A Keystone Lake hand-sized bluegill caught and released by the writer recently. Jeff Knapp/Special to the Eagle

As one matures as an angler, there comes a greater appreciation for various fish species, regardless of general angler perception. This respect is especially noted when considering fish of exceptional size.

Take for instance the bluegill, a species typically associated with “the first fish I ever caught.”

Over the past month or so, I’ve had occasion to catch some rather large bluegills from Armstrong County’s Keystone Lake. Admittedly, these fish have come when targeting crappies. And they’ve taken up residence, temporary as it might be, in locations commonly occupied by them, woody cover found along the edge of the old Plum Creek channel.

All lakes go through changes, highs and lows within fish populations driven by altering habitat, shifting food sources and in some cases stockings.

At one time big bluegills were common in Keystone. As a lad, my father and I would fish the shoreline near the spillway and catch big bluegills on nightcrawlers fished on a setup now described as a drop shot rig. During that time, a large boom constructed of telephone pole-like timber guarded the spillway, and I remember catching big ’gills and the odd monster bass near such timber.

The boom is long gone, and I doubt there’s even a path from the highway to the lake. I never see anyone shore fishing there anymore.

The state bluegill record came from Keystone, a 2-pound, 9-ounce fish taken in 1983 by Tom Twincheck of Blairsville. That’s a mind-boggling size. No wonder the record has stood for more than 40 years. As nice as the bluegills I’ve been catching have been, they would still be weighed in ounces, not pounds. And though I’ve taken them on crappie-sized baits — light jigs dressed with 2-inch soft plastics or small blade baits — given the number of missed hits I’ve experienced, it’s likely such an offering is a bit small for the tiny mouthed bluegill.

“I usually catch deep fall bluegills using a special ⅛-ounce leadhead with a small hook with a Charlie Brewer 1-inch Panfish Slider Grub,” said Darl Black, my friend, outdoor writer and panfish enthusiast. “I cast it out, count down and drag it through them. The leadhead is one I get from Limit Tackle in Texas. Also, drop-shotting small hand-tied bluegill bugs tipped with Crappie Nibble or live maggots works, two jigs to a line with ¼ weight on bottom.”

Getting back to changes in fish populations over time, on Keystone I’ve noticed a shift in the bass fishery since 2022. For many years I looked forward to the late fall months as a time to catch big smallmouth bass in the lower end of the lake. Those fish seem to be largely absent.

I no longer see schools of baitfish in the lower end of the lake during this time, much of which I suspect where rainbow smelt, a forage fish that prefers deeper, cooler water, and what the big bass were feeding on.

I wonder if the major drawdown of a couple years ago (and is again currently happening) altered the habitat enough to stifle smelt production since then. Whatever the case there seems to be much more fish life in the upper part of the lake than the lower.

Our lakes are dynamic in nature, always changing whether we like it or not. To be consistently successful we must adjust as well.

Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle