Had just enough time yesterday afternoon to haul in a lil' mess. I Figure anytime I can catch a dozen it makes it worth cleaning them as that is 12 fillets each for me and the Mrs.

And yes, we are big eaters! 26 'gills and 4 redears.

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Andy

Nice mess of fish there Andy. The red ears are what I fish for the most. I love the fight on a ultra light.

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I've spent most of my life fishing.....the rest I've wasted. Lifes too short to only fish on weekends.

Now thats a nice catch.I also love catchin the big redears.Talk about good eatin.

Great catch! Just curious.. How long does it take you to fillet those panfish? No bones left in the meat whatsoever right?

Thanks all.

Absolutely no bones EVER! 30 minutes alone, 20 if someone will rib while I fillet (electric).
My Dad (The Ol' Man) can push 100 in an hour/75 on average with him filleting while I rib. He may cut through 1 or 2 out of 100. I ruined 3 of those salvaging 2 of the 6 fillets as I haven't had to fillet in a while.

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Andy

Great catch! Just curious.. How long does it take you to fillet those panfish? No bones left in the meat whatsoever right?

Nice mess of FISH ! it has been an extremely slow year for us

Whew, you got some hawg ears there, how deep were the ears? Great mess.

Did ya catch those in a private pond or a lake. Give us wantabe's some details, what bait, how deep, water temp, ect. Man I love to catch bluegills and shellcracker, I've just never had good luck except during spring and summer, I need to learn alittle more about cool weather bream fishing.

"Shep"

Those redears are average size. We have caught several dozen right @ 14" this year! Here's a 11" from a few weeks ago.


These all come from a local city lake 40 miles North of here. (city water supply) Funny thing to me is this was THE panfish lake several years ago. Now everybody swears it is "fished out". Dad (Ol' Man) and I limit out almost every time we go. It takes some searching but when we find them we usually can sit right there and fill our creel.

The redears are just a lucky catch as they run with the gills. Those redears were just a bit deeper than the 'gills and all 4 came from 1 lil' spot where the flat rolls slowly off into the old creek channel. These 'gills were caught in NO water at all! Less than a foot! Big flat w/Cedar tree out on it's deep point to mark where the drop starts. I caught all these roaming the flat using mealworms that I now raise. (thanks to G-3 Fisherman) Water temps are mid 60's. All our fish from this lake have been caught shallow this summer/fall and we rarely fish water deeper than 6'. I generally cast an artificial until I hit a couple then switch to live bait. This time of year it usually pays to just fish live bait as the fish are more lethargic and will only chase bait when very active.

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Andy