I generally remove all bluegill from 6-8 inches and put them in the fryer.
"Generally." If its a male and has a particularly well defined shape, it might get a pass. Nothing I do is "set in concrete." Most females are removed. If we catch it on a hook and it is under 6 inches, it gets a pass or ends up as bait for our larger bass, those over 16 inches. We remove those and put in fryer. Our goal is have a large population of smaller bass working on the small bluegills. I use two minnow and one baitfish trap to mechanically remove smaller bluegills as well. At this moment our small bass are too fat, indicating they are not keeping up their end of the bargain, so I've been catching small bass from another pond and putting in ours to help out. Our pond is in good shape now for the bass to easily capture the little stuff. You can sit on the porch and watch small bass blowing up small bluegills all day long now.
I'm raising copper nose bluegill and some red ears, not green sunfish or GS/CBG hybrids. All of those we catch either end up in the fryer or tossed on the bank for our resident coons to dispose of.
If you scroll back up to that 1 pound 5.5 oz female I'm holding.....she got a pass.
I fillet all the eating fish myself.
