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Small Lake & Huge Gills

1K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  TthePikester 
#1 ·
I got the opportunity to fish a small body of water here in MN with my buddy that apparently held big Sunfish. After catching my first couple I realized he was not joking. We went on to have a crazy day of fishing in terms of Bluegill size. I think we only caught three Gills that were under 9 inches long!

 
#3 ·
Damn Mitch. I remember catching a quite few that size at a certain lake here a few years back. But, I haven't seen many like that since.
Yeah, they definitely aren't the norm! That lake is one I don't get to often but it will spoil a panfisherman. Catching 7" Sunfish and 10" Crappies just isn't the same after that haha. I watched a video yesterday on the the diminishing Sunfish size here in the Midwest and they obviously pointed the finger at anglers and over-harvest.

Bluegills were seen as a never ending resource and since it's a meat fishery, anglers were striving to keep the largest fish for consumption. As those 10" Gills get depleted the standards start dropping to 9" and then 8" and then progressively less. Now that those big Males are gone the younger males in the population start to mature earlier and they put a lot more of their energy into reproduction rather than growth and then fill the void that was previously filled with big fish.
 
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