Top 8 Best Bait For Bluegill [Include Fishing Tips & Techniques]

An afternoon fishing with your kids is not complete without catching bluegill. This type of sea creature is easy to find and can make your fishing adventure fun and exciting for the entire family. To help you catch it, you need to find the best bait for bluegill.

Why Should You Choose Baits for Bluegill?

By nature, bluegill are not picky eaters. They will eat anything in front of them that can fit their mouths. It can be caught on various baits and artificial lures. The secret on finding them is by the use of a bait.

What makes bluegill popular among fishing enthusiasts? 

Quick Answer: Top Rated Baits For Bluegills

10 Best Baits for Bluegills Reviews

1. Fovonon Crankbaits Set Lure Fishing Hard Baits – Editor's Top Pick

The Fovonon Crankbaits are hard plastic fishing lures with color that resembles the actual baitfish. They are made of a solid or hollow piece of plastic, with a plastic or metal lip attached to the front. 

The lip is adjustable to make the lure wobble. It features 2 or 3 treble hooks. The design of the crankbaits can either float, dive, hover, or sink. 

This mini fishing lures plug weighs only around 1.8g or 0.061 ounces. A plastic box of Fovonon crankbaits contains five pcs of fishing lures.

2. Gulp Alive Cricket Fishing Bait

If you see this Gulp Alive Cricket, you probably think that it is the real thing. This fishing bait is made of soft plastic material. It is uniquely formulated to attract more as compared to the usual soft baits. 

The Gulp Alive Crickets feature a biodegradable design that supercharges your bait. You can use this fishing bait several times, and it is easy to recharge. This bait holds 20% more attractant as compared to the regular soft plastic. 

This life-like detail mimics the appearance of real crickets. With its durable built, it will surely last longer. It is lightweight enough to float into the water. This small bait is designed to look like what the bluegills want to eat – cricket. 

The diving lip takes it to a foot or two underneath the surface, and upon retrieving it provides a realistic swimming action. You can also use Gulp Alive Crickets as a topwater lure.

3. Berkley Gulp! Maggot

Berkley is one of the famous names when it comes to baits. The maggot from Berkley is an authentic trout and panfish phenomenon. It has a look and feel of real maggot but much longer than usual. 

This Gulp! Maggot is very durable with scent and flavor formula, which makes it more convenient and efficient than the actual bait. It is perfect on a hook alone or tipped on a jig. 

Berkley’s Maggot is effective when gobbed on a straight-shank hook and hung under a bobber. It is contained in a re-sealable jar for secure, safe storage.

The Gulp! Maggots are designed to look, taste, and feel alive. They are known to catch more fish as compared to the live and plastic bait. It releases over 400 times more scent that leaves a great scent trail that fish can smell from a distance. 

This bait is a perfect combination of color, size, shape, and scent. It mimics the actual crickets to make it more striking than in any other baits on the market.

4. Yakima Bait Wordens Original Rooster Tail Spinner Lure

The Yakima Bait Wordens by Rooster Trail Spinner is known to be as one of the most productive spinners. This tradition has been continuing today for over 50 years. 

It has a pulsating hackle tail with an attractive spinning motion similar to the actual metal blade. It produces a fish-attracting movement to help the angler catch bluegill easily. 

This spinner lure is perfect in attracting all kinds of fish, which makes them a vital component for the tackle box. Yakima Bait is used to catch any gamefish; the pulsating hackle tail and attractive spinning motion can make the fish strike.

Yakima is available in different colors and 10 sizes, just right for any fishing condition.

5. Berkley Gulp! Minnow Soft Bait

One of the most popular soft plastic lures on the market today is the Berkley Gulp Minnow Soft Bait. It is the most revolutionary artificial soft baits invented by Berkley. This fishing bait is a must for any estuary fisherman. 

This soft bait is available in two sizes – 3 inches and 4 inches. Either size has an essential and attracting action that catches fish quickly. These lures are quite useful if you are after species like flathead, bream, trevally and other estuary species. 

It has proved its effectiveness on Australian Bass and other species and is famous for trout fishing. Each packet contains several lures. 

The Berkley Gulp Minnows are proven to be irresistible to fish and places this fishing lure ahead of other soft plastic fishing lures. It comes in the re-sealable package to maintain its freshness, softness, and scent so you can use it for extended periods.

6. Berkley Gulp! Earthworm

As compared to ordinary plastic bait, the Berkley Gulp Earthworm has 400 times more scent dispersion. The scent expands up to the strike zone, thus enables you to catch more fish. The scent trail is too intense. 

Also, the natural formulation of this bait was able to outrank live bait in head to head field tests. It is one of the best bait today. It is a skinny little bait that can catch big fish. These earthworms can lay at the bottom of finesse through the cover. This bait is irresistible for bass, walleye, or trout. 

The scent of the earthworm is appealing to the fish as well as its taste. It is almost identical to the live baits. Berkley baits are similar in texture and chemical potency as compared to live bait.

This brand also has an advantage over other plastic bait when it comes to shape, color, and action.

7. Trout Magnet Panfish Magnet Kit

Trout Magnet Panfish unique colors are carefully selected and tagged as the best panfish colors. This magnet kit is a collection of seven of the best panfish colors. It is recommended for any water condition. 

The kit comes with ten of the following body colors – Catalpa, Purple haze, bison, mealworm, root beer, bulldog, and bumblebee. It also includes fifteen, black 1/64 ounce of shad-dart heads. 

This panfish magnet kit can catch anything in the water and will outfish another lure on the stream for trout. It has a unique, longer shad dart hook explicitly made for panfish. 

Its double-sided trout magnet box is perfect for pocket or vest with jig head selections, EZ trout floats, and jig body-color selections. As compared to other jigs, the Trout Magnet Panfish falls horizontally in the water rather than the height weight.

8. Berkley PowerBait Power Honey Worm

Berkley Power Honey Worm is explicitly formulated for panfish and trout and mimics the look of insect's larvae. It is recommended for open water bobber fishing or ice fishing. This Powerbait measures around one-inch length with red color. 

This fishing bait helps the new anglers become excellent and good anglers better. The experts from Berkley have spent more than 25 years in perfecting the scent and flavor of this PowerBait. Because of its unique odor and taste, fishes love them.

Because fish love it, they hold on 18 times longer, which gives you enough time to feel more bites. So, better set more hooks to catch more fish.

Bluegill Fishing Tips and Techniques

Catching small bluegill is relatively easy as your baits can attract it easily. The challenging part is to find larger bluegill. Here are tips that can help you in catching trophy-sized bluegill. 

You don’t need a more prominent line to catch them. A 4 to 6 pounds test line is enough to find large bluegill. If you use a bigger than the mentioned test line, the fish will not bite. 

Keep in mind these fish have tiny mouths, using small jigs and hooks can do the trick on catching them. It will also apply if you are going for the larger ones. 

The best way to catch bluegill is by jigging slowly. This sea creature moves gradually. They are known as lazy fish so make sure that you don’t reel too fast or you will not be able to catch them. 

The most effective way to catch bluegill is by the use of live bait. Using a small cricket or worm can easily land bluegill. Once you find one, don’t stop, continue fishing on that hole as there will be lots of them. 

Get the attention of the fish with the use of chips or break. Add some breadcrumbs or chips in the water where you are fishing and wait. It will surely draw bluegills, making them an easy target.

4 Different Types of Bluegill Baits

Baits or lures are usually made of plastic, wood or metal. There are different kinds of baits, enough to confuse even the most experienced anglers. Here are the four popular types of bluegill baits.

Spinners

If you ask an expert fisherman, he might suggest that you use spinners or spinnerbaits since they are useful in luring bluegill. Spinners include short lengths of wire bent in a 60-degree angle. 

You will find a hook connected on one end with a flashy spinner blade on another end to attract bluegill. This is the standard spinnerbait. Some of the variations include the addition of a bucktail or a skirt. 

The spinners are available in small sizes, and it is very light at 1/32 ounce. If you find it too bright, you can add a split shot above the lure. It is best that you cast near structure and continue moving the bait so the blade will wobble and wiggle. 

This bait is available in different colors like gold, black, silver, purple, white, or chartreuse. 

Crankbaits, Minnows, and Plugs

These baits are made of plastic, wood, and composites that emulates the look of a fish, crayfish or frogs. The movement of each bait is different. It depends on the design and how they are fished. Shallow-divers having a short lip will not dive deep underneath the surface when retrieved. Instead, they are caught below, and on the surface. 

Deep-divers, on the other hand, has a more extended lip. It’s because of the mouth and the buoyancy of the material that makes the lures dive deeper around two to five feet below the surface. 

Spoons

These baits are called spoons because they look like the spoons we use in eating. Others call it flutter spoons because of the erratic fluttering motion they produce. One side is rounded, and the other hand has a narrower pointed end. Because the spoon is concave, it reflects the light while darting and wobbling, which attracts the fish. 

The fish sense the movements created by fleeing prey as well as the wiggling motion of the spoon mimicking them. You can find spoons with mirror finishes that is effective when the sun is low over the water, in the morning and late afternoon. You can choose from red/black, gold/silver, gold/white and other. They are available in single, double, or treble hooks. 

Popping Lures

Popping lures, also known as surface lures, poppers, and topwater lures. This lure floats on the surface to appear like bugs and critters. It features a cupped face in the front of the body. 

Angler uses the tip of the rod to disturb the surface of the water to emulate an injured or frightened insect. In attracting the fish, the poppers produce a buzzing sound. One can use them in the early morning and late afternoon.

The most popular baits for bluegills are poppers. These topwater lures are available in various color combinations, but it is the movement of the popper that attracts the fish and not the color.