South turtle

[loki]

Fished south turtle near underwood on friday pm, numerous small perch no gills or crappies seen.  Puzzling.

[monstermoose78]

It happens I went to osakis this winter and got one gill all day

[Fishing Frenzy]

Not familiar with Sourh Turtle but to Moose's point Osakis had a ton of very nice sunfish and the Lake had heavy fishing pressure for 3 years and they fished a lot of them out. Takes a few years to get them back.

Edited March 15, 2017 by Fishing Frenzy

[monstermoose78]

I fished south turtle. Some days they don't bite. I normally can do well on crappies and gills but turtle is a good lake. Osakis is too they were there just not biting

[IceHawk]

Frenzy I have to agree with you on your observation of Osakis. In the last two years  Ive noticed the decline of the big gills in there. Unfortunately what hurt was those couple years the bite was on fire and selective harvest wasn't being practiced and unfortunately the effect is being seen. Good thing is there are a lot of small 4-6 inch gills comeing up just may take a couple years to fill the niche again. The crappies on the other hand WOW.

[Fishing Frenzy]

Yep there are still a few nice gills in there but not nearly as many as there once were. I am interested to see how much longer the crappies can handle this fishing pressure. Saw an article in the paper last year that estimated they fished 1 million crappies out of there 2 winters ago. If that's true that's an insane amount even for how many people were out there.

 

 

[IceHawk]

There definitely is a good population of Pies in there and a few year classes that really look good for the future. . Good thing is a lot of the Pies tend to stay in the main lake in the winter and are a lot less pressured, other than two years ago when they found the big schools in town bay. Fished Big O a good amount this winter and noticed the schools weren't as thick but the size was a lot better than years past so this definitely signals to me that the numbers are down some. What I would like to see is some restricitons put on the panfish in this lake, If not I'm afraid in a couple years that the trophy potential of Big Owill be a thing of the past.

[Fishing Frenzy]

Agreed, if they were to put in down to a limit of 10 or 15 less people would go up there but I doubt the DNR will do that. They may have to start doing that statewide. Once word gets out on a hot bite on a lake there is a ton of people out there. I wouldn't be against a lower limit of sunfish because all I need I is 4 or 5 for a meal.

[Tom Sawyer]

A size limit and also closing down prime spawning grounds to fishing until bass opener, or later, would do wonders to protecting the resource. Why anyone needs to eat large male gills is ridiculous. See it in a local lake that has great potential, if these fish were left alone, to spawn, and then to protect the nests of the very genes that make big gills. Go figure.

 

Lower limits usually promotes keeping larger fish.

[Fishing Frenzy]

Agreed. Over 9 inches I throw back don't even taste as good as the smaller ones, but you have those people that keep those big ones and it just ruins the lakes.

[ANYFISH2]

13 minutes ago, Tom Sawyer said:

A size limit and also closing down prime spawning grounds to fishing until bass opener would do wonders to protecting the resource. Why anyone needs to eat large male gills is ridiculous. See it in a local lake that has great potential, if these fish were left alone, to spawn, and then to protect the nests of the very genes that make big gills

Not sure what part of the state you fish most?  In the lakes i fish in central and north central minnesota panfish are rarely even started to spawn by bass opener. 

Agree with your thoughts,  just not the timing.

[monstermoose78]

People think gills and crappies spawn earlier than they do. First they go into the shallows to feed. This when fishing is to easy, but so much fun. It has been 20 some years sense I fished bedded gills. I think I was 16 or so. I was taught the damage I can do during this time. When I see beds I stop fishing for them. I explain to everyone why we need to release them big bull gills. I do believe in having fish mounted, but eat them 7-8 inch gills

[Tom Sawyer]

As I stated, "bass opener, or later", don't understand why my quote in your post Anyfish2 is different. Anyway, how about "protection of spawning grounds". This practice is nothing new for Largemouth, and ironically has been implemented on Lake Osakis. Even if prime Bluegill spawning areas were protected from people who pluck off, large, very skinny males, from protecting their nests, that would benefit most lakes.

[monstermoose78]

Bljuegills also spawn multiple times in a year. We normally only see the earliest spawn because the beds are easy to see, but when the gills spawn in deeper water we don't see the beds