what is a keeper gill 4",5",6",7"?

what ever my wife is willing to clean. Some lakes have to many small gills, and they need to be weeded out imo.

8.5+

I don't always keep them. Unless that is the reason I am fishing; for them. When I do keep them, it depends on the average size being caught, I will usually go down to a 6" gill. Most of the time that size can still have some meat on it depending on where caught. Some lakes have an adequate food source which even makes some of the small ones seem fatter. So any size bigger than or equal than 6" is a good size for me.

I like to keep 7" and up and throw back anything over 10" anything smaller than 7" I just cant get enough meat off of. People chop the heads off and scale them but I like a nice piece of meat without anything on it!

I like to keep 7.5-9 inch gills. For my family of 3 that is 7-10 gills for a meal which is usually 1lb or more. With some fries or chips its plenty for a meal. Here is a plate of some crappie's I cooked up. These chips were awesome deep fried and sliced about an 1/8".

I take what the lake gives ya. Bet ya can't eat just one!

Yes it would be a beautiful thing if the DNR could spend the time, money and manpower on each fishery in the state but then this is the real world.

Then again even the DNR can't always agree on what's best.

Fishermen should try to decide for themselves on the particular lake they are fishing since the DNR can't effectively manage every lake. If the lake has an overabundance of bluegills, you should keep every one including small ones. In lakes with a bluegill population that isn't so great, but has some big ones, the big ones should actually be let go and keep the smaller ones to better support reproduction. Easier said than done however )

Just my opinion and observation is that bluegills/sunfish and LM Bass are prolific breeders and with a balanced forage base do exceptionally well in most waters just because of their breeding season. Perch on the other hand have a harder time because of their early breeding season and the extreme swings in temps, water levels, storms and forage base. As for crappy they are just overfished period.

I do not claim to be a Bass fisherman only but from what I hear, read and see, my opinion is that this state does a horrible job in managing the bass populations. Basically because there are too many variables from lake to lake, river to river. The states stance is mostly a one-size-fits-all and I understand the reason for it. I can support the 16" limit on certain lakes as I can support a slot limit while still on other lakes the limit should fluctuate according to the state of the fishery. As when there is an abundance of 6" to 12" fish but few over that size then some of those small fish should be removed. Again as in a slot.

In a case like this I would keep a coule 10" bass in place of a few 8" gills because I believe it would help the whole fishery overall. Then when the balance has been restored go back to the one-size-fits limits.

I agree that some lakes just never seem to grow big fish. Is it the strain of fish or is there not enough food or what? A lake close to home that I fished for over 30 years the gills are 5 to 7 inches but the perch are always small. The perch never get over 5 inches. You would think that they would get bigger but they never do. I don't agree with the 14" size limit on large mouth bass. One lake I fished years ago you could catch nice bass in the 16 to 20 inch range consistently. Every year after the 14" size limit the fishing got worse, you cannot get a legal bass in this lake any more. It seems that they are all just under 14 inches. If I would eat a bass I would rather eat a smaller bass one in the 12 to 14 inch range that a bigger one.

1st one needs to understand the makeup of the fishery you are on. If the cycle is balanced and the water has good populations of all size fish then there is no reason to keep the small ones. But if it is out of wack and there are abnormal amounts of small fish then there is a problem. Either fishing pressure is eliminating the large fish or there is a natural reason the fish do not attain size. Such as lack of forage, repeated winter kills, or a lack of preditory fish to reduce the population of smaller fish which all compete for the same food.

An example of a few small lakes in my area. These are small bodies, less than 150 acres, they are shallow and have real problems with over vegetation throughout the lake except in many of the sandy bottom areas that are less than a knee deep. The bluegills thrive in these areas and the bass and northern rarely come in there to feed.

The gills then reproduce rampantly, almost to a point of overpopulation to match the forage base. Not enough food and they quit growing. Then from what I've seen those small fish that venture into the weeds are soon eaten though not at a rate that would bring the population back into check.

One of these lakes had an extreme winter kill one year and 2 years later the gills were starting to recover which again only lasted about 2 seasons and the lake was right back to were it was previously. This lake gets very little pressure because of it's long time reputation as only having small fish.

From what I have been reading it's better for the lake if you keep the small ones and release the big ones? Can someone explain this to me? I have always thought that you want to release the small ones so they can grow and only keep big 8 inchers. So i if some one could explain this concept to me I would highly appreciate it (and I could even share some of my best spots for fishing) thanks

So why fillet them? Gut, scale, cut the heads off and fry'm up. If done correctly all the meat just peels off the bones and there is no waste.

I can gut and scale a 7"er faster than I can fillet them and they don't taste any different.

I find it funny that a brother of mine will spend hours picking crab meat from Blue crabs but wont pick fish off the bones. Says it's too much work.

8" is the smallest I'll keep unless a smaller one is hooked to bad. Anything smaller and not much to them after they are fillet.

"I will only keep bluegill over 8 inches... Any thing under that is too small and needs to be released so it can grow... I will occasionally keep 7 inchers but not often..."

I see this as part of the problem. Many smaller lakes these fish will never reach 8". Not because of fishing pressure but just because of the lake structure and makeup. Then they get a rep for producing nothing but small fish and everyone quits fishing them! Next thing one knows is that lake has become overpopulated with small fish which isn't helping the fishery any either.