Bluegill - Big Bluegill

Do you love big bluegill?

... a record for the smallest bluegill caught on a hook. Snagged this little guy yesterday:

MINI GILL

Hook - size 16

Bait - small bit of redworm

18"  below slip float.

Some people are starting to be interested in microfishing, i.e., catching the SMALLEST fish possible. This one may qualify for some microfishing record!

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Dave

 

That's what's I'm talking about . I'm guessing 2 inches . Maybe we need to start our own leader board.

 

Bet it was fun

 

 

 

@joe... Well it bears sitting at home! I prefer to catch monster gills, but I enjoy any challenge. This little guy was a creeper... I didnt know he was on until I was reeling in. I had gone to the smaller hook because I was being robbed with the larger one I had started out with. The smaller hook let me catch and see what I was up against.

That lunker must go close to 3 inches! ;-)  I caught one even smaller than that in South Dakota years ago (Sheridan Lake, Black Hills National Park). There were tiny bluegill holding beneath some floating weed just a couple feet beneath the bank. They seemed to snatch at anything that went past them, so I dangled a tiny gold-plated hook (a salmon egg hook, IIRC, but this is a memory over 30 years old, so...) and after jigging it a bit, I caught one on a bare hook. Probably about 2" long :-)

Years ago I would have taken this little peeler home and put it in an aquarium. Back in the day, I had a couple of large fish tanks going, mostly holding native bluegill. They would eat almost anything, from cat food to insects taken from the yard. When they got big, I'd release them and add new ones.

We had a 'smallest bluegill' catagory at the Piney Run Panfish Derby, where I used to work. All-time record small for the event was 1 3/16 inches.

Now that's a dink!

I could'a been a contender, Jim!

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