Regulating Gills and Crappie?

I see the size of some of the perch some of the guys keep when shorefishing on LSC. I think a 7" size limit would allow these younger fish to get to keeper size. Alot of people are getting 40-50 five and six inchers every day and keeping them. Many hundreds, probably thousands of fish that should be released to grow up...How much of a fillet can you get off a 5" perch anyway??? And those same people complain about all the small perch in the canals and marinas...I have a self imposed 8" size limit myself...

I believe anymore regulations or closures will result in even less kids becoming interested in fishing.

"Sorry son you will have to throw that bluegill back it is only 7 3/4 inches long"..... "but dad"........

I personally do not see a problem with gill populations in most lakes. Alot of lakes all they have are those little dinks because of overcrowding as it is. Allowing more spawning will only worsen the problem. Crappie may be another story I'm not sure because I don't usually target just crappies. But when I do I more times than not I can catch as many as I want.


Just my $.02

I have a self imposed 8" size limit myself...

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For yourself that may be good but what if you where told now you can only keep perch over 10". Would you continue to target perch? Maybe or maybe not.......

Perch I feel are a whole lot different than bluegill and crappie. Perch are more of a target fish whereas a bluegill I view as a fish that children "have fun" and "learn how to fish" with.

I don't know if size limits will work or even matter. I think the bigger problem is taking them off the spawning beds

This is what Iv'e heard about spawning Blue Gills. The females lay the eggs and then leave after the males have fertilized them. This is generally done by the bigger, more aggressive males.

The smaller males that DID NOT get to fertilize any eggs hang around the outer area of the spawning beds just kinda cruising around. The males that DID fertalize eggs stay with the eggs and protect them untill they hatch.

My thoughts are if you take these big bulls while they are on the beds they won't be able to protect the eggs. So I "target" the the fish NOT on a bed but cruising around it. They spawn in shallow, clear water so you can easily see if a male is on a bed protecting it or not.

Two years ago I watched 4 guys in a pontoon boat pick a couple of beds clean of all the males in about 1 hour. I thought if more people did that, we'd be in trouble.

Also, gills are fairlly easy to catch each time you go out. I don't understand the need to keep a limit every time you fish. Like Niner, I keep enough for a good meal and the rest go back.

I have a bachelors deg. in Biology and in college I took a Ickthyology class. We went out to the dnr ponds in Saline. They were doing research on gill and their genes.

This was interesting. The smaller males that do not build nest and tend to just cruise around, like the ones gillgetter target are what they call "sneakers" they hang around the outsides of the larger bull gills and when the female is on the nest spawning they will just sneak in there for a second and do his buisness on her eggs then retreat or get chased off. The problem with them is that they do not get very large, a 7"er is concidered very large for them and the few eggs that they do fertilize will also grow up to be just another "sneaker".

I asked them if the "jacks" that come up during the salmon run are similar. And they said yes they are very similar, they said every species of fish have these non dominate fish that keep this particular gene going.

So in my opinion, Gillgetter you are probably doing more by targeting those ones more than you think.

I'm not really concerned about the gills but I would like to see something done about the crappie. Maybe just a size restriction of 8 or 9".

The gen pool in LSC is real strong I don't think their fished that munch.
But perch whole different story I'm with conner nothing under (hunry or not) 8 inches, I saw alot of dink takin myself this past hardwater season. 6 and 7's man I think my fingers would get in the way cleaning them.
But I saw alot of breeders pulled and takin home. so a size limit hell no !! more education hell yes !!

A/K/A Ming Ming

IF YOU FEED A FAMILY OF 3 FISH EVERY FRIDAY IT WOULD CHALLENGE YOU TO CATCH 520 FISH TO SUPPLY 52 FOOD SAVER BAGS

i've heard the same thing about keeping too many big Bull gills. Gotta be a little selective. Not sure about adjusting regs, but I don't think its that bad to explain to your kid why he should throw back a 7 3/4'' gill, if you believe that is the righ thing to do. Its about the catching, not the keeping! Size limit on crappie, well I wouldn't cry over that since I'd like to see a lot more bigger ones!

Its about the catching, not the keeping

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I wish you could convince the people down on the Flint River on March 13, 14 and 15th catching 28-30" walleye just plump full on eggs of that. Guys carrying limits of walleyes off the bank. Fishing down there for 4 years now and have never seen anyone release a fish. I do take that back I saw a gentlemem release a 13" eye that was almost the same size as the rapala he was using.

i hear ya winger00. I saw many 13'' and 14'' get shoved down the boots, wadded up in coats etc. I even saw some idiots put about a 12incher on the stringer, then measure it. No one threw anything back. Ok now this is more of a vent than anything else. sorry to rain on a good thread. One more thing, someone go to holloway dam this weekend and tell me how many people are casting jigs,.....what are we supposed to think they are targeting? man i'm all riled up i need to go fishin.

You're right about the casting jigs Scotty. I keep kayaking the same area we saw that mink. Everytime I go there some guys are casting jigs or crank baits. I come up on them slowly and watch what they are doing and make eye contact with them. They are usually pretty nervous and with me wearing a green jacket and playing with my handheld gps. (i'm sure the think i'm dialing my cell phone) they leave pretty quickly.