On the north end of the lake, try Painter Creek. A little farther to the east, you’ll find Walls Lake and Kings Bridge, both of which account for more than their fair share of trophy-sized bull bluegills. If the southern part of the lake is more convenient, you should take a close look at Sycamore, Allen or Ritter creeks. Each of these creeks has countless small branches that flow to, and from, them. They can offer good fishing, too. Don’t be afraid to move around a bit if the bite is slow.

No matter if you fish the main-lake humps or the backwater cuts of the creeks, water between 2 and 5 feet deep, with plenty of grass and wood, is your best bet at this time of year. Most of the bigger bluegills will be moving to or from their beds and this seems to be the depth they most prefer, at least when they’re actively feeding.

SUMMIT LAKE
The 800-acre Summit Lake is located about four miles north of New Castle. Summit is renowned across the state for its largemouth bass population. One reason for this is that their forage base is primarily bluegills. That’s not only good news for the largemouths, it’s good news for us anglers, too.

According to studies conducted by the DNR, bluegills have excellent spawning success in Summit and they grow fast, too. That’s the good news. The bad news is that a combination of largemouth bass predation and heavy fishing pressure keeps the average size down somewhat. The most recent study found very few bluegills over 8 inches in length, though the number of bluegills present was good.

Now, a 6- or 7-inch ‘gill isn’t a trophy by any means, but it isn’t a dink either. Fish in that size range clean and fillet quite well and provide excellent weekend angling opportunities for those who want to enjoy the outdoors and catch a few fish, too.

There are plenty of shore-fishing areas around this one, but you’d better get there early to get a good spot. A good spot here means a place near a grassy shoreline within a reasonable distance of the standing timber that still remains in the lake.

Try to target locations that look especially difficult to fish or those that look like “nothing” spots. These areas receive the least amount of fishing pressure and so, despite the fact that they might not hold the highest numbers of fish, will often produce the highest numbers of harvested fish.

Another place that’s largely overlooked by serious bluegill anglers is the three nature ponds that are connected to the lake by means of drainage pipes. True, they’re shallow, don’t look all that inviting and sometimes suffer from low-water levels. In this case, however, looks are deceiving. Several good fish are taken from these ponds each year, especially during the heavy rains of spring. Summit Lake is a great one-day fishing venue.

LAKE MONROE
Southeast of Bloomington, you’ll find Lake Monroe. At almost 11,000 acres, Monroe is huge, at least by Indiana standards. It’s also a changing body of water. At one time, it was deep, dark and clear. Now silt has begun to take a toll on this flood-control reservoir. The clear water is now dingy and areas that were once deep channels are now so silted that anglers have trouble getting a john-boat through them.