MyFishFinder Forum
MyFishFinder By Species => Bluegill => Topic started by: busler15 on Jun 23, 2006, 01:44 PM
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Ive never fished for bluegill's before, for i thought they were a useless fish! I am able to catch them by the dozen off my dock, but these are tiny! What is a good "keeping" size for bluegill. Ive heard six inches and above will get you a good meal, but I havent cleaned them yet so I do not know. Also, where should I fish for what i hear are "bull" gills. All ive ever seen out of my lake are under six inches, but Ive seen a few nice ones, although ive never really looked.
Any help would be great! Thanks, Spencer
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I keep 'gills only 8" or better. Thats my rule of thumb.
For bigger gills, fish the deepest weeds you can find.
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it depends how hungry you are ;D
in my opinion, it is how skilled you are at cleaning them. If you can get good meat off of them, keep the 5, 6 inchers. Im your not as hot, keep the bigger ones that are easier to fillet 7+
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Some times it comes down to how large a lake/pond you are fishing and the population of gills. If there are a lot of small gills and not many "bulls" it is probably overpopulated. In this case keeping the smaller ones and throwing back the bigger ones thins out the population and reduces the fight for food. Eventually the smalls ones get bigger due to a better food source ;)
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I usually wait untill I get a few big ones, in the 7+ range, once I have a couple of those, I then start to keep the odd 5-6 inch gills
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If I can filet it I'll keep it. I've never really measured them when I keep them. Pretty much just a judgement call.
You won't be calling them useless once you have a meal of them. They are very tasty.
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I wouldn't keep anything under 6" or you'll hate yourself when you fillet them. If you plan on cooking them whole, then its a different story. But I mostly put 7-8" in the bucket and let the bigger fish go.
A bull (to me anyway) is male gill that has developed a pronounced hump on his forhead, when this occurs, this fish is all the bigger its going to get. If you catch a lot of say 6-7" fish that have this hump, I'd say your looking a poor genitics or overcrowding, in which case take the smaller fish and let the 8's and up go.
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I don't like fileting the little ones, so usually 8 inches or better for me. However if you are only catching smaller ones, 6-7's will do fine with enough of them.
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the size of your hand. if you lay it in your hand and you don't see your hand keeper. which for most thats right around 7".
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If I can filet it I'll keep it. I've never really measured them when I keep them. Pretty much just a judgement call.
You won't be calling them useless once you have a meal of them. They are very tasty.
Ditto
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yep. if i can hold it in my hand...and the head and tail hang over, it gets eaten
billybono
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I always try to put the biggest ones back and eat the moderate sized ones.
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if I can wrap my thumb around to my middle finger it goes back, it the thumb and finger don't touch, I eat. filleting can take a while, but work = reward
Mike
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If you fillet them, 7" or bigger.
Smaller ones you scale, behead, and gut. But that's only if you don't mind picking around bones after you fry them up.
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I only keep Panfish if they are 16" or bigger.............Just kidding..7" unless I am averaging 8"er's on certtain bodies of water.
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the size of your hand. if you lay it in your hand and you don't see your hand keeper. which for most thats right around 7".
Dang my large ape like hands!!!!!
Thats why I fish for pike.
I keep the bigger ones too however. Under 5" is bait. LOL
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i like to keep 9" and up
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I usually go by about an inch thick.
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i like to keep 9" and up
Pondpro! You go son!!!