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Comment by jim cosgrove on February 5, 2013 at 8:59pm

robbie,thanks for sharing,i have friends who were guides and i know it is hard work and a lot of pressure at times ,but what a great way to live if you can .i got the pleasure of fishing a lake in canada 20 years ago with a former guide and friend.it was exclusive only because it was almost inaccessable .it is still the best fishing i have or will ever experience,the lake still has no name but i am not lying when i say i caught hundreds of smallmouths btween 4=6 pounds,my thumb was bleeding from lipping them.my friend spent 11 summers guiding up there and very few people ever fished this lake.it was his skill and knowledge that put me on these fish.

Comment by Tony Livingston on February 5, 2013 at 8:55pm

No worries Bruce.

 

Comment by Bruce Condello on February 5, 2013 at 8:50pm

I think I need to take a chill pill.  LOL  I'm ending my rant now.  I wish I didn't have to work tomorrow so I could just drink a couple of beers and sit on my dock. :-)

Why do I turn into a loony in February?

Comment by jim cosgrove on February 5, 2013 at 8:39pm

after reading all of this i will say this,the reason big gills are hard to find is because of the fisherman.they assume that gills are plentiful which they are.but big males on beds are not in most places. i have seen it my whole life,baskets and buckets full of big males,caught off the beds.what is 1 person gonna do with 200 fish?and from small bow.the same guys will complain about the poor fishing next year.i got a few local spots left and they are top secret and they all get released.maybe those few 9 10 inchers that are left can repopulate these places

Comment by Bruce Condello on February 5, 2013 at 8:31pm

Let's make a few points really clear...

I've spent over 100 hours on Richmond Mill, and although it is a world class, premier fishery, it's by no means easy to fish.  For the last few years, hardly a bluegill-sized pellet has been broadcast on this lake, and the fish have fended well on their own on the many natural food items that are available on a productive lake like this.  Nobody has spent a larger portion of their time here going after bluegill than I have, and I can attest without any hesitation whatsoever that it is a challenge to catch these fish.  Often they will only bite on two pound test, and usually only in the middle of dense submerged timber.  Easy?  Not on your life.

Robbie is regarded as the ultimate bluegill master on this lake, but he has also caught world-class bluegill on other lakes in North Carolina as well.  Since Robbie is a GUEST here, who has privileged us with many photos of gorgeous bluegill, he should be treated with respect, and shouldn't be accused of doing something easy or unworthy.  He is an earnest, highly regarded guide who makes a living pounding the water for many clients, who are often unappreciative, rude and disrespectful.  If he goes out of his way to target these monster bluegill, then be nice enough to post some photos, we should welcome his input.

 

Many fishing related forums degenerate into arguments, stone-throwing, and just general bad manners.  We are not that way here.  That's why this forum survives and thrives.  I don't make a penny in advertising, and all I ask is that the rules are followed.  Show respect for what others do, and if you want to say something negative, say it to yourself.

I once owned a two acre pond that had 500 bluegill in it.  They were all males, and I fed the living daylights out of them.  You will never in your life go to a place that's harder to catch fish.  I once spent 20 hours in a weekend to get two bites, and one fish. I won't make any apologies for the fact the pond was "managed".  It was as intensively managed as you can possibly imagine.  But it wasn't easy fishing.

I would like to pose one question for anybody who has read this far....

If you went out of your own state to fish for muskellunge, and you went to a body of water that had a size restriction where your could only keep fish that were 50 inches or longer, and you caught a 50 pound fish...would you be any less proud of the accomplishment?  Try to recognize what sort of management and human intervention that actually entails.  The fish were stocked by humans, protected from harvest by humans, and the forage managed by humans.  Is that any different in the way of management than throwing some pellets in the water?  Then "what if" you posted the picture of your incredible catch on a forum, and people slammed you, would that not be just a little disheartening?

 

Comment by jim cosgrove on February 5, 2013 at 8:19pm

great fish,only ever saw one like that,it was in a freezer and caught thru the ice from a private strip mine.when i was a kid i would have rode my bike 3o miles just to sneak into a place like this.i have done a lot of foolish,i didn't think so at the time,things to catch a fish .even appearing before a judge once.believe me i have the barb wire scars to prove it.where you caught it or how it came to be has nothing to do with the fact .this is like taking your pic with a famous person.no pic no one is gonna believe it.i belong to a club that i pay to belong to.i love it,i know they are in there.and the kids in that town get to fish for free.i get a few hybrids over a pound every year.do i care they were raised on fish food in a pond in mo.heck no they are a blast to catch in a beautiful place

Comment by Tony Livingston on February 5, 2013 at 7:45pm

I'm hearing you Troy, and this is not meant to be confrontational in any way, shape, or form......but "managed" doesn't equate to "easy", or cheating.  I've got a thread or two on here where I state my belief that the number one thing an angler can do to increase their chances of catching large BG is to make sure they're fishing water that contains large BG.....that doesn't guarantee success by any means, as it still requires skill and ability to locate, then catch, the fish.

The example you state of the fishing trip you took to Merrit's Mill seems a good illustration of this to me. You could see the fish, so you knew you were on good water, and that numbers of large specimens were present, yet you were unable to catch them and were frustrated by this. I consider RM to be much the same way, as I know that large specimens are there, (even though I may not be able to see them like you guys did down south), but it's still going to take skill and ability to find, and hopefully catch them.

You're heading to Barkley to hunt for Redear, when I'm sure there are closer waters that contain these fish, so I'm assuming that means you want to optimize your chances of landing a big fish...and I agree with that strategy. That's the same reason I want to fish RM: I know big BG are there.

But just like you and those Kentucky Redear, finding them, and getting one in the boat is still going to take skill, patience, and perserverance. That's what makes Robbie's accomplishment significant in my book, and the reason I would love to have him as my guide someday. Because he's put the time in to be able to pattern these fish, irregardless of HOW they got so large.

 

 

Comment by Troy Dorman on February 5, 2013 at 5:52pm

Different strokes for different folks, it's really that simple. My family and I went to Merrit's Mill Pond in it's heyday, the mid 1980's which happened to be around the time it produced the world record Shellcracker. There was five or six of us that went up for a day of fishing as we were vacationing in Panama City which is fairly close by. We rented a couple of boats and with tubs of redworms we started our journey into what was foreign turf for this group of guys from Southern Indiana. We had no idea how to catch these fish swimming below the boat in crystal clear water, yet we could tell they were big fish and I mean HUGE fish...12-14inch class Redear. It was a frustrating day for our boat, we got skunked...

 

Meanwhile my uncle and great uncle caught two monsters, one weighed 1 3/4 and the other was pushing 3lbs. I begged my uncle Henry to mount the 3lber, it truly was a magnificent fish in every regard and it was a big ole dark green/olive colored male to boot. I'll never forget my uncle's comment when he said "no, I'm not mounting this fish Troy because they're common down here." That put a sinking feeling in my stomach and I guess it's possibly why I view places such as Richmond Mill as a novelty, and I'm not trying to detract from the greatness of the fishery because it's amazing on many levels. Now it should be said right now that my uncle caught those two hogs from a place that absolutely was not managed for monster shellcracker, so in my opinion, he absolutely should've mounted that monster cracker. That one word, "Managed", is a big, big term in this whole discussion, to lose sight of that would be absurd and this conversation wouldn't even be worthy if we can't establish how critical that one word really is in this debate.

 

Like I said, I have ZERO problems with anyone who ponies up the money and goes but it should be easy to understand the other side of the coin with this whole deal.

 

 

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on February 5, 2013 at 5:48pm

Through it all Robbie, this is a fantastic specimen and I urge you to continue posting your catch........I for one lost an hour of sleep on the evening of 2/2/2013 admiring these pictures.......Big bluegill are addictive and shots like this motivate me to hit the water and do what I do best.....wet a line!  Go get that lake record for yourself or an excited client, my belief is either will make you proud! 

Comment by carl hendrix on February 5, 2013 at 5:42pm

if i had that one; it would be one the wall!!!

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