Invasion Of The Dink Bluegills

[RoeBoat]

Generally they get to be a pound heading towards the 11" mark.  Interesting, I don't think I've ever weighed any of mine.

[Gills-only]

Reason I questioned was asked I have a postal scale and weighed a gill just shy of 10” and it weighed 9 1/2 oz just over half a pound. It was thick also

[river_scum]

maybe taxi will chime in on this.  I think he weighed the ones we pulled from his pond, but I don't remember what they went now.  gills and crappie generally don't get put on the scale around here. 

[RoeBoat]

My frying pan doesn't have a built in scale!  I have a few on ice I will have to weigh in the morning,  pretty sure I don't have any pounders either.

[Gills-only]

I have some big hybrids in my pond 11”+ gonna have to weigh a couple this spring, very hard to catch in winter

[river_scum]

im sure they lost a little weight since you caught them.  cant see it being more than an ounce though.  I have read that fish can shrink some in the livewell too.  I try and only keep bass that are at least 14-1/4 just in case.

[bigr]

I think if you catch one at 11inches you can get your scale out. Probable real close to a 1lb. Not many public  lakes in Indiana produce 1lbers on a consistent bases. I pretty sure most guys claim to have caught 11 to 12 inch gils that are really 9 to 10s. A tape takes care of that and a scale the weight.

[PikeKing23]

Last year I weighed a 10" that my daughter caught.  It weighed 0.7#

[Gills-only]

Last year I weighed a 10" that my daughter caught.  It weighed 0.7#

.      Takes a helluva bluegill to weigh a pound, I know the copperhead gills down south prolly do

[Spooled85]

I fish a private pond that has Ben established around 30 years ago and managed rite. It has Georgia Giants in it . And you wanna talk about big ! They are so big I considered not eating them . But the few I kept did tatse good .if I go back this yr I'll measure and weigh a few and I bet they are more then a pound lol

[taxi1]

I manage a pond to produce large male bluegills as I sell some of the large males to a taxidermy market from coast to coast along with other species. If I harvested male bluegills under 10 inches I can assure you I wouldn't have many bluegills 10 inches or over. But I also remove all the females I can. At one time I only planted males in this pond but apparently one of the females looked like a male and I now have reproduction in the pond itself.

I am here to tell you yes you can fish down a body of water of bluegills even in larger ones than a farm pond, and the INDNR has even said so in one survey on Sylvan Lake in Noble County. I can show you that in their own words. At one time Sylvan Lake had an incredible bluegill fishery with some the fastest growing bluegills in the nation (INDNR's own words). Now granted the growth rate was in in large part due to the nutrients from untreated sewage, but the fact remains the pressure on the bluegills was so intense they were fished down to a point where bluegills became scarce, and carp made up most of the biomass of the reservoir.

I find it interesting that every time we have a rules change proposal there is a strong outcry for a 25 fish bluegill bag limit and it's just ignored. Last time around not even a response on why as far as I can tell. And no I'm not bashing anyone in the INDNR. I'm just puzzled by this and wonder where and why the pressure to ignore this.

As far as those of you that say big harvests of bluegills is beneficial, I point you to parts of the country where they're considered trash fish and aren't targeted. The fishing for bluegills in some of the regions I have been to has been phenomenal both in size and quantity. No stunted fish. And these lakes aren't even as fertile as ours. And furthermore even though one of those regions is substantially farther north than us, the average size of largemouth bass is larger too. My guess is more bluegills to fit the gape size of the largemouths as they get larger.

One state I fish in the northeast you can still catch a 7 to 8 pound largemouth in some of the lakes from time to time. As a taxidermist for going on 35 years, I don't see or hear of many of those fish being caught anymore in public waters. If I get one in to mount it's almost aways a private body of water. Sure maybe they are released but I usually hear about it.

[taxi1]

I fish a private pond that has Ben established around 30 years ago and managed rite. It has Georgia Giants in it . And you wanna talk about big ! They are so big I considered not eating them . But the few I kept did tatse good .if I go back this yr I'll measure and weigh a few and I bet they are more then a pound lol

You're talking hybrids (Georgia Giants are actually nothing more than hyped up bluegill X green sunfish with possibly some redear mixed in) which isn't really germane to the subject of natural strain bluegills or bluegills in public lakes.

[Spooled85]

I would say the first thing to start with would be to make new rules for these beards . That absolutely boils my blood that they can take as much as they want ! And i have even had issues with them on the big lake trolling . They are launching out of City now with big lake boats with down rigges and when your running copper or lead cores and they see you with a fish on the will be right behind you running your lines over to get in that group of fish you just went threw !

[Spooled85]

You're talking hybrids (Georgia Giants are actually nothing more than hyped up bluegill X green sunfish with possibly some redear mixed in) which isn't really germane to the subject of natural strain bluegills or bluegills in public lakes.

I'm no biologist that's just what I was told from the property owner

[CWlake]

Seems like every lake that I have fished in NE Indiana in the 10 days has been loaded with dink bluegills. I have been hearing the same from a couple of friends. I have tried a few changes in my usual jigs, but I have not had much success. Has anyone else been experiencing this frustration?      I don't think it's the jig, more like location! When you find the little guys, chances are you wont find the big ones near them. Some days it's a matter of drilling a thousand holes until you find those suspending fish. Keep looking at lake maps and contours until you find the sweet spot. The big ones are still there. They are just not where everyone else is. Its like morel hunting. constantly looking for new locations.

[Eyeguy574]

The fish are getting more pressure through the ice then they have in quite a few years. The bigger fish that are left on the hard hit lakes will get wise and picky.

[Scheu]

This Red Ear was 1 pound 3 oz. Caught it a week ago. Supposedly, these were common back in the 1960's and 70's on the lake that I caught it from.

[Gills-only]

Looking at the tip up fishing contests, over the years and don’t remember seeing anything over 13 oz in the winning columns, but must be a few out there

[Gills-only]

This Red Ear was 1 pound 3 oz. Caught it a week ago. Supposedly, these were common back in the 1960's and 70's on the lake that I caught it from.

.     How long was your red ear ?

[Scheu]

Just over 11".

[Scheu]

This same lake produced a 2 Pound Bluegill, in the spring, about 5 years ago. The bigger gills are out there, just not in the quantity that they used to be.

[RoeBoat]

That gill is a TOAD!!  I've never seen anything like that in Indiana before!

[Scheu]

That gill is in a 5 gallon bucket.

[Jigmup]

Scheu...that thing is a freaking slob! WTG!

[RoeBoat]

I can't stop looking at it!!!

[denhar]

Sothern IN. has a big problem with Shad in lakes. THey compete with gills  for food. Flint lake In Valpo is full of them.

[Iceassin]

Generally they get to be a pound heading towards the 11" mark.  Interesting, I don't think I've ever weighed any of mine.

I would agree. Several years ago I caught 2...11" @ 1.33# and 11.25" @ 1# even. Sad story...gave them to a "friend" who knew someone that could mount them at a reasonable price. Never seen them or him again...and don't know where he is. Anyway...back to the dink gills. I generally fish 3 lakes that give up some nice gills and very few "dinks" and I'm not sure why, but here is a little background on them.

Lake #1...44 acres w/avg. depth of 30'.  #2...82 acres w/avg. depth of 30' and #3...30 acres w/ avg. depth 30'. All are what I would call small to medium in size and depth is the same. All have marl, pulpy peat and muck bottoms. Plenty of weeds but little in other structure. All have a few springs and inlet/outlet streams. Now the differences...

#1) Avg. of 7-8" gills with plenty of 9's and 10"+ crappie and only a few perch of any size. Some LM bass up to 2# and a few pike that will reach 35-37". This lake is public and gets moderate fishing pressure.

#2) Same as #1 except not as many 9"gills but the crappie run a little bigger and there are some decent perch if you can find them. Bass and pike run about the same as #1. This lake is public and gets moderate to heavy fishing pressure.

#3) Average of 8- 9" gills with plenty of 10 inchers and perch that will reach 15" but they're few and far between. Some LM of 2# or so but no pike or crappie (at least I've never heard of or caught any). This lake is private and gets light fishing pressure.

Again, none of these lakes have I caught any dink gills...which I call under 5".

So I get why the private lake has so many decent gills...at least in part. But why the other 2?

My guess is a little bit of everything...water depth and quality, lots of weeds, decent amount of predator fish. But could all of this explain why there is what seems to be an above average growth rate of these pan fish. Any fish biologists out there who can confirm or add to why this might be? Invasion of the dink bluegill...why and why not?

 

[RoeBoat]

That's interesting,  I fished a different lake than usual last weekend that would generally fit the description you provided and caught much better fish than I have  been catching.   Just too many variables I think to make a correlation.   I wonder though if average depth is a key factor?

[PikeKing23]

Maybe (depending on the maximum size of the predatory fish in the system) once they get a certain size, they are no longer prey?  I see this happen in lakes with both bass and pike.  The numbers of small bass are almost non existent, but the number of 3lb + bass is much better than in non-pike containing waters.  Once they get that big, there are not very many pike in the system that can eat them.

[taxi1]

I would say the first thing to start with would be to make new rules for these beards . That absolutely boils my blood that they can take as much as they want ! And i have even had issues with them on the big lake trolling . They are launching out of City now with big lake boats with down rigges and when your running copper or lead cores and they see you with a fish on the will be right behind you running your lines over to get in that group of fish you just went threw !

It's not just the "beards." I can show you fish hogs that aren't "beards." At least the "beards" eat what they catch. A lot of the braggarts I know are too lazy to clean the fish, and give most of them away for bragging rights. Another thing that isn't considered up here is the travel trailer factory guys that are typically laid off over the winter (maybe not this year) that ice fish all winter day after day. As many of you know a couple of our northern counties are considered the travel trailer capital of the country and also modular homes.