Big Bluegills Keep or release?

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

Keep and release to the flatheads

I thought I was the only one, 10s are a bonus ha ha. Just kidding 9.5s only

the gill pickles are great

milemark_714 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>DWSDave31 wrote:</div>
How does pickled gill taste in comparison to pickled pike? I have always wondered?

Very similar to pickled perch,which are excellent.You could keep those watch fob bluegills,just scale and gut them for pickling.I even seen some where the heads were still on them.Not for me.

I pickle crappies in wine sauce and they are superb. At one time I’d do ten or twelve jars over a month and gift a jar to several of the older women in our church choir. The women started dropping out of choir with age, some having died, so my pickling days have gotten seriously shorter, but I do love a few chunks of pickled crappie with some cheese slices on crackers. With an ice cold beer of course.

I’ve done sunfish and perch n pickles too over the years but it comes back to my not liking to clean those fish so I stick with crappies now. Ten crappies makes a lot of pickled fish.

I really need to give this a try! Crappie has to be good!

This really depends on the size of fish in a system. Most all of a bluegills energy goes into growth until they reach sexual maturity. In other words they will grow quickly until they participate in spawning. This is determind by the size of the biggest fish in the system. If you remove the big fish smaller and smaller fish will begin spawning slowing growth and eventually stunting the system. Because some people consider a 6 inch fish a keeper the limits are set very high. Some states 25 per person. When keeping 9.5 inch bluegills in these numbers you can quickly stunt a system. My suggestion to all bluegill fisherman is to slot limit yourself 7.0-9.5 inch fish, and no more than 15. This will keep your fishery healthy and those big ones coming in. Making it much easier to fill your bucket.

CHARLES RONK wrote:

My suggestion to all bluegill fisherman is to slot limit yourself 7.0-9.5 inch fish

Are you saying to release or keep those in that size range? Do you know how rare a 9 inch bluegill is?

All my big ones go back! It only takes about 6 medium size sunfish for my wife and I to make a meal. We may fish for hours and catch many but we only take enough for one meal. That gives me a good reason to go out again! I use the same rule for Walleyes also. I tell those who fish with me “Big ones go back… you might not want to be holding on to it when it does”. My boat/fish house– my rules. It took a while with some of my fishing partners but now they practice the same rules. Big gills are getting harder and harder to find. It’s a thrill to catch one. So why not release them and give someone else the same experience?

Are you saying to release or keep those in that size range? Do you know how rare a 9 inch <em class=”ido-tag-em”>bluegill is?
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I guessing Charles is not from MN.