What size?

[saluki]

I'm sure this has been asked before, but what size minimum do you all keep to eat? I'm afraid I'm puttin keepers back. I dont go often (for bluegill), but when I do I catch in the 4" -8" range keeping only 7+ inchers. I've got some quality farm ponds I fish. I usually use tube or maribou jigs tipped with a wax or meal worm below a float. Through the ice I use the tiny glow jigs with just a meal worm. Thanks (first post on bluegill forum)

[ThrillSeeker]

Usually, I only keep bluegill that are 7 inches and bigger. If someone else is offering to clean them, I'll keep anything that's not a little dink.

[mperry]

if your catching a lot of small gills I think it would be a good idea to start keeping the little ones also. My be overpopulated.

[saluki]

We can usually get all the 7-8's we want with an occasional 9" bull in the mix. I ask this because when crappie fishing KY Lake I see dudes keep bunches of little ones. That lake is loaded anyway, so it dont bother me. I suppose I'm on the right track. Cleaning 6" fish would only get me a cut hand anyway... Also, a new lake we fished last year was yeilding 7"-8" bluegill of which we kept none (we were crappie fishing) I dont think many people (at all) keep any out of that lake. Its about 10-12 acres, can anyone give an idea of the growth they may gain in a year. I know there are more variables than this, but will they grow at all in a year? As you can see I dont know much...

[CrappiePappy]

We can usually get all the 7-8's we want with an occasional 9" bull in the mix. I ask this because when crappie fishing KY Lake I see dudes keep bunches of little ones. That lake is loaded anyway, so it dont bother me. I suppose I'm on the right track. Cleaning 6" fish would only get me a cut hand anyway... Also, a new lake we fished last year was yeilding 7"-8" bluegill of which we kept none (we were crappie fishing) I dont think many people (at all) keep any out of that lake. Its about 10-12 acres, can anyone give an idea of the growth they may gain in a year. I know there are more variables than this, but will they grow at all in a year? As you can see I dont know much...

If there aren't any large predator fish, like Bass or Cats, in this pond .... keep or throw out any of the very small ones. You will only be helping by doing this. The Bluegill will overpopulate quickly, if not controlled, and their size will decrease as their numbers increase. Even a 10-12acre pond can only hold so many fish, before they eat themselves out of house & home. They will cannibalize their own young, if the biomass of their foodsource gets low. But, this will not control the situation as well as numbers removal. Also, with Crappie present in this pond, there's a chance that they are feeding off each other. There's a balance point, in any pond, where the populations of fish present are at their max growing capabilities. And, if that point is not reached, or if it's passed, then one or more species will suffer overpopulation/stunting or may be wiped out. Even in heavily managed ponds, the removal of large numbers of small fish is paramount to keeping the balance intact. It's a numbers game, whereby the angler wants good sized fish to keep, but must accept the fact that the largest fish in the pond must be released (and the mid range sized fish kept) and some of the very small ones must be removed, in order to keep the balance.
I found this article to be quite interesting, as it approaches the "stunting" possibilties from a different angle : http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/inhsreports.../bluegill.html ........... cp

[slabsrus]

We generally keep gills in the 7 - 9 inch range. Most of the big bulls we let go, but once in awhile we keep a few of them also just to fatten up the pot. Here is one of my fishing partners with a nice 10 inch bull gill caught on June 15 last summer. He was released to swim another day.

[Bridges]

5 inches on up! Luv to pic them bones!!!

[countrycat16]

i eat em all the way down to 5 inches.i try to fish lake wylie as much as i can,and the other week my dad cought a 10 inch redear.but we let him go

[Blue Duck]

Usually 5" and bigger. Depends on how long its been since I had a mess for dinner. If its been a while and they are running small...... too bad for them.

[Big Mac]

This is the size I get from some of my local lakes in Northern California. This was on a white mister twister 1 1/2 inch curly tail.

......mac