Ice Fishing => General Discussion => Topic started by: slabslayer on January 05, 2014, 11:14:34 AM
Title: My bull bluegill
Post by: slabslayer on January 05, 2014, 11:14:34 AM
After several years of debating, couldn't decide wether or not to mount my bull bluegill. It was 12 1/8" long and weighed 2 pounds, 2 ounces. It came from Nimi on a weighted black ant tipped with a spike. With all this time on my hands, and since I still had all the measurements I ordered it. Don't know where it'll go yet, my wife's not big on fish mounts and doesn't know it's coming. So it'll probably go over the bar in the basement game room. I'm more proud of that bluegill than my 10 pound bass or 17" crappie, both of which were also Ohio fish. Gills that big are few and far between. Here's a pic of what it'll look like, a nice fiberglass mount, the original fish was released. Just couldn't eat one that huge! ;D
Title: Re: My bull bluegill
Post by: Ntoiceman36 on January 05, 2014, 12:14:22 PM
Awesome catch over 2lbs thats a real trophy!
Title: Re: My bull bluegill
Post by: trapperjon on January 05, 2014, 12:16:15 PM
nice... there's another reason I need to learn nimi
Title: Re: My bull bluegill
Post by: g on January 05, 2014, 12:53:27 PM
Super fish slabslayer. The biggest bluegill I ever saw in Ohio was 12.5 inches and came from AEP ponds. Bull bluegills, oh what a feeling.
Title: Re: My bull bluegill
Post by: slabslayer on January 05, 2014, 01:01:13 PM
Agreed, nothing is harder to catch than a giant bluegill! He came in the C-5 area just after ice out. The water temp was still in the 30's. Be glad to fish with you sometime trapperjohn.
Title: Re: My bull bluegill
Post by: snowcone on January 05, 2014, 06:31:14 PM
well slab your a better man than me because I would still be licking my lips from the shore lunch hahahah once I caught a crappie in a pond that was 22 " and man was it tasty ;D ;D
Title: Re: My bull bluegill
Post by: steelneyes on January 05, 2014, 07:58:21 PM
That's a monster, especially for Ohio. I know many guys who only panfish all year and none of them have come close to that. Great to know that we have fish that big in our public waters.
Title: Re: My bull bluegill
Post by: slabslayer on January 05, 2014, 08:32:35 PM
That was a special day. I lost track of the 9"+ bluegills I caught! But that was the biggest. I got into a school of bulls for about 3 hours. I've got I to the big ones at Nimi since, but not ever like that again.
Title: Re: My bull bluegill
Post by: snowcone on January 05, 2014, 09:06:26 PM
yeah BIG gills really fight better than the other fish ;D ;D got into some gills like that at berlin once..then I was chasin gills for a couple weeks after..gill fever right?
Title: Re: My bull bluegill
Post by: jmsteele187 on January 06, 2014, 11:02:13 AM
Nice catch slab. I'm still trying to convince my wife to let me get a replica mount of my PB crappie. She's not big on animals hanging on the wall either. I personally won't eat any big fish. They typically don't taste very good and I'd rather see them swim off to keep their gene pool going. Maybe it's the conservationist sportsman in me but, I wish more people would adopt the practice of only keeping slot or "eater" fish. It's a far more sustainable practice and only improves our fisheries.
Title: Re: My bull bluegill
Post by: slabslayer on January 06, 2014, 11:07:59 AM
Well put, couldn't agree more! I never keep any trophies, always pics and release. If it's a Fish Ohio or bigger, it goes back! 8)
Title: Re: My bull bluegill
Post by: snowcone on January 06, 2014, 07:01:11 PM
gosh now I feel bad :-[ but I throw back all the bass I get , and CATFISH.... :-X
Title: Re: My bull bluegill
Post by: jmsteele187 on January 06, 2014, 07:22:59 PM
Well the bass and cats can get bigger then. But, if you were to throw back the crappie over 13" and gills over 9", you'd probably be able to catch more in that size range. I'll only keep gills that are between 7"-9", perch between 8"-12", crappie between 9"-13" and walleye between 15"-22". You should see the looks I get when I let a hog walleye go, while fishing the maumee in the spring.