Bluegill still hot on KY Lake

[Mepperson]

My neighbor and I went out this morning before it got too hot to fish. We brought home 45 gills and 7 crackers before lunch. In the past month we have stocked the freezer with a lot of nice panfish for the summer fish fry events. The bluegill and shellcrackers are still pretty hot. Today we used triple tail jigs tipped with waxworms. I'm going out again tomorrow to hopefully catch a few more. We brought home about 20 nice channel cats from camping last weekend and 10 the weekend before that. So far this year the gills have been pretty good compared to the last few years. I have noticed that there are fewer parasites in the bluegill this year and the average fish are larger. Anyone else seeing this trend?

[aceoky]

Congratulations on some good fishing and even better eating :D

[Killroy]

I have noticed that there are fewer parasites in the bluegill this year and the average fish are larger. Anyone else seeing this trend?
Yup. Don't know about the parasites but the size difference this year is noticeable. Quite a few people have said this same thing to me and I have noticed an unusual amount of large gills in creeks. I don't know how but it could have something to do with the drought last year or the cicadas this year. There was a great bluegill hatch in my pond this year and many are already 3 to 4 inches long. The overly abundant food supply created by the cicadas has probably given the gills a big boost in size.