# How old is a 10" Gill?



## fathom this (Feb 10, 2008)

Let me get this right. If a bluegill lived to be 15 yrs old in michigan and the average size of a six year old bluegill in Michigan is 7" to 8" than a fish of 15 yrs age would be 14" to 16" . I want to see that fish!!!!


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## thefishman (Nov 28, 2010)

According to Bob Lusk, who runs a Texas company called Pond Boss who are experts in lake and pond management, he says that bluegills have an average life span of 6 to 8 years. As far as how old a 10" bluegill is, it would depend on the environment in which he/she lives. There is a lake in North Carolina called Richmond Mill Lake that was drained 5 years ago, refilled and
planted with natural bluegills and coppernose bluegills. The lakes' bluegills as of right now, average 1 to 3 lbs., hogs. Google Richmond Mill Lake bluegills,
and click on "Bluegill article". This lake has been called the "best bluegill lake
on the planet". If you check out the article and pics, you'll know why. Also,
the lake is only 125 acres. They catch 'gills in this lake up to 3 lbs. that are
no more than 5 years old!!!!
Tight Lines:yikes:


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## raisinrat (Feb 9, 2006)

fathom this said:


> Let me get this right. If a bluegill lived to be 15 yrs old in michigan and the average size of a six year old bluegill in Michigan is 7" to 8" than a fish of 15 yrs age would be 14" to 16" . I want to see that fish!!!!


If their growth rate is at the state avg their whole life then in theory it is possible. 15 years is the extreme and is rare. But like I said the avg is more like 8 years of life for most of the state.Also keep in mind that genetics plays a huge part of this whole thing also. The fish has to have the genetics to grow to that size. 

To many people take all of those larger fish thinking that they are soon to die from old age and thats just not the case. Also when you remove this fish you can mess up the balance of recruitment of bluegill back into the system. This can allow for to many YOY , if that happens to many times in a body of water you will get stunted bluegill population. If you want a more detail explanation shot me a PM and I will be happy to give you a link. 

Here is a chart from a long term Bluegill growth rate study from MN .The lake names are listed by a number instead of their names. Next to that is how many times samples have been taken from that lake. Then next to that is how many of the different year classes have been collected from those waters. This is showing just age and it doesn't give length info.


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## iLiveInTrees (Jun 29, 2010)

fathom this said:


> Exactly as stated by hux and Jacktown. Bluegills grow at about 1.5" per year in Michigan thus a seven year old fish will be 10.5".
> For a fish to reach 12" it must have the best of all conditions. Gills don't live very often for more than 7 years in this state. Go ahead and keep those big ones after the spawn. They are not the most successful spawners ( about 50% viable ) and they most likely will not live to see the next spawn.


I keep big ones all of the time, It is easy to see how certain lakes go through cylces of being great big gill lakes, to dink lakes when a bluegill has to live 5 years to be a keeper.

Conservative minded as in, don't get too greedy, leave some fish for the lake if you want to continue to catch good numbers of big fish.


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## raisinrat (Feb 9, 2006)

Something I have been giving great thought to in recent years is that maybe it is time we look at adjusting our sunfish limits. Maybe break it up so you can only keep 15 bluegills and sunfish and 10 crappies within your 25 fish. or maybe even have a cap of how many fish you can keep over a certain size within that 25 fish limit. Or should our sunfish limit be has high/low as 25 fish? What about placing a slot limit on fish such has crappies so that we are only harvesting fish from the middle year classes?

Has anyone else ever thought of about something along those lines?I'm just throwing this out there.


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## huxIIIhammer (Feb 28, 2005)

raisinrat said:


> This thought process is not good for many of the smaller lakes our state has. I am to tried to get into to it further right now, but I just wrote part one on this very topic on my blog.


May want to learn good English first? And no I don't think your proposal is any good regarding the pan fish regs. Use the resource the 80/20 rule comes to mind 20 percent of us catch 80 percent of the fish:lol:


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## jacktownhooker (Apr 7, 2007)

huxIIIhammer said:


> some reach 10 inches. Sexual maturity occurs at 2 to 3 years for males and 3 to 4 years for females. Average life-span of these fish is 5 to 6 years.
> This is from the DNR website just googled it. Who said anything about southern fish vs northern fish? Get with the discussion


and the question was very general and not specific ,so if you did'nt like it .... tough tits to you ! :lol:


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## huxIIIhammer (Feb 28, 2005)

It's all good Jacktown


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## thefishman (Nov 28, 2010)

I don't agree with a slot or a reduction in our bluegill/'seeds/'ears/crappie
limits either. I always refer back to Michigan Sportsman Legend Mort Neffs'
quote that, "10% of the fisherman catch 90% of the fish", and I'm in the 10%. Tight Lines.


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## jackbob42 (Nov 12, 2003)

I'm going to have to quit reading on this board.............
Let the little buck go , only shoot the mature ones.............
Let the big fish go , only keep the small ones..........
Or is it the other way around? 
It's enough to drive a guy crazy ! :yikes:


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## JigginRod (Dec 29, 2010)

jackbob42 said:


> I'm going to have to quit reading on this board.............
> Let the little buck go , only shoot the mature ones.............
> Let the big fish go , only keep the small ones..........
> Or is it the other way around?
> It's enough to drive a guy crazy ! :yikes:


Kill 'em all Bob!
We gotta eat! :evil:


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## fathom this (Feb 10, 2008)

I talked to my son who IS a fisheries biologist about how to age gills and he says if I bring him the scale samples he will run them through his lab for me. I will know at the end of the summer what age those 10+" gills are in four of the lakes I fish. I have in the past kept a fish diary
But this should be fun!


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## raisinrat (Feb 9, 2006)

Can't wait hear the numbers for those lakes.

_OutdoorHub Mobile, the information engine of the outdoors_


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## fishctchr (Dec 3, 2000)

What lakes are they? LOL
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## fathom this (Feb 10, 2008)

Sorry fish I already have to wait in line to get my boat in at my favorite lake. I have two favorite lakes I will be doing the study on. One in Mason county and the other in Lake county.


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## raisinrat (Feb 9, 2006)

fathom this said:


> Sorry fish I already have to wait in line to get my boat in at my favorite lake. I have two favorite lakes I will be doing the study on. One in Mason county and the other in Lake county.


Hey fathom,

I just thought of something you could also ask your son on. Might want to check the DNR reords on this and see if this could play a roll in the fishes age. 

Ask him if there is any studies on the fact that the gene pool in some lakes in Michigan might have been changed due to stocking of southern fish genes into the waters. Could this have changed the amount of years these fish live within a given lake?

I hope I asked that right.


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## fathom this (Feb 10, 2008)

That is a good question Raisin, but I don't think that is something I can study on my lakes. I will however ask my son. He is with USFS and not MDNR. WE will do some looking.
I am aware that hybridization does occure naturally and may happen between planted species of lepomis and native bluegills. Green sunfish/bluegill when they reproduce have 90-95% male offspring. I would think that a redear/bluegill cross would have the same result. I have personally seen bluegill/pumpkinseed crosses and what appear to be green sunfish/bluegill cross. The DNR has in the past planted redear sunfish lepomis microlophus in more that 50 lakes in michigan. The redear is an aggresive fighter but I don't think it has lived up to the DNR expectations as far as size.


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## raisinrat (Feb 9, 2006)

fathom this said:


> That is a good question Raisin, but I don't think that is something I can study on my lakes. I will however ask my son. He is with USFS and not MDNR. WE will do some looking.
> I am aware that hybridization does occure naturally and may happen between planted species of lepomis and native bluegills. Green sunfish/bluegill when they reproduce have 90-95% male offspring. I would think that a redear/bluegill cross would have the same result. I have personally seen bluegill/pumpkinseed crosses and what appear to be green sunfish/bluegill cross. The DNR has in the past planted redear sunfish lepomis microlophus in more that 50 lakes in michigan. The redear is an aggresive fighter but I don't think it has lived up to the DNR expectations as far as size.


I wrote a blog on the history of redears in Michigan I also have the report from the DNR on this. That is a good read.

In the Database the state is showing only one lake in Barry that was stocked with gills and that was in 1980

There is also only one lake in Lake County also but that was a Private plant not a DNR plant that was done 1998 and 1999.

That doesn't mean there wasn't other stockings cause I know of a few that are not listed on the database.


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## fathom this (Feb 10, 2008)

I don't know where you get your info from raisin rat but the DNR lists the following lakes they have planted since the mid 80's
cedar, fine, cary, gilead, matteson, oliverda, rose lake, silver, union, brace, duck, lee, wilder, budd, townline, lake interstate, narrow, baw beese, bear, bird, cub, hemlock, lake # 5, clark, clear, gillets, grass, lime and 49 others.


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## kkannonball (May 27, 2009)

I find the philosohpy that let the fish spawn and keep later totally riduculas, yea ya donna wanna pull all the gils in a lake off the beds but truth be known you will only see a very small percentage of gil beds in any given lake, they spawn at different lake depths throughout the entire summer. The mentality that if its full of spawn release it really only applies to small ponds, its not gonna hurt anything.


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