OK, This is my first post to this board, so I just want to say hi and thank you for all of the information I've recieved from old posts. This seems to be a suitable place for my question.
I recently moved to start going to college, and have just now found time and money to fish. I live in the Sacramento area of Northern California, and began fishing a very nice new pond. I have only fished it twice, but have heard of people, and seen people catch very good sized fish out of it(5-double digit fish).
Now I've caught around 100 fish in the 4-5.5 pound range. But I'm searching for a larger fish (something around 7 or 8). This pond does not have trout in it, but it does have A LOT of bluegill, I watched a bass around 4 pounds hit a bluegill I hooked, and I saw a bluegill that was dead with half of it's body missing (probably about 6 inches if it was still alive). I am not a fan of using live bait, so I was figuring that a bluegill imitation swimbait would catch a large fish.
What recommendations would you have for a specific bait to use (right now I'm thinking the mattlures and castaic bluegill), also what line would be neccesary? The pond has rocks almost all the way around it, and has a very large amount of moss type grass, along with some tulles. If you have anymore questions that would help you answer mine, please feel free to ask, and thank you in advance.

Well, this pic http://www.f150online.com/galleries/pictureview.cfm?pnum=120169&anum=3723 tells the story for me:-) --- my first swimbait Bass. I believe Matt's are the closest to a real b/g and I will throw one of mine each time I'm on he water.

Dan

"Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less"

Deo Vindice

You may also want to check out my "Realfish" Bluegill..Just click on my signature..Nathan
www.Bettencourtbaits.com

I think I know where you are fishing, but if not I have fished a pond with similar caricteristics. I mainly have been fishing beds with a Basstrix blue gill minnow on a jig head, and I have had some intrest from the big girls but have not hooked any yet. I will try dropshotting the same baits later in the year, as the blue gill are all over this pond. The other thing I can say is that try fishing big topwater (spooks, wood-choppers, slammers ect)at night, espically this summer.

Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what have-yous

Where can you buy those basstrix bluegill imitators?? And those jigheads?

Thanks!

http://www.calfishing.com/gallery/v/members/bigreenjobass/

No they're a soft plastc bait that you can drop shot or but on a stand up jig head to bed fish. I drop shot them in the summer at my local lakes and they match the hatch perfectly. They're hollow on the inside too so you can squirt full of scent. Pull up Google and do a search for basstrix...

I bought mine at the Sportsmans expo here in Sacramento. You should be able to find them online somewhere. I use a stantard stand up jig head ot foot ball head.

Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what have-yous

I really like the mattlures bluegill. I've had some problems with them holding up after getting bit, (maybe that's just me), but they do get bit without question and not just on the beds. I've landed some 3-7 pound fish on them recently. You can swim it or fish it in a bed. I caught a 5 1/2 on it yesterday just swimming it on a flat. Good luck man, sounds like you've got a nice secret spot going for you.

matt

I'll put in a word for the new Bettencourt Bluegill. I don't have the pics up on the site yet, but its a nice little bait, swims straight, has two trebles and the coolest part is the photo finish paint job so it really looks like a bluegill.

The Mattlures gill is sweet too and definitely gets bit. You will lose some fish on that bait but its a typical tradeoff between realism and landing percentage, and sometimes its totally going to be worth it.

Yeah, i would go with the mattlures blue gill, its a sweet bait :P

dtack777,
I also live in sac, and fish almost all the ponds I use alot of different baits but for bluegill I really like the castaic because it is a very slow sinker and especially good for bed fish. If you wanna hook up and fish your pond or try some other ponds shoot me an email taylorposey2000@yahoo.com I am always looking for more people to fish w/ I also pour alot of custom baits and can show you some good ones for sac.
Tight Lines

Hey let that Bass go I wanna catch her some day
http://www.calfishing.com/gallery/v/members/tmcustoms/