The first fish I ever caught was a bluegill. This was more than 50 years ago in Indiana and I still love to catch the little fighters to this day.

Dad fixed me a long thin cane pole with a small hook, split shot and bobber. Thirty inches seem to be the right depth to set the bobber. We dug red worms in the manure pile out behind the chicken house. It was early April and the bluegills were near shore in the farm pond. They were hungry and would grab the worm and pull the bobber under. All I had to do was raise the cane pole and hang on. Pretty soon we had about 20 on the stringer. Eight inches seemed to be the average size, about ½ a pound each.

Dad said “That’s enough for lunch”, so we headed for the house to clean fish. We had an old wooden table behind the shed and dad showed me how to get bluegills ready for the frying pan. He used a table spoon to take the scales off, and then he cut off the head and removed the entrails. Dad was fast and in 20 minutes he had all of them cleaned and washed.

Mom had the grease hot in the skillet and she had a plastic bag full of flour and cornmeal. All 20 bluegills went into the bag, which she shook two or three times to coat each fish. She put the fish in a circle with the tails in the center. After about 10 minutes they were crisp and brown.

Dad and I started eating while Mom fried the rest. Dad said to eat bluegills with bread and butter so if you got a bone it would go down easier. Dad said “Watch how I remove the bones”. He pulled the top fin off first and I could see the little sharp bones sticking out. Then he pulled off the bottom fin. Working with both hands he split the fish in half exposing the spine which he removed. Dad started eating at this point pulling the remaining rib bones out and laying them in a pile with the others. After about the fifth fish I finally got the hang of it. They were so good I starting eating too fast with no bread and butter and got a little bone stuck in the roof of my mouth. After some bread and a drink of milk it went away. This was my first introduction to catching and eating bluegills.

Now my kids and grandkids do it the same way. I hope the grandkids pass it down. Nowadays I use spinning gear or a fly rod and the kids use a Zebco 33. The bobber, split shot and small long shank hook is still the same but the worms usually come from Wal-Mart.

A one acre stock tank will produce one ton of bluegills per year. This is the MacDonald’s sign for the large mouth bass and they eat hundreds daily. Never throw bluegills back. The more bluegills you remove, the larger they will grow. During the month of May the bluegills will start nesting near shore. You can spot the round beds with the large male bluegills guarding the nest. I used to hide behind a tree with a cane pole and only a gold hook. I would lower the hook into the nest and watch the bluegill try to carry it away then set the hook and land the fish. This helped the population control and put food on the table. Now I use a fly rod with a black ant. If you stay back out of sight they will grab the ant every cast.

Most stock tanks in Texas have a lot of bluegills that need to be harvested and they are very easy to catch in March, April and May. Do you know a kid, grandkid or a friend’s youngster that you can teach how to catch bluegills? Make sure the fish are biting and it’s a nice warm day when you take them for the first time. Kids need a lot of fast action. This is a lot of fun and they will be hooked for life. Don’t let your kid be the one who got away.