Measuring 6.5 inches

[onemore]

In a moment of inspiration I marked off inches on my ice scoop with a Sharpie. It is now certain and without doubt that the fiesty orange bellies I've been pulling up measure a meer - maybe I should say for my wife - a full 6.5 inches.

[hanson]

Keep at it dude! I finally found my first 10" gill last weekend. I'm a happy camper to say the least!!

Here's a photo with fellow FM ProStaff BDR. (2) 10" Gills is absolutely incredible within 30 seconds of each other. Both fish were released!!

[onemore]

Now those are some hansome and beefy sunnies.

[DTro]

and the fish look pretty good too

[Guest]

king size bait!

oops, what state we in again?

[onemore]

I found the Bigger boys today. One 8 inch hole - many 8 inch Gills -five feet of water with green weeds still on the bottom. Those 10 inchers are a holy grail I may find yet. Good luck to all those targeting blue gills this weekend.

[lilman]

Thats an awesome color to those gills.

[onemore]

I think the brightly colored orange ones I've been catching are males. Those hansom 10 inchers Chris Hanson posted have to be one pounders. The State record is close to 3 lbs (14 inches?). Here's a link to general length and weight: http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-1193/

Those sunnies are a delight.

[hanson]

onemore-

Those gills were real close to a pound if not a pound. We just measured them quick, took a few photos, and let them go. Its just something special to finally find a real big gill like that. Big gills are real vulnerable because everyone wants to put them in the frying pan.

[Dan Thiem]

One more note about big gills. A while back Matt Bruerer (sp.?) wrote something about how we should release the bulls. Because they were the ones that protected the nest.

[Skitterpop]

I take a small food scale along to weigh the large pannies I catch. Caught a sunnie a week ago that weighed 1lb 6 oz with numerous ones between 1lb and 1lb 4 oz. Huge sunfish over by Ponsford. Many an honest 10-11 inches. They had some huge shoulders on them that I couldn't wrap my hand around them very easily. Did take a few home. That photo is of a 1lb 4oz one.

[tommyk]

My first 10"er of the year. Still lookin for that solid 1# fish.

[onemore]

Chris - All the sunnies I caught were released quickly and caught on barbless(crimped barb) hooks. I think many people over-harvest the fish and wreck the fishery. If I take a few to eat I will keep the more plentifull 6-7 inchers and let the big males and females go. The same is true for walleyes. I'd rather eat a 14 to 16 incher and let the bigger ones back. I fish in Ontario regularly and their slot limits seem to keep the fishery bountyfull. Those colorfull male bull Sunnies are quite something. I hope to catch some again in the spring on my fly rod.

[Quackaddict9]

Quote:

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One more note about big gills. A while back Matt Bruerer (sp.?) wrote something about how we should release the bulls. Because they were the ones that protected the nest

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yeah and what happened to Matt on this site?

[fisherking01]

really great color. Nice pics, thanks for sharing. I took some yesterday, the lens was foggy, didn't turn out very well. I got into some great gills. Largest hit the 10 inch mark, looking for a 12 to put on the wall. I'm sure I won't need to be saving money for this mount! Those big bulls really are fun, and recently very aggressive. No need for a spring bobber. Better yet, I've been sight fishing in a dark house. It's awesome seeing the fish shool and react to the different lures and presentations. Keep after em, they really look great when you release them too.

[Down to Earth]

Good Point Dan. What would you or others consider a good slot size for using as keepers?

[fisherking01]

Personally, I like the 6-7 inch for eating. I live in an area that is great for panfish and have fished them all of my life. It was common practice while growing up to keep the pounders when I fished with Grandpa. He's gone and so are most of the pounders. I have learned to value the recourse for what it is, great if it is managed well. I am a strong "preacher" of catch and release, and it upsets me a lot when people overharvest the bull sunfish. As stated they are an important part of maintaining a strong and healthy sunfish population in any water. Big bull sunfish will help to ensure there is a strong genetic background in the fishery also. For eating, a 8 inch sunnie is borderline for me. I'd rather catch and release the bigger ones. like I stated earlier I'm looking for a 12 incher to mount, I'll make sure the 10 inchers i catch go back to grow.

[harvey lee]

I always keep for eating the ones that go from 6-8,and the huge ones go back,only way your going to catch some 10" plus fish.Same for the crappies,only I will keep fish to 11 and the rare 12.5-13 plus go down the hole.If you keep all the bigger ones for the pan,you will never get the monster once in a year or two fish.The bigger crappies get mushy anyways.

[Roughfisher]

I'm not Matt, but the reason it's important to release big bull gills is pretty complicated. There are actually three different types (or "Morphs") of male bluegills. They are different based on how they attempt to spawn with females.

The first and most familiar spawning strategy is called the "Parental Male". Parental Male bluegills build a nest, guard it from predators, and chase off other male bluegills. Parental Males reach maturity at about 7 years old. These are what we call "knobheads". They grow big because they need to be big to dominate the spawning colony and chase off smaller males. Since they also have to quit feeding while guarding (they still attack anything that comes into the nest, they just don't leave the nest to feed) they lose 15% of their weight while guarding the nest, so they need to be beefy.

The second type of bluegill male is the "Sneaker Male". These males do not grow very big and mature in just 2-3 years. Sneaker males look like immature bluegills, and stay small. The sperm they produce is faster-moving than the sperm of Parental Males. They sneak up to the edge of a guarded nest, wait for the Parental Male guarding the nest to start spawning, and then dart in quickly to fertilize the eggs with their fast-moving sperm before the Parental Male can. Sneakers can fertilize up to 80% of the eggs in the nest and pass on their Sneaker genes.

The third type of male bluegill is the "Female Mimic". These cross-dressing male bluegills look exactly like a female bluegill and mature in 4-5 years. They also do not grow as big. Female Mimic bluegills wait for a pair to start spawning and just swim in and join the party. The Parental Male ignores the extra female and is probably pretty surprised when the mimic starts releasing sperm instead of eggs.

Both the Female Mimic and the Sneaker are called "Cuckolders" because they trick the Parental Males into guarding their eggs for them. Parental Males pass on genes to create more parental males, and cuckolders spawn more cuckolders. This is why you can have lakes that you never seem to catch any males out of; a lot of the "females" you are catching are actually female-mimic males or sneakers. If you remove all the Parental Males (which is not hard to do since they aggressively defend their nests) you are giving the cuckolders a big advantage in breeding, and before long the lake will have mostly small males.

You can actually tell a cuckolder male bluegill from a female by the shape of the ear flap. These are the fish you should keep. The research on this is just starting to come in (MN DNR is studying it, along with some folks down south). Here are four articles that describe in detail how this all works:

Article 1

Article 2

Article 3

Article 4

[The Grebe]

I've kept the larger sunnies, but I don't get that many over all, one here, one there...I have let afew go, but boy, it wasn't easy, that I can tell you!

I like fish alot and if you have driven 60 to 80 miles and only have a couple in the bucket and it's gettin on toward quittin time...

I have found that a sunnie in about the 8-10 oz. range is about the perfect eater...in my estimation anyways. To me those biggies just are not that good....I know it is alot easier to let them go, if you have a few back ups to take it's place.!

Same with the crappies...I've got some whoppers off of Red and some pretty sizeable ones off of Osakis and a few other lakes and without a doubt, the crappies in the 3/4 pound range are the best....again, in my estimation.

[Random guy]

Roughfisher, So what you are saying with the "mimics", "parental", and "cuckolders" is alot like downtown on a Saterday night? (sorry I couldn't help it.)

[Dan Thiem]

Excellent post Roughie! I thight it was some good material.

We all learn new stuff every day. Thanks for posting that.

[katoguy]

Usually I C&R everything.

However, when I do keep panfish I will not keep a 6 inch gill or a 9 inch crappie. The half pound sunnies and 3/4 pound crappies are the ones I want. But, i only keep a few panfish meals per year.

[igotem]

Roughfishers post is a pretty good explanation, however he makes it sound like every lake has all three morphs. This is not the case. This breeding strategy usually only surfaces in lakes with overpopulations of bluegills to begin with, so the "don't keep bull gills" can potentially be detrimental. Just like every other management issue in Minnesota it depends on the lake. For instance, in lakes where there are natural population controls (lots of pike, winterkill, et al) I wouldn't worry about this too much.