This year, May's full moon arrives on the 13th at 2:51 a.m. CDT. Bluegills in the southern part of the state will be actively guarding moon-crater clusters in community spawning areas downstate by the 10th. By midmonth the females will slide off into deeper water, with males remaining for a couple of more days to guard the nests.

The next full moon is June 11. By mid-May, the water in the northern counties probably won't be warm enough for 'gills to move shallow and spawn en masse. In June, we're really gonna pound 'em on the Iowa Great Lakes and in backwaters of the Mississippi in Allamakee and Clayton counties.

Bluegills in the southern tiers of counties will spawn again, too. We may see another spawn in slightly deeper water from July 7-10, the next full moon period. But after the year's initial spawn adult 'gills tend to vacate the nests the day of the full moon.

Bluegills tend to school by size throughout the year, with some fisheries supporting four to five year-classes of this tastiest of panfish. Larger fish tend to hold in deeper water than do their smaller kin. The schools are smaller, because predators have thinned the ranks, and those still in the gene pool tend to be much more cautious and pensive about biting.

The whopper that young Stacy caught was an exception of sorts. For cold-blooded creatures, feeding is a study in effort expended for energy gained. This alpha 'gill thought the Rat-L-Trap was a shad -- which was the reason that it was hanging in the slack water below a wing dam on that sultry August afternoon.

A bluegill has to grow some truly broad shoulders before feeling confident enough to venture far from escape cover. This is why weedbeds and woody structure are good places to look for bluegills just about anytime -- again, with the largest specimens almost always holding deeper.

That last is somewhat cryptic. On West Okoboji, Center Lake between East and West Okoboji and fisheries like tiny Casey Lake, a small population of alpha 'gills will move offshore and cruise the thermocline layer throughout most of the summer, feeding primarily on zoöplankton, 10 to 15 feet down in most cases.

The best way to target these fish is in a controlled drift with ice-fishing jigs or small tube jigs, sometimes anchoring up if there is a concentration of 'gills relating to some anomaly on the bottom.

A major key to success lies in staying in front of the fish. Sometimes this can be accomplished with two jigs tied 18 inches apart. Sometimes you need to peg a split shot 18 inches above your hook. Under extreme conditions -- have you ever heard of a "bluegill chop"? -- you may have to employ a driftsock or tie a bell sinker below the baits in essentially a mini-downrigger ball configuration.

Until a few years ago, I believed that a couple of redworms or waxworms were the ultimate bait for alpha 'gills. The new genre of soft plastics has changed my thinking, perhaps forever.