Do you love big bluegill?

2017.one of the last B.Gills of the 2017 hard water season

... what it lacked in size made up in sheer beauty in coloration... still havnt made it out on the ice this season!

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Comment by John Sheehan on February 14, 2018 at 6:46am: LOL Wish I did catch it !

Comment by DAVID L EITUTIS on February 13, 2018 at 4:07pm: GREAT SHOT OF A PRETTY GILL JOHN..

Comment by John Sheehan on February 13, 2018 at 7:15am: Dragonfly ,yes a great Trout and Gill food.

Comment by John Sheehan on February 13, 2018 at 7:13am: Ahh, it's a beautiful photo. Gills through the ice I catch often have a paler pink grapefruit color,

Comment by John Sheehan on February 13, 2018 at 7:12am: Ahh, it's a beautiful photo

Comment by Slip Sinker on February 12, 2018 at 4:59pm: … what was notable about this fish was it looked like it was taken off the spawning bed in early summer!

Comment by Slip Sinker on February 12, 2018 at 3:28pm: John I use Picasa 3 on the computer and PhotoShop Express on the Android for touching up photos… the past couple years I’ve been using my LG phone as my main camera… the two programs or apps listed above to retouch photos before publish… both have automatic “touch up” and vibrancy buttons.

Earl and I tag a few fish like this all year long with great colors…. My experience raising tropical fish has shown me many fish will excite with vibrant colors during the spawning act, aggression over territory and periods of fervent fishing activity. Religiously fishing the premium spots and most favorable solunar periods increases the odds of tagging optimally colored fish. Just a theory..

The day we ice fished this lake we caught a few spectacularly colored fish including p.seeds. I clipped a few tails of these specimens while they layed on the ice for a period thinking I will check a few stomachs for food… which I usually do when I clean fish. Most of the time the b.gills end up dark brown banded after just laying on the ice for just a short period. Chameleon-like in that respect.

Many fish had dragonfly and small bugs in the gut during at cleaning.