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Well most of my major projects done for school, so that means it is time to start focusing on my goal of icing a Blue Gill over 10.5 inches in the area. The lakes I have decided that would give me the best chances are just getting enough ice now. I am not saying that the lake I have been fishing does not have a few big gills in it, but the pressure on that lake is on Blue Gills, Crappies, and Northerns during the winter. It also gets fished hard in the summer. The lakes I am focusing on are some that harder to access and ones that Blue Gills are not the main species that is fished for. I also like lakes that people think do not hold fish and are known for winter kills. If you are going to be using this information to find Blue Gills, I ask please release the big gills over 8.5 inches. We need these big ones in the lakes so that they can reproduce and guard the nest during the spawn. 7-8.5 inch gills yield a nice chunk of meat and fry up nice and fast. For jigs I have an addiction to get just about every color of certain styles and sizes. I have taken advice from some of the best panfish anglers around and downsized to 2.5 mm jigs. I have also noticed that in some lakes that the big gills like bigger baits. So I made effort to build up my bigger jigs and small jigging spoons just for my quest. Last year I was humbled by Big Blue Gills so many times. I lost some true giants and the only reason I know they were was, because I had the camera down. I would see some big gills looking at my bait. Only to have a small one come racing up and eat my jig. The small ones were 8-9 inchers. I did not just catch all nice gills as many of you know little gills seem to be every where. I also found it crazy how picky to color these fish can be. Make sure to have at least 2 of every color jig in your box of jigs, because it really sucks when you loose the one color they want to a pesky pike. I was watching many fish coming in very high off the bottom towards evening in 17-20 feet. These fish were 6-10 feet down and I assumed they were crappies and I could not get them to bite. I brought the camera out and was shocked to see big gills cruising that far off the bottom. I still have a lot to learn to about big Blue Gills, but I am willing to learn. Another tip that I found to be helpful is to have rods rigged up with tiny jigs, medium jigs, large jigs, and jigging spoons. Have them ready in spot that you can get them at a moments notice. I have also caught some of my biggest gills on crappie minnows. I am not normally a minnow guy, but it have be something that could land that truly monster gill might be worth it. I am working on learning how to use plastic more and more. It takes using them to build your confidence in them. I have a noodle rod rigged up with plastics and have been trying to use them more. I will be tossing my bump board in my fish house, but I think I need a smaller bump board so that I have it when I am hole hopping around the lake. Good Luck to you all fishing this winter and be safe. Please practice catch and release on big Blue Gills, so our future generations will know the fun of pulling a 10 plus inch Blue Gill through the ice.