there are no big gills left in the metro!!!!!

[iFishMN.YT]

 Originally Posted By: blackdog1101

 Originally Posted By: Bluegill1510

I think the DNR should look at possibly shutting down the panfishing season after ice out such as Mid April to June 1st when muskie opens. This way they can spawn and the bigger gills and crappies are less likely to be caught, when it is the easist time to catch and locate those bigger gills and craps. Just an idea....

A very good idea. Catching fish off of their nests is just plain stupid.

It would definatly help, but wont happen. What would we all fish for in the spring? No way im going carp fishing! Im not going to stop fishing in the spring because the panfish are spawning, I dont fish for numbers, only size, and spring is the best time to find them, and once opener hits, I am done with panfish until winter.

[blackdog1101]

When you take a fish off it's nest for even a few minutes while you're reeling it in, unhooking it, photo'ing it, and releasing it, another fish has come and eaten all the eggs. True. So you've killed that nest for the season, and if it happened to be a large sunny or crappie, those 'large fish' genes are gone for the season too.

Every other game fish, aside from perch, has a closed season. Perhaps it's time we consider treating sunnies, crappies and perch like game fish too.

[bassphish2005]

Lindyrig....believe me I know there is still good panfish size and numbers in area lakes,but with the extra pressure they are recieving nearly year around we need to do more to protect them,I feel they are

-as- important as Bass/Walleye/Muskie......

[gotcatfish]

This was only the 4th time this year I have brought fish home. 90% of my fish go back to fight another day.

I would love to see some regs on panfish in any metro lake. Anyway we get the ball rolling on this, do you think some sort of petetion would help sway the DNR. Anyone know how exactly they go about deciding if they should put regulations in place on a certain body of water? I kow chesterwoods in Rochester has a 7"min on bluegills. It seems to be working great, I don't remember the last time I caught one out there that was under 6"

[MidCoast]

I usually catch at least 1 sunny of at least 8 inches whenever I ice fish on Metro lakes.

[Thunder]

couldn't agree more on the regs for panfish in metro lakes....

[goose89]

Most panfish in MN start spawning late May and throughout June, even into July in more northern lakes. Yes, they are carrying eggs in April, but if you want to protect panfish spawning, you'd actually have to extend it out into June and even July. Not likely. I do like the idea though. I wish there was a way to fix all this with laws,and I know they are necessary, but there's gotta be alot more education & positive info regarding selective harvest.

[CARDFAN]

Yeah, they are out there, but you have to be lucky to find them. Think like the fish? That isn't very good advice. That gets to the location of fish, but how do you think like a big panfish, compared to a little panfish?

Most of the lakes with the bigger sunnies are smaller and hidden to the mass of the public. If you don't already know of these honeyholes, you have to explore where you can try these small lakes and catch nothing for days on end and on the rare occasion, be rewarded. Not many people have the patience for that nowadays.

Lakes like Mtka, you will never catch a 1/2 lber out of anymore. 3 to a lb at the biggest.

[Carp-fisher]

 Originally Posted By: CARDFAN

Most of the lakes with the bigger sunnies are smaller and hidden to the mass of the public. If you don't already know of these honeyholes, you have to explore where you can try these small lakes and catch nothing for days on end and on the rare occasion, be rewarded. Not many people have the patience for that nowadays.

And thats what I love about the Metro. Lets face it: we live in a metropolitan area with over 3.5 million people. The most accessible lakes are going to get hammered. Yet unlike most large metros, we have countless "hidden" lakes that get virtually no pressure. I took my father in law out last week for his first ice fishing experience and he pulled up a hybrid sunfish that was pushing a pound! Right here buried in the suburbs! The largest crappies (14" range) I've caught in the last 3 years have come from a couple of bodies of water within 15 minutes of my house in Chanhassen. We have excellent fisheries here--the thing is you have to find them.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

I think it would be great to have a few lakes in metro set up for trophy panfish. Decreased limits, slots, possibly designated spawning areas where fishing is prohibited in the spring.

I do my best to get the word out about selective harvest without trying to be too preachy. When I take people fishing I make sure they know we wont keep certain size panfish and I explain to them why. I changed my dad's and several others point of view on panfish as strictly table fare and now I even hear them explaining the importance of C&R to others.

[GoggleEye]

Well said turnupthefishing. I try to convince others of the importance of catch and release fishing as often as I can too, without trying to come off as too pushy and self-righteous. Some people are never going to buy into it and you will never change them of their selfish ways, but you can at least try.

People do have the legal right to keep their limit, I just wish the limits were lower and that there was more slots and trophy fisheries regs in place on some of the lakes. I do keep a limit of fish now and again, but most of the time I return most of my fish and I am just looking to have fun catching some nice ones. I wish selective harvest would catch on faster!!

GE

[anyfishaldo]

You guys are missing a bunch... Take the highway 101 exit in rogers, east on the frontage road. There is a whole bunch in the Cabelas. Saw em yesterday when I stopped in to the bargain basement and picked up a Aquaview Scout II. Man is it nice. Now all I need is permission from Cabelas to fish that tank!!!!

[Matt Johnson]

 Originally Posted By: anyfishaldo

You guys are missing a bunch... Take the highway 101 exit in rogers, east on the frontage road. There is a whole bunch in the Cabelas. Saw em yesterday when I stopped in to the bargain basement and picked up a Aquaview Scout II. Man is it nice. Now all I need is permission from Cabelas to fish that tank!!!!

Yes indeed! There are some brutes in that tank! I stopped in there on Sunday and they have quite the display of big gills!

[Will]

i don't know about the rest of you out there, but i have never seen gills like that in a lake! i think the cabela's tank says alot for an abundance of food, lack of predators and no fishing pressure! the earflaps on some of those are the size of half a thumb. the tank probably magnifies a little, but how big are some of those pigs?

[GoggleEye]

Most of those gills in the cabelas tank are obviously unrealistic to catch in a minnesota lake. Some of those gills are pushing a couple pounds, maybe even over that. I am sure most of them are hybrid varieties and are fed very well. I wonder how old some of them are too?? I bet you could get into some bigger gills and crappies down south due to their longer growing season and milder climate. I am going crappie fishing on Table Rock Lake in late April down in Missouri, I can't wait. Those fish down there make the metro panfish look like bait!!

GE

[ATM]

Goggleeye, I have a 17" white crappie on my wall from table rock, it his a 8" worm while i was bass fishing. That lake is a blast to fish. As far as the panfish in the metro the bigger ones are there. I fish minnetonka in the summer and sometimes we will be in 35ft of water fishing sunfish for the bigger ones sometimes you just have to think outside the box. Adam

[GoggleEye]

A 17" incher is what I am looking for at Table Rock. I am looking to beat my personal best of 16, which was actually caught up here in the midwest on the Wisconsin River. I am going down at the perfect time, so all I have to do is find em and they should be on the binge.....hopefully. I know you say that there are some big panfish in the metro, but cripes it sure takes a lot of wasted time to look for them, and then you usually only find a couple or a few. I would rather go to lakes where I know there are a large amount of nice panfish and not waste days looking for them. Especially when I only have so much time to fish.....I need to find a job where I get laid off during the winter!!!

[andrew chadwick]

 Originally Posted By: GoggleEye

Most of those gills in the cabelas tank are obviously unrealistic to catch in a minnesota lake. Some of those gills are pushing a couple pounds, maybe even over that. I am sure most of them are hybrid varieties and

GE

Actualy many, if not most of those fish were caught by store emloyees, in minnesota waters. I know almost all the walleye and bass were caught by us.

They get fed a few times a week, a diet of crappie minnows. ITs quite fun to watch them feed, they are like a school of piranahs.

[GoggleEye]

 Originally Posted By: chadwick

 Originally Posted By: GoggleEye

Most of those gills in the cabelas tank are obviously unrealistic to catch in a minnesota lake. Some of those gills are pushing a couple pounds, maybe even over that. I am sure most of them are hybrid varieties and

GE

Actualy many, if not most of those fish were caught by store emloyees, in minnesota waters. I know almost all the walleye and bass were caught by us.

They get fed a few times a week, a diet of crappie minnows. ITs quite fun to watch them feed, they are like a school of piranahs.

Wow!!!! I would like to know how old some of those gills and crappies are then!!! If there was gills and crappies that size in a minnesota lake, then I would drive any distance to go fish that lake. I can't imagine pulling up a bluegill like some of those sows in that tank. Some of those have to be over two pounds.

[blackdog1101]

The part we don't know is how much have those fish grown while in Cabelas' tank? There is no winter stress, a year-round growing season, steady food, no predators, and don't expend many calories since they can't swim very far. All they have to do is grow.

[Powerstroke]

I have a pic of a 9" sunnie caught this year and one of a 16 3/4" Black Crappie from a lake near Aitkin. They do exist, but I will say that neither of the 2 lakes these fish were caught from is bigger than 100 acres.

[EYESTALKER]

I think Cabela's should harvest, say 10% a year...and have one heck of a pannie shore lunch for it's employees !!

[andrew chadwick]

it would take every fish from every tank to come even close to feeding all the employees there. Any ways I think the fish get enough stress from kids tapping on the glass. (Images of finding nemo)

[TurnUpTheFishing]

 Originally Posted By: Powerstroke

I have a pic of a 9" sunnie caught this year and one of a 16 3/4" Black Crappie from a lake near Aitkin. They do exist, but I will say that neither of the 2 lakes these fish were caught from is bigger than 100 acres.

Nobody would doubt that but Aitkin is hardly considered the metro.

Did anyone see that panfish tank at cabelas when they opened? It probably had 4 times as many fish and they all appeared to be less than 7". My cousin and I joked it looked like a metro lake.

[Powerstroke]

I realize that Aitkin is not in the metro, but the recent comments were that its difficult to catch those large fish in the northern states because of the shorter seasons and cooler waters.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

ahhh got ya...

Fish of that size are definatley hard to catch and trophy anywhere but they are out there if your willing to work for it.

[MnSportsman]

Reducing daily/creel limits is probably not the answer, since if you were to do that some areas/watersheds in the state would suffer.Slots, if anything, should be the option. An example is, Lake Marion/Lakeville,Mn.. There are Millions of sunnies/gills that are about 3-4" long & hardly anyone keeps them.(although it is a great place to take a kid to catch & release), Maybe a lake with that type of population, should have "liberlized" fishing for that species, for a couple of years, but with a slot of some kind of maximum lenght cannot be taken (I.E.- nothing over 7" can be kept). This would be just one way to help.

Or, in another example, is Kelly/Dudley lakes in the Shieldville area. They have a minimum length on N.Pike. This has increased the general size of the sunnies/gills from that 3-4" range,in to the 5-7+ range, in a few years. So, there's another way to help the system by increasing the predators, rather than decreasing the prey in the use of max./min."Slots".

The size of a "keeper" in the Northern third of Minn. usually isn't the same in the Southern third. So, If an angler fishes a lake that has crappies that average 6-10" , a "keeper" probably isn't the same as if that angler was fishing a lake that had an ave. size of 8-12", etc...

So , for a "meat" angler, the limit method, reduces/increases the "take",depending on where that angler fishes. When fishing the lakes with smaller sizes, the angler generally will keep the larger, hurting the big breeders population. (Mazaska & Shields are examples. IMO )Where that same angler probably would be just as happy with the limit on a lake with larger fish, & not just take a limit, just enought to eat, regardless of size.{Of course there are greedy ones who'll make what I just said, "BullPatties". }

Thus, Slots/Max./min. lengths are more likely to help solve size issues, than limit changes.

Note:I think that in most cases,other than their effort to catch larger fish, C & R anglers are irrelevant in any Limit/slot debate, since they don't keep any fish regardless. Thus not having much of an effect on fish population increases or decreases.

I've rambled on about this subject, probably. It's hard to type what I'd rather "say".

Of course, like the rest of you, this is "MY" opinion. But, I think reducing the limit isn't always the best solution.

[MnSportsman]

After reading my post above, please understand, if it was confusing, that I'm not saying either Meat" or C&R anglers are bad/wrong. I do both, dependant on the situation. I just need to try & point out my view with out leaving either side out.

I'm sure you can understand.

Thanks

[GoggleEye]

Ya, there are a huge amount of variables and conditions that play into the mix......size of lake, forage in lake, fishing pressure, number of predators etc. For the most port though, I feel that slots do the best job at providing a good amount of trophy fish and good amounts of eaters.

GE

[Carp-fisher]

It would be interesting to see what would happen if the DNR imposed a 5 bluegill limit and an 11" minimum length on crappies in Lake Minnetonka.