Author Topic: When do you start keeping Bluegills? (Read 9378 times)

Duves · « **on:** Jan 15, 2007, 10:42 AM »

What size do you start keeping bluegills and sunfish?

hawgerdawger · « **Reply #1 on:** Jan 15, 2007, 10:50 AM »

Depends on the day. Yesterday, I caught a couple of nice eater crappies right away but no others, so I proceeded to save several less than spectacular bluegills just to make it worth my time at the fillet board.

I s'pose I start keeping them at 7 inches, or so. I've never really measured them.

holeinhide · « **Reply #2 on:** Jan 15, 2007, 01:28 PM »

8 in is my minimum size. I carry a ruler that is cut off so I just give a quick check if they are close.

pikemaster789 · « **Reply #3 on:** Jan 15, 2007, 01:28 PM »

Depends how hungry I am, and the numbers being caught

tbirdbassr · « **Reply #4 on:** Jan 15, 2007, 01:30 PM »

depends on what I'm doing if I want to pickle some I'll keep 3" If I'm gonna fillet will throw em back if they ain't 5" If I waited till they were 8" i would keep about 10 a year lol

Bull Lifter · « **Reply #5 on:** Jan 15, 2007, 03:48 PM »

man you keep some little fish....thats terrible haha or the lake you fish they are stunned and cant grow up or you wont let them..but thats just ridiculous. unless you were joking..

bigbucky1 · « **Reply #6 on:** Jan 15, 2007, 05:16 PM »

No hes not joking. Around here it is hard to find a good population of good gills for eating with out driving an hour or so. We(tbirdbassr and I) fish a lot of public water and they have a few nice gills every now and then. The private waters we have fish have nice gills in them but it takes a really good cold snap to get on these lakes because of springs and current. So we have to deal with what we can get where we can get on the ice.

empty hook · « **Reply #7 on:** Jan 15, 2007, 06:52 PM »

Quote from: pikemaster789 on Jan 15, 2007, 01:28 PM

Depends how hungry I am, and the numbers being caught

If it's my first time out for the year they can be pretty small. As the year goes on they need to be at least 7". The 1st time out this year if they fit on a # 10 hook they will be in trouble.

tbirdbassr · « **Reply #8 on:** Jan 16, 2007, 01:43 AM »

Thanks bro

IceRover · « **Reply #9 on:** Jan 16, 2007, 04:54 AM »

Quote from: holeinhide on Jan 15, 2007, 01:28 PM

8 in is my minimum size. I carry a ruler that is cut off so I just give a quick check if they are close.

When we target them I agree, 8" makes for a nice catch IMO.

jimmygunns · « **Reply #10 on:** Jan 16, 2007, 04:58 AM »

I agree! Depends on how hungry I am, & how the day is going. But most of the time, I'm looking for a big, knobby head on them!

bigdave1018 · « **Reply #11 on:** Jan 16, 2007, 05:27 AM »

i fish mainly lake ontario and i still try and only keep the males. i keep them year round and they are great table fare. learn how to clean them for boneless fillets[ it may take a lifetime] but the effort is well worth it imo. let the females go and keep some for the table, its sooooooooo gooddddddddddd!!!!!!!!!!!

keithdterry · « **Reply #12 on:** Jan 16, 2007, 01:05 PM »

We keep them when they are bigger than the Coppertone Sport sunscreen bottle. It happens to be about 7". Its what's in the boat during open water, but seems a little silly to bring out on the ice.

hawgerdawger · « **Reply #13 on:** Jan 16, 2007, 02:24 PM »

Wow, several of you are quite systematic about it. I guess I take more of a caveman approach to it. It's either, "MMM. BLUEGILL GOOD. ME EAT BLUEGILL (grunt)," or "UGH. BLUEGILL SMALL. BLUEGILL GO BACK IN HOLE (grunt),"

empty hook · « **Reply #14 on:** Jan 16, 2007, 02:41 PM »

Quote from: keithdterry on Jan 16, 2007, 01:05 PM

We keep them when they are bigger than the Coppertone Sport sunscreen bottle. It happens to be about 7". Its what's in the boat during open water, but seems a little silly to bring out on the ice.

Why the sun shines on the ice also, and even reflects back more then in a boat.

Quack_Attack · « **Reply #15 on:** Jan 16, 2007, 04:18 PM »

Depends on the lake and how hungry I am. Hardly ever keep anything smaller than 7" unless it swallows the hook and I don't think it'll make it. But I prefer to keep 'em in the 8" range if possible as they seem to start growing shoulders about that size.

BUSCHLITE · « **Reply #16 on:** Jan 16, 2007, 06:11 PM »

I'm agree with Quack Attack, between 7 and 8 inch is a good starting point to keep.

IceRover · « **Reply #17 on:** Jan 17, 2007, 06:05 AM »

Quote from: keithdterry on Jan 16, 2007, 01:05 PM

We keep them when they are bigger than the Coppertone Sport sunscreen bottle. It happens to be about 7". Its what's in the boat during open water, but seems a little silly to bring out on the ice.

Try marking it off on your rod from handle upward with a marker or piece of tape. Your using it anyway.

Van_Cleaver · « **Reply #18 on:** Jan 17, 2007, 06:23 AM »

7" if it is slow, 8'' on a good lake when there is a decent bite on. It kind of depends on how fertile the waters are that you fish. I have a yardstick attached to the main box where I sit, so it is easy to get a quick check. Another convenient measure is your hand length; finger to wrinkle at you wrist is pretty accurate. Mine happens to be 7.5'', just about the size a gill starts to beef up.

mmb · « **Reply #19 on:** Jan 17, 2007, 08:54 AM »

Quote from: Duves on Jan 15, 2007, 10:42 AM

What size do you start keeping bluegills and sunfish?

Depends on what sizes I'm catching I suppose. 5" or 6" if there are a ton of them, trying to thin the herd a bit and the large ones go back. If it is going slow, I'll keep larger ones too so I can get enough for a meal for 2 and a half. (kid

)

hunters08 · « **Reply #20 on:** Jan 17, 2007, 04:00 PM »

i would agree with the 7 to 8 inch gills on the majority of the lakes probably 8 1/2 on silver lake

bigbucky1 · « **Reply #21 on:** Jan 20, 2007, 10:56 PM »

If you check the tourney entries you will see what is normal for tbirdbassr and I when we fish the public waters around us. The problem is that we can't get to our private waters just yet to get some of the good gills. But we caught some fish today and found out a little about the pond we fished on today. I even caught about a 1 lb bass to bad he was only about 12".

panfishpounder · « **Reply #22 on:** Jan 27, 2007, 07:14 PM »

7" inches is my absolute minimum. If they swallow the hook then I will keep a smaller one. Most days I am looking at at least 8 inches though. I have a hard time getting in the mood to clean them. If I already have some crappies I have to clean anyway then 7: inches.

ice boy19 · « **Reply #23 on:** Feb 16, 2007, 07:47 AM »

no less then 8!! at my lake there is soo many pickerel they eat the small gills so all the others are huge!! boy they have some shoulders on em !!!!

PondPro · « **Reply #24 on:** Feb 16, 2007, 01:07 PM »

i like to keep them around 81/2 and up

Swift · « **Reply #25 on:** Feb 16, 2007, 09:23 PM »

Usually ~7" but there are a couple lakes where 6" 'gills are pretty darn meaty.

marcus · « **Reply #26 on:** Feb 16, 2007, 09:27 PM »

Quote from: hawgerdawger on Jan 16, 2007, 02:24 PM

Wow, several of you are quite systematic about it. I guess I take more of a caveman approach to it. It's either, "MMM. BLUEGILL GOOD. ME EAT BLUEGILL (grunt)," or "UGH. BLUEGILL SMALL. BLUEGILL GO BACK IN HOLE (grunt),"

this is the same system i use

fishingmachine · « **Reply #27 on:** Feb 17, 2007, 11:09 PM »

8" is usually about the time I start keeping them. Unless like today I had my 14 year old son with me (his first time on the ice), I let him throw a couple 5" in the bucket to keep him happy.

captain54 · « **Reply #28 on:** Mar 10, 2007, 10:08 AM »

My son and I fish for bull gills more than any fish and are keeper start at 8 inches,but when your getting the true Bulls 8 inchers look little and not many are kept at that size.Are go to lake has a ton of over 9 inchers,and where fussy about what we keep.Most lakes in Pa. do not have this quality and guy's think 7 inchers are big ,every lake has it's keeper size.

walleyeslayer · « **Reply #29 on:** Mar 10, 2007, 10:10 AM »

Quote from: Duves on Jan 15, 2007, 10:42 AM

What size do you start keeping bluegills and sunfish?

6 inches and up

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Author Topic: When do you start keeping Bluegills? (Read 9378 times)

bigdave1018