releasing fish

[cal okeefe]

so as some of you know i have several lakes and ponds to fish.. bluegill range from 2in to 8 in.. but most are smaller.. we usually allways throw the smaller bluegill on the shore...  do you have any suggestions on what size i should put back in..

 

for instance should i put back 3 inch fish and bigger

what size should i put back in to help get my bluegill bigger???????

[Tony Livingston]

Release the biggest size class of bluegills that you regularly catch, especially the males.

For instance, let's say a typical outing produces 25 Bluegills. Of those 25, 4 are 7", 1 is 8", you've got 6 that will go 6", and the rest are a mix of smaller fish.

If this were my pond, all the fish below 6" would probably be culled, unless their physical disposition was above average. (higher relative weight than normal). The goal is to reduce the BG population, so that the available food supply won't have as many mouths to feed. That's why it is critical that you start a feeding program in the spring. No other management technique will provide as much "bang" for your buck, and it will show the quickest results.

In all honesty, I would say you could probably cull any and all BG you wanted below the 8 inch mark, and the ponds wouldn't suffer for it. It's hard for a single angler armed only with a fishing rod to have a huge impact on a BOW filled with stunted BG. Still, find the largest size class commonly caught, and cull below that.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

I like Tony's idea, i.e., have a mindset towards improvement. When I catch fish in public waters, this is what I do. I generally toss back the biggest and best fish I catch, and keep the others. My son complains about it, and I admit it IS counter-intuitive.

It's our nature to want the biggest and best of everything - we equate it with success. Its culturally wired into our brains. But the best fish to breed with are the best fish... the very ones we want to brag on, turn into fillets or make into mounts!

In the old days farmers were admonished to save their best specimens, both crop and animal, to provide next years seed and offspring. Eat the rest, but save the best. Looked at another way, they lived off the culls. This is what they mean when they talk about selective breeding.

With this in mind, the best and healthiest fish, i.e., biggest and strongest, should be encouraged to breed on for future generations. All others should make way for them, and not the other way around.

Great question and thanks for the detailed numbers, Tony!

[Walt Foreman]

I agree 1000% with Tony's assertion that establishing a feeding program is the key - bluegill grow fast on high-protein food even when they're overpopulated.  Speaking of the food, I don't know if we mentioned previously, but the quality food you use makes a tremendous difference in the growth rate of the fish.  Don't use catfish chow, which is mostly grain protein, and typically 10-15% lower protein content beyond that - your bluegill will grow much slower on it than a high-protein, fish-meal based food.  I feed Silver Cup, but Cargill, Aquamax, and Zeigler also make good high-protein foods.  You want a food that's at least 41% protein, preferably higher, and in which the first ingredient is fish meal.

 

Studies done by fisheries biologists in Illinois and other states in the last ten years have revealed that even good-sized lakes can have the majority of their catchable-size bluegill caught out in just a matter of weeks.  So it would be very possible in a smaller pond, if you always kept all the bluegill under 8" for instance, to be taking out even fast-growing fish that are on track to get big, before they have a chance to do so.  This is less likely to happen if you get a feeding program established, because the fish will grow exponentially faster, and thus reach 7" or better years sooner than they would without the food.  I might release any 'gills over 7" the first year, then after that bump the culling size up to 8". 

 

Also key is getting more predators stocked BEFORE you start removing small 'gills.  Bluegill, though they compete with each other for food, also prey on each other; so when you remove a bunch of small to intermediate 'gills, it creates a predator vacuum that allows a big hatch of YOY bluegill so that suddenly you can have a bunch of fish smaller than the ones you've been culling, if you don't have enough predators in the pond to munch down the YOY as soon as they appear.  I saw this happen just a couple years ago in a half-acre pond I manage, and since then read an article to this same effect (don't remember where).

[Leo Nguyen]

Tony is dead on when you fish in a small water body. I normally release anything less than 6" so the basses and catfishes will have plenty meals on wheels. I keep anything between 6.5" to 8.5". 9" and above, I see less and less of them. So, release time. Hope they grow well. Will keep large females however after they release their loads. Thanks to the gurus here providing insights, I will help to make our waters more panfish balance.