Originally Posted by
Will_P
I too used to always be more concerned with returning the females and keeping the males until I watched an episode of In-Fisherman. In it they talked about lakes with monster bluegill and they stated to keep the smaller fish to eat and throw back the biggens. They also said that if you do want to keep the biggens make sure it's the females. So after thinking about it, it makes sense that even though the females have the eggs, that's all they do, the male is the one who fans the bed, fertilizes, and guards the bed and young for a short time. He's the reason they hatch and get life started. I now throw back the males and keep the females.