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Here's how it was explained to me. Our human ancestors were a good deal hairier than we are now. the gene that caused that hairiness still exists within us all. The passage of time has rendered that gene inactive, for the most part, in all but a few individuals.
Sorry to be the dumb one here, but with all this male and female gill talk, can someone please let me know the easiest way to tell the difference. Thanks!!
Ok. I am sure I am going to get dinged big time for this post and probably going to make a lot of people mad, but I got to say it........ Why can't some of the people in this great sport take more care about the very thing we pursue..............th e fish.I love reading the reports of people slaying fish. I love hearing about people having great days and catching tons of fish. I love it. I love that people are good anglers and enjoy the outdoors. I do get frustrated though by some of the numbers of fish people talk about keeping to eat.............. Call me names, call me jealous, call me whatever, but I just don't see why some people have to keep hundreds of fish to eat.............. There are many days on the water (both hard and soft water) where I catch big numbers of fish I could keep, but I keep enough for a meal or two and put the rest back......... I have a family of four (2 adults, 2 children) and if I keep 20 good size gills that makes a nice meal for us (with sides etc). If I keep 10 good size crappies thats a meal for us. On the big side I will keep 40 good gills so I have a meal and a meal to freeze. I rarely do that though. Maybe once a year I'll freeze some fish. If your fishing a private pond and they want fish taken out etc, or a lake that is going to be killed off or something, thats one thing, but if your fishing a public lake and taking out 100 fish each trip out...... thats eventually going to make an impact on the size of the fish and the population of fish in that lake. Unless you are harvesting selectively. Most of these guys I see, who are obviously good fisherman because they are catching these high numbers of fish, are not selecting and releasing the bigger breeders, but throwing anything that can be filleted and larger straight into the bucket........ To me, thats a bad idea. Maybe I am alone here and should keep quiet, but I just don't see why in these times someone has to keep such high numbers of fish???If your out of work and need the food then I would never say a word about it. More power to you. But, if your sitting in a fancy shanty, using a vexilar, an underwater camera, and using a high dollar snowmobile to get out on the lake..........my guess is you can afford to eat things in addition to fish. If you only ice fish, then maybe you keep fish to eat all year. Most guys I know that ice fish also fish the rest of the year too though. Now I know there are some guys who give fish to others who cant fish for one reason or another and thats ok too, but within reason. The other thing I also just can't stand is to see a bunch of dead dink bluegills laying all over the ice!!! If you catch a dink and your not going to eat it.....put it back in the *@#@* lake!!!!!!!!! I don't care what you have been told..............in a large lake like Wawassee, James, etc you are not helping the size of fish in the lake by throwing these juvenile fish on the ice to die............ If you gut hook one and it is going to die thats one thing. You can clean it or leave it for the birds or whatever. But if its healthy when you unhook it put it back. Just my humble opinion and I would never say anything to anyone who wasn't breaking any regulations. Its not my place to say something to anyone and I am no better then anyone else, but I just feel like sometimes I see otherwise good fisherman brutalizing a great sport that I love. Take care of the fish we pursue and we will continue to have great fishing. Treat them like crap.....and we'll have crap fishing to look forward to. Yell at me all you want, but thats how I feel. Tight Lines and Screamin Drags to Ya!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll take a stab at it... Male gills' are typically darker than females, they usually have an orange breast compared to the females yellow breast. This is more pronounced during the spawn, and during the winter the colors may fade out quite a bit making it hard to distinguish. The next thing I look at is the opercular flap, (eartab). It will be bigger, and possibly more squared off on a male fish vs. a female. Check the end of the dorsal fin, closest to the tail. Gills have a dark spot right there, it can be darker on males, although not always. On the "shoulders" of the fish, take a look at the scales... a male will have black edges to the scales there, called tipping. Bear in mind that much of this is variable.. there are few sure things, at least for me, and I've been wrong plenty of times. When the fish are immature, it gets even harder.
I think those who are upset can't or don't catch that many fish. If someone catches 100 fish a day but only fishes on Saturday, is he worse than the person who catches 25 fish a day Monday through Friday? If you were super serious about hurting a fishery, there would be a lake limit set and once everyone's total hit it, fishing would be shut off. Stupid right? Not possible or practical on a large public body of water. Do what you feel is right ethically and leave me alone. I like to catch large numbers and am proud that I have put in the time and skill to be able to do it regularly. This involves going to the right lake, at the right time, using the right lure, presenting the lure the right way, and managing to land the fish. I'm pretty sure I fish the same lakes in about the same rotation year after year and manage the same successes. Right now the fishing is slowing due to pressure. There are so many fish down there that are turned off by all the fishing going on that we aren't going to "fish out" a lake. Heck look at Docksiders on James. Every year it is pounded on for a few weeks with lots of big numbers and size taken home. Then fishing slows and a few struggle eventually causing the number of fishermen to dwindle. Next year, the same thing happens. Leave it to the biologists to make the decisions about whether the fisheries are being hurt. Have your opinion but understand not everyone thinks like you. I disagree with your post and don't think you are as educated as you may believe. But that is only my opinion and doesn't really matter. Jonesy
Well put.
Are you saying you know more than a biologist? I too am managing my pond and have gotten the bluegill to become much larger than they were 3 years ago when a keeper was unheard of. Now there are a lot of 9 inchers in there although the bass are now smaller. But my 10 acre pond cannot be compared to a lake. I believe what it comes down to is the bluegill or whatever fish you take will keep the species propagating in any body of water. When there is something going on that the fish perceives as not right, it stops biting. Hence the fish that keeps following your bait up but won't commit. That is what keeps the fish coming back year after year. What I am tired of hearing is how the fish population is being decimated due to electronics and such and there needs to be a limit imposed immediately. I feel politics will take precedence knowledge on this subject and groups such as PETA will latch onto this and get a limit started in Indiana where our fisheries are going strong and continuing to do so.Jonesy
go to any pond that rarely or never gets fished and you will find nothing but dinks, very easy to get over run with gills, and once that happens, they don't have enough food to get any bigger.
I think a lot of it comes down to what an angler expects a body of water to produce. I've probably come across as an lunatic by expressing my views on returning the largest males, but that's only because I know what this fish is capable of if managed properly. To my knowledge, the DNR doesn't manage for trophy bluegill, they manage for sustainable quantities of a catchable size (6" +), and I think they do an excellent job of it. For the most part, everyone who posts here seems happy with the size of the bluegills they catch from public waters, so the system must be working alright. I think each angler must decide for him or herself, what size fish they want to catch consistently. My posts were based on my idea of what a good bluegill is. I've seen many pics on here of 10"+ fish that came from public waters, so we know they're out there. But I've noticed that those larger fish typically make up only a small part of the angler's total catch. Think how many times you've seen pics of only one or two of those large fish, when the angler stated he caught 25-30. This takes nothing away from the abilities of the angler, after all it was his or her skill that landed that fish, and they've earned the bragging rights that go with it. But what if.. you could catch 25 gills, and 15-20 of them were over 1lb and 10"? That's what I'm talking about. And it can be done, but it will take more than a biologist and mother nature to create such a fishery, and more importantly, sustain it year after year. It would take a concerted effort by every angler who fished that water to maintain such a catch ratio. And frankly, I don't see that ever happening in public waters. If you're happy with the fish you're catching now, and the lake will continue to support that style of fishing, I think you should fish as you see fit.Like this, and I believe the more info and posts about this stuff will do nothing but good for the size of our future gills. The more people know, the more they talk. They talk more and show more interest, and things begin to change. For instance, all the pond and lake management talk on these posts has pushed me back to talking my wife into moving to somewhere with a pond. Keep up the good info.
FWF... you should know you cant post an opinion on here without someone "ASSUMING" your talking about them, and then they get all defensive. Your post definitely has merit. While myself and everyone else LOVES seeing fish pics, the forums have somewhat turned into a brag board instead of helping other anglers with tips and tricks and WHERE to fish, what the bite is on, what color. Its not a rampant thing, but its there. Koodos to you for the voicing of your opinion.
Nope. What I'm trying to say is I believe QUANTITY of fish removed is less important than QUALITY of fish removed. That, and the fact that 6-7 years is a long time to go between surveys on a highly pressured lake. My entire reason for posting in this thread was merely to lend credence to the idea of SELECTIVE harvest. Nothing more. I don't know if you've read through this entire thread, but I've stated multiple times that what works for one body of water is not always best for another. Also I only fish for Bluegill, no other species. I only manage for Bluegill, no other species. I know what works for me, and a big part of that is selective harvest. The biggest males get returned to the pond. If you're not practicing this in your own pond, I believe you can grow your gills' even bigger.
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Topic: Probably gonna argue, but I got to get it off my chest.....this bothers me. (Read 17962 times)
