fishing gills on beds

what are your tactics for fishing gills on beds?

My sincerest apologies chop, my reading comprehension skills must have been off that day...no hard feelings bud. Have a great holiday.

I agree many can not properly ID a male vs female bluegill. It is pretty easy with bluegills, yet I know plenty of experienced anglers who have no clue which is which. And, the population dynamics that big males control is more important than the genetics.

There is no trust that fish will be accurately sexed by the average angler and I don't think the public would even be on board with such a regulation (as many of the sentiments in this and other threads might suggest, the public hates more, and more stringent regs for the most part). Still, its information that other DNR's have made public, like MN which did an article AND show with in-fishermen some years back, that should be offered up at every opportunity by our DNR...frankly I don't think panfish are as high a priority as they should be, considering they are the base of the food chain in most WI lakes.

My point about releasing the males has no bearing on the season...they should always be released. kole, if you think I'm someone who doesn't catch a lot of fish, or is talking out of his backside, you are the comedian here (cause I'm sure I'm not the only one reading that had a good chuckle). And when you put something in quotes and attribute it to an individual, make sure they actually said or wrote those words. As for the biologist call out, I did in fact go to school for fisheries and worked in the field for a decade, my statements about the males and females (and those of a few others like duffin)are not my opinion, its factual information that I give to people because there are still so many that don't understand, but would like to.

Kohl, that big crappie will lay her eggs in a dozen different nests and head back to deep water. The males guard the nest and take care of the young ones. Any knowledgeable fisherperson will agree with Denesox on that one. You take out the big males and the only things left to breed are the immature males. Fortunately, a lot of the bigger bluegills and most crappies spawn in deeper water so there are some that do not get caught every spring.

Den, you could be right to some but I still don't agree. Do you feel the same way about catching pre-spawn Crappies then too? A large female 14" will lay 100,000-300,000 eggs. You keep this fish and you just lost your 1% of fish that would statistically have naturally survived to adulthood which is between 1000-3000 fish. SO... keep her or let her go? "Keep em all it won't matter" quote by Denesox. I Generally feel people suck at fishing, only a select few know what the hell they're doing. Half the time luck is a huge factor for most.

So am I suppose to only bow hunt outside the rut and only turkey hunt in the fall too? I agree with most of you. I see boats lined up outside our cabin daily during the spawn. Most keep everything they catch. They get mad when I come in and out of the dock. Really get mad when the lab decides he wants to swim. I don't do it but will let the kids friends who don't get to fish much reel in a few. There's fishing beds and cleaning out beds imo.

Kole, you couldn't be more wrong. With gills the females are of little importance, and harvest of them isn't nearly as big of a deal as the harvest of big males....in the gill world, its ALL about the bull males...100%.

Fishing em off the beds is probably not the best idea but we've all done it and the lake still seems to have fish-able gills in it, Does it really make much of a difference? The thing you shouldn't do is keep the fat pregnant females. The thing is they don't all spawn shallow the largest gills will be spawning in deep water, deeper water than most people fish so those big boys go untouched and thus contributing to the good genetics of the lake. Entertainment for today, I'm sitting at work and this forum is hilarious.

Pannie, the most important thing they do is to prevent the smaller males from maturing way too early, thus allowing them to grow to max size and preventing stunting.

duffin is right, the big males are the most important part of a good bluegill fishery. they guard the nests the best and supply the lake with best "big fish" genetics. keep those 7.5-8.5 inchers, any gill over 9 of either sex should go back in my opinion.

So many biologists. LOL.

*troll alert*

Sarge if a bass wants a meal he will just go in and get it.I have seen this often, I have had bass grab 8 to 9in bluegills when I was bringing them in with a fly rod.

Same with bass catch and release. What is your point?