Keeping Your Panfish

Is It Fair To Say That Most Bluegill/Pumpkinseed/Crappie Fishing Is Done, Not For Catch-And-Release Only, But To Find A Few To Keep?

What Are Your (("Keeper" Sizes))?

When You Do, Why Do You Keep Fish Is It More For Eating, Or For Making Trophies For The Wall?

Just Curious What You Guys Think Weather It Be From The North Or The South.

And Here Is Just A Question That Many Always Seem To Ask,, Is There Any Reason To Not Keep Smallish-Medium-Sized Bluegill For Eating, Rather Than Going After The Biggest Of Them, Other Than The Amount Of Meat You Get Per Fish What Do You All Think.?

Mike...We have always kept crappie if they were at least 8 inches....That is the legal size on Norman...You can keep 20 per person each day...We don't always get that many...But sometimes we do..And yes we do keep them...If we don't use them ourselves we give them to the neighbor...We don't catch fish for trophys....You can take a picture of a fish now and they can make a fish pretty much exactly the same as the picture..That way the big fish can live another day..But that's just us..What others do, is totally up to them...

We keep the small bream too..They taste better to me than some of the bigger ones...And they are a hoot to catch..You can catch 100's in a day and they are no limits on them here...It does take a few to fill you up..But hey ...It's worth it..They are some very good eating...

I keep them when they are legal and a reasonable size to clean and eat. When I lived in Michigan a lot of small lakes were overpopulated with small bluegills. It may not be sporting but you really should not put the small ones back into the lake. For the lakes sake you are better off taking them home and throwing them out. Down here in Florida it is not that way so I just keep the eaters. I do not much care just how big they are as long as they are food fish for me.
And it cost too much money to put one on the wall so I am not concerned with that.

The minimum for crappie here is 10". I'll throw my catch back if I don't have enough to fool with cleaning, but anytime I catch a bunch, they are going in the fry pan. I seldom catch a bluegill large enough to clean, so they all go back where they came from.

Well, If I catch alot 5" to 8" I will keep them for supper... always good to eat them.

I agree with Ford. I be keeping um

If I need food or bait I keep em, otherwise they go back, if they hang on the wall they just end up all dusty anyway so I ain't hangin none up there.

I like to eat them . bigger than my hand most often they get eaten. If i want big gills i go my stripper pits and catch them. I once caught 9 bluegills in one hour that totaled 13 1/2 pounds from my big pit.
When it is hot in the summer I don't keep them as they have the worms.
even though the DNR said that cooking them welldone will kill the worns i don't eat the fish in the summer from my lakes.
I like crappies, bluegills , sunfish and Bass, walleye, pike, I just cannot eat Catfish anymore.

jman wrote:

I like crappies, bluegills , sunfish and Bass, walleye, pike, I just cannot eat Catfish anymore.

I've got to where I can't eat catfish anymore either. I'll eat it at a local restaurant, but I just don't care for the river fish anymore. I fillet them and give all them away to family and friends. I'll eat every crappie I can get my hands on and also like sauger, but that's about all. I don't really like bass much either.