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