Finding trophy caliber fish

[Bass Thumb]

Very good thread, Chris!

 

Over the last couple years, I've begun to shy away from keeping any bluegills at all. That'll let 'em grow! Bluegills are such a cool fish, I honestly feel a little guilty pounding them in a bucket. 

 

I'll occasionally keep crappies for the smoker or walleye for the oil, but nothing outrageously large.

[Rick]

A northern will definitely eat the plate shaped fish like gills but their prefered diet is torpedo shaped fish. Pike are designed for straight line attacks and plate shaped fish are designed to turn on a dime. Not ideal for pike like suckers and perch are.

[monstermoose78]

Perch eat lots of baby gills. Fishing the bays of Mille Lacs and fishing for gills and crappies you get some nice perch and they puke up lots of tiny gills. Or when I fillet em you see they are full of little gills. This helps keep the Gill population in check. 

[gimruis]

22 hours ago, smurfy said:

Which is a big reason why the DNR is stocking fewer and fewer walleyes (because they realize walleye fry pretty much become northern food.

 

Yep its just feeding the beast.  Walleye fry buffet for all those little aggressive pike.

 

22 hours ago, DonkeyHodey said:

I think more fisherman should be eating the 18-20 inchers and am glad the DNR is encouraging it--they're fantastic!

 

That's kinda what the new regs on keeping 10 of them is designed to but in my opinion virtually no one is interested in keeping a slimy little pike like that (or 10 for that matter).  I have a couple friends who keep some of these and they pickle them which seems to be about the best method for harvesting/consuming them.  Again, though, most people just aren't interested in doing that.  I also think that winter spearing played a role over the years.  It probably doesn't any more now because virtually no one is doing it, but spearers are ONLY after a goliath pike.  They won't even touch the spear when a 21 incher comes along.

 

I didn't mean to hi-jack this panfish thread and turn it into a pike discussion, I just think the issue with stunted panfish in lakes and stunted pike in lakes have similarities.

[smurfy]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

 

Yep its just feeding the beast.  Walleye fry buffet for all those little aggressive pike.

 

 

That's kinda what the new regs on keeping 10 of them is designed to but in my opinion virtually no one is interested in keeping a slimy little pike like that (or 10 for that matter).  I have a couple friends who keep some of these and they pickle them which seems to be about the best method for harvesting/consuming them.  Again, though, most people just aren't interested in doing that.  I also think that winter spearing played a role over the years.  It probably doesn't any more now because virtually no one is doing it, but spearers are ONLY after a goliath pike.  They won't even touch the spear when a 21 incher comes along.

 

I didn't mean to hi-jack this panfish thread and turn it into a pike discussion, I just think the issue with stunted panfish in lakes and stunted pike in lakes have similarities.

i absolutely disagree with your spearing comments. i bleed spear chucking............ and there are more of us out there then you think. i like pike to eat so i dont spear bigger fish.......8 lbs is about as big as i take. and for every pike i spear..........6-10 get a free pass!!!!!!! and not every 8lber is harvested either.  

 

i agreee however with your perception about the new limit/law on 10 pike. yea i keep them and pickle them..........there also a good fillet to make fish patties!!!!

 

i've read this thread over again 5 times, but with the particular lake i speak of i'm still baffled by the small sunfish in it.........and ALOT of them. when the genetics has been there , why dont we see the big ones anymore????????????

[creepworm]

 

 

Everything that has been said in this thread is said in this video. Pretty interesting.

 

I am trying to find a video I saw several years ago. It did a phenomenal job of explaining why the large Bluegill are important and how a panfish population becomes stunted by becoming sexually mature earlier and at smaller sizes, unless large fish are present to chase them off and keep that from happening.

 

Smufy, no clue what lake you are on or what happened so this would be a complete guess. But, large fish are more susceptible to winterkill. It would be a strange set of circumstances, but possibly the larger fish died off after one of the winterkill events on your lake. The younger smaller fish matured earlier and at a smaller size, and therefore stunted the population some. Strange, but possible.  

[smurfy]

Knowing the lake the way I do, that's very possible.

[DonkeyHodey]

18 hours ago, monstermoose78 said:

Perch eat lots of baby gills. Fishing the bays of Mille Lacs and fishing for gills and crappies you get some nice perch and they puke up lots of tiny gills. Or when I fillet em you see they are full of little gills. This helps keep the Gill population in check. 

Perch/Sunnies have a definite relationship:  A lake with a healthy/robust perch population never suffers from stunted, overcrowded sunfish population (and helps support some of the more desirable game fish population like walleyes and northerns).

The relationship is complex (from what I understand)—perch eat some sunfish, but also outcompete for optimal spawning territory, optimal “hiding” territory and optimal feeding area.  (chase the little sunnies out of the thick cover, and the bass eat them!)

 

I know a general trend among fisherman is that “keeper” perch are rare (except maybe for selective targeting in ice-fishing season on selected lakes) and this is supported by DNR research and net-surveys indicating diminishing numbers of perch pretty much statewide

I think it's puzzling to me how little talk the statewide decline in perch quality has received (compared to sunfish, or northerns…)--it seems like 80% or more of the lake fish surveys on lakefinder describe a scenario of decreased perch numbers and quality and yet there are really no formal recommendations on what to do about it.

 

As we talk about limits/etc…   I wouldn't oppose lowering daily/possession limits for perch AND potentially having a protected harvest season (like walleyes/bass/etc…)

5 hours ago, gimruis said:

in my opinion virtually no one is interested in keeping a slimy little pike

I buy the argument that the problem of hungry/abundant 18 inch norts is a problem that we can eat our way out of.  I personally fillet and eat more norts in that “small slimy” range that I ever used to.  (They are TASTY, but I feel it's like a civic duty given the current state of many central MN lakes...)

I know few anglers do this… They should.  (I saw another forum where fisherman talk about “eating sized” northerns are 27-30 inches…  Eeek.)

[Getanet]

I'm not trying to be a smart alec, but I've been thinking about my ice fishing experience nowadays compared to when I was a kid.  It seems like all the fish used to be bigger. Then I started to think about how much larger a 9 inch crappie would feel in my hand when I was 7-8 compared to today, when I have a lot of grey in my beard. Also, we used to only have a 6" Mora spoon auger, compared to today when I'm often fishing out of a 8" or 10" hole.  That same 9" crappie would look a lot bigger coming up that little hole.  I guess what I'm trying to say is "the good old days" more a figment of my imagination, or have larger fish really gotten hard to come by? 

Edited January 31, 2020 by Getanet

[JBMasterAngler]

The easy answer...it’s both!

[Bucketcastle]

Could it be more difficult to find trophy class fish due to fish surveys being so readily available in the past decade?  Just a thought.  My main feature I am looking for is little pressure.  There are a handful of lakes I will hopefully try this summer which have no boat ramps and I have to walk a mile through the woods to get to which have lake depth.  Feature 2, fish surveys showing a descent predator prey balance.  When I search the lake name and cant find barely anything about it on this forum, theres a descent chance these remote lakes hold some dandies.  When it comes to trophy gills, perch, crappie; I bet you not easy acces to the lake increases your odds IN GENERAL; obviously other factors are in play and already discussed here.

 

Hopefully, my assumptions are right this summer.  And yeah I'm already gameplanning open water.

Edited February 2, 2020 by Bucketcastle