Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Sunfish-Including Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass bluegill size

What is size in inches head to tip of tail, makes a bluegill
worth keeping? I realize the bigger the better. Just want a measurement to go by.

Same question for largemouth bass?

Last year I caught largemouth bass that were 12-14" and bluegill that were 5-6" long.

What do you mean by worth keeping?

To go ahead and take the time to clean. If they are too small than I would throw them up on the bank.

If you're just after a meal, then I think it's more of a personal preference. Myself, I consider 8" about my minimum on BG.

Are you trying to manage for bigger BG? That will play a huge role in deciding what fish to keep, including your LMB.

Like all things ponds "that depends". My grandma would scale them, gut them, cut off their heads, roll them in flour and fry them. She'd clean fish down to 5"-6" long. Personlly I'd like them bigger to fillet them. 8" or bigger.

LMB, same goes, depends on how you want to clean them. Scaled, gutted and beheaded, 10" or larger cook just fine. 8" too!

I asked because I don't know the goals for your pond. The smaller ones are bass food. The bigger ones are your spawners.

If your pond is mainly a food source, everything changes.

As the others have said, your pond goals really make a difference. But, with that said, I regularly cull 6-inch bluegill. Because I have a regular feeding program, my 6-inch BG are plump. On Saturday I took out nine 6-7 inch BG and one 11 inch crappie. They get filleted, skinned, and each fillet gets cut into three pieces. So, Saturday's fish provided 60 pieces that will get beer-battered and fried. With just a couple more, we'll have enough for to feed a gathering of eight people this weekend.

I regularly catch 10-11 inch bluegill, but they stay in the pond as breeders.

I keep all female bluegills, and all males under 8".. Honestly I never really started catching small gills until I started feeding?? Now I can pull 100 2,4,6" bluegills out in no time..

That is a good question. I plan to take the knife and scaler with me the next time I go.

I have so many in the 4-6 inch range that need to come out I guess. I think I have LMB in there to eat that size but maybe there are just too many.

Most of them are GSF and they went nuts the other day when I threw the food in. I filled my feeder up before I left.

While fishing there I just used a 10ft rod with a tube jig and the fish just hammered it. Was a hoot trying to maneuver that long rod around the trees.

But back to the gills and keeping them. Mine are starting to get plump again so that makes much difference when keeping them to eat.

So I like I said I plan to clean them while there and just toss them in a cooler with ice to keep them good until I get back to the house then I will rinse and soak them in salt water for a day or 2.

I have kept LMB from 7-10 inches and some of them I could even fillet since they were so thick. So like others have said personal preference on size to keep, and what goals you have makes all the difference.

Thanks

Longcreek,

I am beggining to believe that when it comes to sizing your fish and what you want out of your pond really depends on of course your goals but what is called the PSD (Percentage Size Distribution) which is a math equation for figuring out sizes of fish in your pond and what you want. Do a search for PSD and do some reading on it. It's good stuff.

Here is an example of what I am talking about. Say you have caught 45 bluegill total. 24 of them were 6 inches which is ok in your eyes, and you would like about 50 percent of your BG to be at least 6 inches. Well then take the number of fish caught that were 6 inches or bigger and divide by 45 and then times it by 100.

24 / 45 = .53 .53 x 100 = 53 percent. So in this equation you are in your correct acceptable limits of 50 percent of your fish being 6 inches or bigger, and that a good thing.

I have found this to work quite well if you keep track and have a good day on the pond fishing. This will work better of course the more fish you catch when fishing at one time.

They say an acceptable PSD for BG is 50 to 80 percent at 6 inches.

And an acceptable PSD for LMB 12 inches or longer is 20 to 60 percent. So you would do that same math. If you caught 12 bass 12 inches or longer and a total amount of 20 bass what is your PSD?

12 / 20 = 0.6 .06 x 100 = 60 percent so your in the right range!

Hope that all makes since. And if I got something wrong experts please feel free to chime in and correct me.