catching what looks like a female bluegill that’s really a male.
Chances are you have and never knew it. And the subject is apropos because we’re now in one of the best fishing periods of the summer, the second sunfish spawn.
Sunfish begin spawning in May in southern Michigan and in June farther north. Most bluegills spawn as many times a year as there is enough food and warm water to recharge their reproductive organs. In Michigan, that normally is twice, and in southern states, it can be several times.
In my favorite bluegill pond, spawned out fish that moved to deep water a month ago are back in the shallows, concentrating their beds around stands of maturing reeds.