William Shogren

For Wisconsin Outdoor Fun

I’m more than slightly addicted to the boil in the water caused by a bluegill taking my surface fly or struggling against the line. Somebody said, “The bluegill is another wild creature we’d love to death.” We really haven’t finished this noble creature off, but size structures have certainly worsened during the last several decades because of the over harvesting of the bigger blue gills (sunfish). Let’s take this fish more seriously and restore lunkers back into our Bluegill fishery.

Half pounders are now the exception. To most of us, the golden days are only a fond memory of being with dads, uncles, or gramps when we caught sunnies bigger than the size of their hands. And we didn’t need to drive ninety miles to find those lunkers. An eight inch bluegill is a half-pound, and the ten inch jumbo is a full pound.

We now have what are called double dippers. Those summer and winter anglers who hit the same lake twice in one day, taking two limits then play the role of big guy on the block giving the second limit to neighbors and relatives. They call it gifting. That way they never have more than their one legal limit in the freezer. Shame, shame! This makes a quality bluegill fishery unsustainable.

Today the Departments of Natural Resources throughout the country are faced with the huge challenge of maintaining quality bluegill fisheries. Our northern states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan have it tougher because of shorter growing seasons. Typically it takes eight years for a bluegill to grow to eight inches in length ― fewer years for walleye, bass, and trout to grow.

The numbers are against the sunfish. In most of our Upper Midwest states it’s the first, or second most sought after fish with the widest range of anglers. Over half of our anglers fish bluegill at least once a year. Yet our lakes are teeming with stunted bluegill, proof enough that we’re taking too many of the big breeders.

I take bluegill fishing seriously. I’ve made a study of this popular fish and never missed one year of fly-fishing bluegill in the past sixty-five years. Personally I use flies with barbless hooks, and I practice catch ‘n release on the largest sunfish. Respectable keepers for me are just under seven inches.

Jumbo sunnies are a highly coveted prize for all. Bluegill fishing is where most of us got our start. They’re easy to catch and fight like crazy. The deadliest game is to take sunfish off their spawning beds in late May and early June. Present any decent fly pattern over a spawning bed and wham, any male guarding the nest will hit it. Twenty-five casts and twenty or twenty-five fish in the creel.

With advanced tackle and techniques, how is it we haven’t seen a Minnesota state record sunfish caught since 1948? Just this past spring, my friend and four other anglers quit fishing walleye because the walleye they caught were too big for the slot, so they turned their attention to bluegill and caught and released three hundred sunnies with only one over seven inches in length and this was once a premier bluegill lake. How can that be? It’s because so few “gills” grow to maximum length. A Wisconsin DNR biologist told me about a lake that has fabulous bluegill fishing because the public boat landing is unusable. He said, “This landing is scheduled for repair, and when that happens, the bluegill fishing will go south. You watch.” There’s that much pressure on quality bluegill lakes. Research in our upper Midwest region shows that lakes with the largest size bluegill have the lowest angling pressure.

Taking of the biggest males during the early spawning period has created a problem where smaller precocious males (called sneakers) dart in from surrounding weeds to fertilize the females’ recently dropped eggs. Bluegill like so many creatures in nature are genetically driven to breed with the best in order to sustain the species. To fulfill their progeny for better quality offspring, the eggs should be fertilized by an older male when it reaches at least 7 inches in length. The longer the male can go before starting to fertilize, the better. They carry the genes that are genetically prone to grow larger offspring which will follow their fathers’ strategies of mating at a later age. Female bluegill would rather mate with bigger, more mature males. Eventually if these sneakers are allowed to participate in the nuptials, there evolves a much greater chance of a stunted bluegill fishery. Getting a lake back to decent sized bluegill after the stunted phenomenon occurs is enormously difficult.

Many years ago I listened to a DNR fish biologist out of Hayward WI. discuss how he spent at least eight years selling resort owners on certain lakes the concept of cutting back the possession limit on bluegill to ten, then even to five each. It was a tough sell, but most of the resort owners got behind the idea deciding to bite the bullet and go with the experimental plan of cutting limits to decrease pressure. Now these lakes show promise of coming back strong. Minnesota, a daily limit of 10 each is estimated to reduce annual bluegill harvest by thirty-nine percent, and for 5 each, it’s fifty percent. Wisconsin has similar figures. A lot of anglers don’t bother to fish a lake if they can’t keep a full limit. Fish biologists say it’s possible to see some of these experimental lakes produce two pound sunfish again like back in the peak years, decades ago. It will happen.

Selective harvest is proving to be the best tool ― specifically cutting back the limit size and taking only medium size fish. The best thing for us sunfish addicts is to police ourselves. I always return the big breeders to the water. I catch a lot of bluegill, and I keep just enough medium size fish for meals. I don’t fish the spawners, but I have extended my season by fishing through the golden days of September and October in deeper water, along, edges of lily pads with Prince, Hares Ear, and Pheasant Tail nymph patterns, Woolly Buggers representing leeches, streamers that look like minnows, top water mayfly patterns, and lately I’ve found artificial terrestrials on the surface are a blast. Every year I see how far into fall I can catch bluegill on flies. The mild Thanksgiving in 2012 on an ice free lake, I caught as many sunnies as I wanted on a black Wooly Bugger representing a leech. Amazing! And oh, those gorgeous autumn days on a lake full of color and you’re the only one out there with the migrating ducks and coot.

It’s better than a fair bet in the future we’ll see limits cut back on more lakes, and I am for it because it’ll give us a good chance to bring back quality bluegill fishing. Catch ‘n release has helped size structure for smallmouth bass, trout, and musky and will with bluegill. I remember bluegill daily limits of 50 each, then 30, and now 20 in Minnesota and twenty-five in Wisconsin. It seems I’ve come full circle. I got hooked on fly-fishing bluegill, then trout, bass, northern pike and even musky. I’m glad I never outgrew my love of bluegill. Now my focus is creating more conversation on how we can improve size structure for better quality bluegill fishing. So let’s start a buzz and show better stewardship to our precious sunnies.

We must consider recent immigrants from cultures where fish play a bigger role in their diet and the inner city kids with our wonderfully fertile metro lakes that only render under sized panfish. Our young people should be able to have the same kind of excitement we’ve experienced with this noble fish that has been so good to us. The mantra should be, snap a picture of the big breeders, return them to the water, and keep the medium sized for the platter.