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That is what she said...
Ok enough clowning. What size bream/bluegill are keepers? I went out (finally) caught about 10 but most were really small (4-6 in) with 4 what I thought were big enough to cook/eat (7-10in.) Is this about average for keepers? Just getting the pros opinion.
Thanks,
Al
I keep anything bigger than my hand. And since you mentioned inches I measured my hand to be right at 7 1/8 inches.
Honestly, if there's no legal size limit or bag limit, as it is here in Oregon, and there's nothing but dinks around 4-6", I'll just catch a basket full of them and fillet them out. Overpopulation of bluegill can stunt their growth, so "thinning the herd" can be a help in growing bigger fish. I'm not a biologist, but that's what I've gathered by reading here quite a bit.
... but, any of them over 6" can be cleaned pretty easily, and they're good table fare. I don't know as I'd fool with any less than 6" long, but then I'm rarely bringing "any" of them home to clean/eat. (but, I'm not normally catching any over 6" long, either :p )Quote:
Originally Posted by cereal69
.... cp :cool:
6 inches plus for me. After that he's going to Lake Crisco. Under 6 inches and he gets fed to the predators.
Seriously though, half the fun is catching them. If you're looking for a meal, you will know which ones to keep by the feel of them as you heft them onto the boat.
old ship
I don't go by length when deciding, I just look it over and ask myself - "can I get a couple fillets off this fish?" If the answer is yes, it goes in the bucket, if the answer is no, it goes back in the water.
This older lady sitting on the bank said if its got a head and a tail there has to be some meat in between. But for me I want them of a size to fillet most of the time but if it has been a while I will scale and cut each side off.
Last Saturday suppertime I cooked up a dozen crappie fillets and then dropped in the hot fry oil two scaled 7 inch bream, (the family won't tollerate the bones).
Gotta admit that on the plate - I liked the bream better :eek:
For me it pretty much depends on whether or not I'm in the mood to clean a bunch of fish or not. If you get enough of them, then 6" bluegills will serve up a meal. If you're catching them from 7-10 inches, they're all keepers for me.
kinda like crappie to me, i throw the very biggest ones back to improve the gene pool, keep the average (for that body of water) ones to eat.
Thats me,too...depends on what I got to do when I get home.Quote:
Originally Posted by harpenter
I always enjoyed sitting outside with some whole gills,just scaled and gutted,right out of the fryer.Couple cold ones and some fried green tomatoes,newspaper on the picnic table and juice on my chin :):D
I won't keep a bluegill less than 7 inches. That seems to me to be the bare minimum to get any kind of worhwhile amount of meat.
In the winter I will keep and filet a bunch of 6 inchers but they need to be bigger in the summer. If the body of water I"m fishing needs to be thinned out I keep them all and put them somewhere else that needs some , like the rivers. A lot of people won't agree but I have been known to plant some in my garden!
Targeted blue gill and perch Sunday morning on a lake that was hosting a Red Cross Fish Tournament (not part of my plan). I dropped anchor in about 8 feet of water and started filling the bucket with gills while boat after boat trolled past tossing their jig-n-pig or what ever.
Seven inch seems to work for me – I think 8 inch was the biggest of the day. Cleaned and fried up 13 of them for dinner but could only put down 8 and the rest in the frig.
I keep every other bluegill I catch in the 7-10 inch range. Any bigger I let them go. I only keep half to try to thin out the pond I fish in to some extent. I leave all the small ones in because the bass gorge on them regularly.
if they are big enough to get a few bites off them I will keep them if IM fishing for supper. I tend to let the bigger ones go (size of my hand and bigger). It is much better for any body of water to thin the larger population of smaller gills than to only take home the big uns.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bassnbrian
That's pretty much what I do.
if they are the size of my hand in the bucket they go, "lil" lets me know what 1's we are gonna keep most of the time. as a rule of thumb 7 or bigger is ate in my house, but we got tons of them here and i seem to be the only 1 fishing 4 them
6.5"-8" is my keeping size if it is a trophy gill it gets put back to let the big gill genes continue.
Anything from 7in-10in is fair game as a keeper for me!! If a gill is 10 1/8 in, I'll throw it and any larger back to improve the gene pool (as fishdoc stated previously)!!