Culling Bluegills

[icebucketjohn]

Culling gills should be an on-going, continual endeavor.  Gills tend to over populate resulting in a limited food supply per fish yielding an eventual stunted population.  I almost never return small gills to a waterway. I'll take them home for the compost garden.

I used to leave them on the ice for the wildlife: coyotes, herons, foxes, eagles, etc., but that's considered littering by the ODNR these days.

-The old fish management mantra: 1lb of predator species taken for every 10lbs of non-predator species:  Bass vs Gills or Pike vs Gills or Walleye vs Gills.
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Your thoughts?

[slabslayer]

Fish management is vitally important. Taking small gills out and returning the huge fry guarding males that have great genes will ensure the life of a healthy fishery. I just hate seeing a ton of tiny fish littered all over the ice, in the garden is cool!

[muskarp]

Ever thought of just keeping and cleaning some. Seems a bit wasteful even though it sometimes needs done. There's more respectful ways to reach the end goal than tossing fish on the ice or lawn.

Most of the guys I see doing this are retired or close to it. Seems they have plenty of free time to clean some dinks if their armchair biology degree leads them to believe the ecosystem has exceeded carrying capacity.

Just because gills are small does not necessarily mean they are stunted. Unfortunately some seem to think so and all small fish hit the ice.

[slabslayer]

That's true. It is important some young of the year survive. That's all part of of proper fishery management. As is good weed growth. Weeds are vital for a good bluegill lake, that's why Mogadore went downhill after they thinned the weeds!  It's starting to comeback now, though....finally!

[nixmkt]

Have to agree with IBJ on this one.  It's true that it does not necessarily mean gills are stunted just because they are small.  But many of those guys that are retired or close to it have learned quite a bit over the years and their armchair biology degrees can have some merit.  Although not absolute, those with experience can get a fairly reasonable take if the dink catch rate is indicative of a stunted population.  Usually no matter how much culling is done, some young of the year will survive.  But if no culling is done, a stunted population is a typical outcome.  And utilizing the culls in the compost pile is far from being wasteful.  But even those left on the ice will be utilized by something over time.

[wballard77]

Here is a prime example of a bluegill over populated water system. This Crappie was tagged in 2011, so it isnt a young fish. The DNR said that when they tag fish, when they are over 6" and its on a 9" bucket lid. I thought that the large eyes were odd.

[muskarp]

Crappies have a higher tendency to overpopulate. That is why they are not recommended for stocking in most ponds.

[snowcone]

im not an ictiologist ( ? you know fish person )  but doesn't genes have something 2 do with it  after all these years small fish make small fish..?  or is it not like gene management of deer 2 make super deer,,.... has anyone actually tried an experiment to infuse a body of water with gene healthy fish , 2  produce bigger ones.?  or maybe the stocking should be rotated with different fish on inland water .     I love to babble ...any thoughts ?

[slabslayer]

Texas sharelunker program does that for largemouth bass. Theory is bigger fish produce bigger stronger offspring. I think that's part of the reason Nimi and Mogadore are good gill lakes. It's vital to keep females and males under 9". Releasing the bull males (9+"), will ensure a healthy strong fishery. The bull males are the ones that guard the fry, so with gills, releasing big males is vital to future bull gills!!

[muskarp]

Snowcone, That's a valid point and sorta what Slabslayer has been saying from the onset. The goal should not be to remove one entire year class of fish, but to remove some from each year class to maintain an optimal ecosystem and allow all remaining fish to grow to their fullest potential.

[Salmonid]

agree that just because a fish is small, doesn't mean it is stunted, and that's the key to weather or not they should be culled or not, if your in a big lake that's got a lot of nice keeper gills and some medium ones and some small ones, Id NEVER waste any fish as that's a sign of a healthy predator vs Prey lake where things are balanced just right. ( without mans help)

But if the lake has 98 out of a 100 gills under 5" then it probably needs some thinning.


Everyone wants a lake loaded with big gills but if your taking any, don't expect the cycle to last for long because you will have interfered with mother natures plan, LOL

Just like farm ponds, no such thing as a lake full of big bass and big gills, it will be one or the other , usually big gils means stunted bass and a lake with big bass usually means stunted gills   there are always a few years of overlap where a lake will have decent numbers of both  in its lifetime but as all living things, there is evolution and eventually the ponds fish will balance each other out.


It always amazes me how some guys will throw away and leave on the ice 6.5" gills all day long not realizing that next yea those guys will be solid keepers.. Duh....


Salmonid

[trapperjon]

 has anyone actually tried an experiment to infuse a body of water with gene healthy fish , 2  produce bigger ones.?  or maybe the stocking should be rotated with different fish on inland water .     I love to babble ...any thoughts ?
[/quote]  actually there's a hatchery in PA, that took 10lb+ LMB males and females  and isolated them for breeding which over time produced a hybred that grows faster in our climate than a florida strain does down south, the hatchery has a patent on them.  I seen a copy of it in they're catalog, i'll try to find the name cuz i'm sure someone's going to say i'm full of it,     JON

[snowcone]

that's cool you found about the strength breeding , thanx for the come back     I wish I had a large pond im pretty sure I would stock it with some mutated zombie fish   heheheh

[steelneyes]

Another thing to remember is that juvenile fish tend to occupy different parts of the lake than mature fish because their source of prey tend to change throughout their lifetime.  The bigger reservoirs versus a small pond versus Lake Erie will all have parts of the habitat that mostly juvenile fish reside in.  If they have no where to hide they become prey before growing up.  Habitat is just as important as population management as SS mentioned.  Good gill lakes have good weedbeds.  But when forced to leave those weedbeds gills become snacks for larger predators.  There is obviously a turning point somewhere in the size of a body of water since we all know that a "farm pond" has a total biomass of fish it can support with oxygen levels, forage availability etc.  Just like you can't just feed a largemouth in a 55 gal. tank all the food it will eat and expect it to reach 10-15 lbs. 
The same argument occurs every year when it comes to keeping trophy 'eyes out of Lake Erie.  Truth is, you never know when you are keeping a potential trophy fish unless you look at it's genetics.  I don't think you can do signiificant culling on our public water with a few rods and jigs.  In the end, keep what you want to eat, fill your compost pile with dinks, they make great fertilizer, stay within the law and PLEASE don't leave fish out on the ice to rot in the spring.
I personally could care less about all but a few species, but also respect the role that they are playing within the ecosystem they are in.  If it is a lake known for big crappie and gills then it is obviously doing okay without our "help"  I just don't think going over to c-5 for example and culling 25 5" gills is going to do anything in a lake that probably has 1 million individuals present.