I'm in Southern IN. Caught a mess of bluegills yesterday for dinner. One of the ones I fileted had eggs. Going of memory, this seems a bit early. My dad always told me that they spawned around the full moon in May and possibly again in June. Thoughts?

I think your dad is correct. But bluegill spawn tens of thousands of eggs, I don't think they just lay them like a chicken. My guess is that it takes awhile to make all those eggs before they actually go on the nest and spawn.

I could see that. Wasn't so full of eggs it was squirting them out when in hand, but they were definitely there.

As an aside, I don't know if there's freshwater fishing I enjoy more than spawning panfish.

They are fun to catch, no doubt. And pretty tasty!

I've not caught any in awhile but, love catching the bigger ones.

Here in N. Miss and SW TN they start spawning as early as late March
I always heard that they mainly spawn the 3 days after the full moon in April, May and June

PS I just ate a mess that I caught this evening in my pond

Me and my brother in the late 70s got on a bed of them near Hayward wi ... every fish bigger than your hand...we were the only ones on the lake...cold out is what else I remember...and no boat launch..had to drive between 2 corn field's....and walk the boat to the water.

Thought the old folks say when the dogwoods bloom?

Or maybe that’s white perch…

Or she’ll crackers…..

This year the spawn in Kansas for crappie, spoonbill and such is running really late due to us having snow almost every Thursday..

70’s 2 days, and 2 days of almost snow for 2-3 months now.

Not yet here in ECIL. March and April have been cold and extremely rainy, so they may be a bit late this year.

My in laws in Northern MN have them in their lake. The lakes are still frozen solid but warmer weather is starting to melt things. It will be awhile yet though before the bluegill spawn happens near here.

Used to always catch them with eggs from this time untill summer.
Pap(born in 1918) wasted nothing.
Any fish eggs found when cleaning were kept and fried.
And they were found, there was no filleting. It wasted meat.
Scaled, finned, guts out, head off/tails on into the skillet.
Nothing was wasted.

Cleaned 26 more over the weekend from the same lake. All males this time. Water was too stained to see them, but from where I was catching them I'd assume they are moving into start cleaning off the beds.

In NE Texas, you can almost always count on the bluegills or bream (which ever you want to call them) will be on the beds during the full moon in May. Then again in June.

Elephant footprints in the bottom.

My Dad and grandmother, which by the way loved catching them said when the Dogwoods leaves got to be the size of a mouse's ear...it was time to go bream fishing. powdr

Bluegills are my favorite fish. I either use an ultralight spinning setup or a 2 weight fiberglass fly rod.

Same here. A bit off topic but years ago I was wading through a shallow section dotted with bluegill beds. One good sized female was guarding her nest and not afraid of me approaching. Just to see what would happen I reached down and actually touched her! She locked on to my thumb and bit like a big dog!

We just caught a mess here in central ms. They had marks on the rails from whipping the beds. Catch and release kinda day.

I've since cleaned 42 more from that lake and they have all been males. Their were very hot today. Bait hardly hit the water before it was time to set the hook. Based on their colors and tails, I'd guess the spawn is about to happen. Everyone I caught today was spraying as soon as I put my hand on them.