How big is to big?

Well last night i was checking out some local bank fisherman on the Wisconsin river. I started talking to this one guy and he told me that he had some nice gills and crappie. He had me take a look in his bucket and there was a 10 1/4 inch gill and a 10 inch gill! I asked him what he was going to do with them and he informed me that he was running a knife through them. I get that he can keep them fish and do whatever with them but is there a point where fish are just to big and old? I always release gills that are 9 plus, but that's just me. Edit= spelling

I think that section was over fished more so than it froze out. A lot of those backwaters have dead fish every year because the oxygen levels go down. That happened before the dam repairs. When we hit those high gas prices a few years back people did not want to drive far to go fishing. Then the Big Eau Pleine had a winter kill and those anglers moved to the river system. Can still catch plenty of fish in those places, but I'd be hard pressed to say its exactly like it used to be.

And the rest of the fish were 2 crappies about 10 inches and one other smaller gill 6 or 7. And if he were keeping 5 inch gills i don't think i would have really cared as much and i wouldn't have had this thread going.

Wisconsin river by old highway 10 in Stevens point. It was drained because the dam needed to be repaired. And i was told by some local bass fisherman that two years ago during the really cold winter that the bass in the shallows froze out.

The wisconsin river drained and froze out? That's news to me. Can you explain that?

I get that it's he's right to keep that fish and it doesn't bother to much i mean that could be the only food the guys got. But that was a river system that was drained 5 or so years ago and I've been struggling to catch a nice meal of gills. Just amazed me at the time. Still was a cool thing to see that we got big gills even tho the draining and freezing out during our cold winters.

I catch them all the time that size. Its all about where you fish and what "average is" in that body of water. I see nothing wrong with keeping what you catch, no matter the size, espcially when it comes to panfish.

The size I keep depends on the waters I'm fishing. Usually anything over 9" goes back but there are some waters that consistently produce large gills. Even then, I only keep enough for a meal or two.

Just saying it takes a long time to grow a trophy gill like that, and they are very vulnerable in the spring. Why not harvest the smaller ones for a meal?

depends on body of water for me. big systems like just stated don't bother me at all. its the small lakes that those few fish can do damage to.