Biggest gill I've seen caught with my own eyes. There's bigger in there too! This is a huge guy so his huge hands take away from the fish....I have another pic but it's too large to upload evidently.
That's quite a catch. 12 inch bluegills are extremely rare anywhere you catch them. Been doing fish taxidermy for 30 years now and I've only seen one. (Measured on a board vs. just a tape measure over the top that makes them longer).
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 05/01/1410:56 AM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
It is a nice BG. It is a male fish. I'm not saying that you are wrong about that BG being 12" long, BUT if you do a proportional measurement of the angler's ring finger, the calculation says the fish is 9 3/8" to 9.5" long. I am tall 6.3" and my ring finger is 3.25" long. Measure the length of your ring finger as an example. If I give the picture and you the benefit of doubt and say the ring finger is a lengthy 3.5" a direct proportional calculation of finger length and fish length the fish is 9.4"long. In other words: The angler's ring finger goes into the length of the fish 2.7times. 3.5"x2.7 = 9.4". Your fish looks like and has features of a standard BG that is about 10" long. See next.
When one is very familiar with BG 10.5"-11" and larger,,,, the body shape of the BG in the picture above is not normal for a big male BG 11"-12" long. Big BG aka "bulls" develop a hump of muscle on the forehead and less recognized a smaller hump sometimes behind the dorsal fin as noted by the current issue of In-Fisherman magazine June2014, pg12. Look at the big bluegill pictures on Bigbluegill.com and here. You will easily notice the hump on the forehead. Your fish does not possess the characteristic shape of a "bull" male bluegill. Your fish is a male.
Here on this pond forum we have numerous experts of large fish species. When someone posts a picture of a trophy class fish of record quality, we like to see a picture of the fish lying beside a ruler to verify the true length especially when the fish does not have the correct body features for one that size of a particular species. We have numerous members here who grow and catch trophy size fish. We know what our big fish look like pretty well.
Hopefully for reference a member will provide a picture of a big "bull" male BG to show us what I am talking about. It would be even better if a ruler was included in the picture.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 05/01/1411:37 AM.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine - America's Journal of Pond Management
I would say your fish is comparible to this one maybe little smaller not trying to knock your fish it's an awesome BG and I'd love to have it in my pond.. 12" is just something that is instantly noticable.. here is not a perfect measure like bill mentioned but a reference
Last edited by Bluegillerkiller; 05/01/1412:12 PM.
I believe in catch and release. I catch then release to the grease..
This has nothing to do with the nice bluegill in the first photo but I thought I would share this:
A while back on an ice fishing website we had a guy that was trying to pull one over on everyone. That is, he claimed to have a photo of an 18 inch yellow perch which was laying on a checkerboard table cloth, complete with a tape measure underneath it.
Only problem was one could clearly see what the length of each square of the tablecloth was, as the tape measure was laying right there. The squares were 3 inches if I remember right, but using the squares one would only come up with about a 14 inch fish! Obviously the guy had cut the tape measure, removed excess tape, and hid the cut under the fish. It didn't take long for people to cry fowl! The poster might have pulled it off it he hadn't use the checkerboard tablecloth!
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 05/01/1412:23 PM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
Guys I'm skeptical of photo interpretations BOTH ways as I've seen them make fish look bigger AND smaller. I know Bill has used an object to get a reference but I still find photos very unreliable even that way. The distance from the lens makes all the difference.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
I'd consider that common sense Cecil.. definately a straight line is shorter than a curved one from point A-B..
Photos can be very very deceiving..
Also take my comments with a grain of salt km not worried about my fishes weight or length until it's somwthing I've never seen before then you better believe I'm measuring by the book and having it well documented.. I catch many 10 inch fish a year some close to 11 very very seldom 11 never a 12
Last edited by Bluegillerkiller; 05/01/1412:51 PM.
I believe in catch and release. I catch then release to the grease..
Here’s a few shots of our CNBG - I would not call them “bulls” but good characteristics. Lost many good CNBG in record 2011 drought when 2 acre pond shrunk to ~1 acre. I don’t believe length of CNBG is representative of “size’ - when our’s hit 10 -11 inches they get broader and wider. I have had a couple pushing 1.5 lbs on a boga scale.
All fish photos I post on the forum have back-up ruler documentation, but a couple of nice ones got past me - here are a few of mine. Goin’ to ponds tomorrow if possible, so maybe get some good bulls”…
N.E. Texas 2 acre and 1/4 acre ponds Original george #173 (22 June 2002)
I was looking for a couple pictures of the Richmond Lake big BG to show the hump on the forehead. Can someone help me find those pictures?.? Then I will put this thread in the Archives of Growing Big Bluegill so we have some documented pictures of body features of Big BG 11"+.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 05/01/1403:13 PM.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine - America's Journal of Pond Management
I was looking for a couple pictures of the Richmond Lake big BG to show the hump on the forehead. Can someone help me find those pictures?.? Then I will put this thread in the Archives of Growing Big Bluegill so we have some documented pictures of body features of Big BG 11"+.
I was looking for a couple pictures of the Richmond Lake big BG to show the hump on the forehead. Can someone help me find those pictures?.? Then I will put this thread in the Archives of Growing Big Bluegill so we have some documented pictures of body features of Big BG 11"+.
Big BG aka "bulls" develop a hump of muscle on the forehead and less recognized a smaller hump sometimes behind the dorsal fin as noted by the current issue of In-Fisherman magazine June2014, pg12.
Shout out time! The guy on pg. 12 holding that bull bluegill is none other than Alex Gonzales, aka Holdemplyer here on PondBoss. That photo was taken this past January during an amazing weekend of ice fishing, at the equally amazing Herman Bros facilities in Norris.
Way to go Alex and Herman Bros!
"Forget pounds and ounces, I'm figuring displacement!"
If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1) And we surmise that: BG(>)HBG(F1) while GSF(<)HBG(F1) Would it hold true that: HBG(F1)(+)AM500(x)q.d.(=)1.5lbGRWT? PB answer: It depends.
Yeah the weekend I went up to pick up some stuff from N8 he was out fishing with Doug Stange wasn't ice fishing though.. Next time I need to plan that better so I can meet Stange and stare like a 12 year old girl at a Justin Bieber concert..
I believe in catch and release. I catch then release to the grease..