Do you love big bluegill?

matched pair of 10's.

I managed 22 Bluegills today. It was 19 degrees this morning, and the gills' moved back to deeper water. By mid-afternoon it hit 60 degrees with sunny skies, and they moved shallow again to forage.
These were the biggest of the bunch, a matched set of 10" fish, male on top, female on bottom. Water temps still at 45 degrees.

Rating:

Currently 5/5 stars.
1
2
3
4
5

View Full Size

Tags:

Comment

You need to be a member of Bluegill - Big Bluegill to add comments!

Join Bluegill - Big Bluegill

Comment by Leo Nguyen on March 3, 2012 at 3:54pm: Just plain awesome! Definitely March Madness on your end.

Comment by John Sheehan on February 27, 2012 at 7:41am: Great Gills !Beautiful pond!

Comment by Steve Crowder on February 26, 2012 at 8:45pm: Nice fish Tony. What was the depth you caught those fish?

Comment by Walt Foreman on February 26, 2012 at 6:36pm: I would think you're correct in surmising that the mussels are helping the shellcracker - that's just about a 100% bet.

Comment by Tony Livingston on February 26, 2012 at 6:24pm: David, all of my BBG brothers and sisters are welcome to wet a line.

Comment by Tony Livingston on February 26, 2012 at 6:18pm: I believe some ponds are just naturally fertile, and produce good fish. I've seen two 8lb largemouths come out of this lake, but it was 20 years ago or more. I am trying for a photo op with one of the large Redears that reside in it also. They are tremendous. I hope it's from foraging on the freshwater mussels that are present in great numbers.

Comment by DAVID L EITUTIS on February 26, 2012 at 6:02pm: TONY GGGGGGGGGREAT LOOKING GILLS !!!!!! THIS TIME OF YEAR IS AN ABSOLUTE MIRACLE FOR FISH LIKE THAT! DId you say in your message below that these ponds are not harvested enough? NOW YOU ARE GONNA GET LOTS OF FOLKS like me and OLD AL to want to come over and dip a few TOOTY BUGS!
YA KNOW OLD AL THE WOODMAN AND I HAVE a combined retirement of over 34 years between us now and can travel with little fishing gear , no sleep , no food , and be on the road in 1 hour or so!!!!!!

Just teaseing but would love to try em once!
TOOTY

Comment by Jim Gronaw on February 26, 2012 at 5:55pm: Wow! What a problem to have...a pond with a bunch of big fish in it and no time to fish it!

Just as a side note, none of the ponds I fish in my local area are managed at all, but many have the 10 plus inch gills in them. The most phenomenal trip my son Matt and I ever had on gills locally was a pond where we caught 22 bluegills in one outing that measured from 10 to 11 inches! Unbelievable! We harvested six fish, all of which were bluegills...no hybrids...in the catch total.

That pond has since then been overharvested by the locals and the giants no longer roam. Shame.

Comment by Tony Livingston on February 26, 2012 at 5:51pm: I've spoken before of my love affair with the Bluegills at this place when it was still an operating campground, how they were always bigger here than everywhere else I fished. This pond, the "big" lake as we call it, was the reason for that. In the future, I hope to get the other ponds to equal this one, and we're gaining on it. But like you say Walt, the big lake has done nothing, and had nothing done to it, for 40 years. And it still cranks out fish like this.

Comment by Walt Foreman on February 26, 2012 at 5:37pm: That is simply phenomenal potential for a pond that is not being fed. I'm guessing it's rare to find a pond in your area putting out two 10" gills in one day without any sort of management? It's not even common where I live.