The lunkers are gone: It's time to restore our bluegill fishery

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 past several decades because of the overharvesting of the bigger bluegills (sunfish). We must take this fish more seriously.

Half-pounders are now the exception. To most of us, the golden days are only a fond memory of being with dads, uncles or grampas when we caught sunnies bigger than the size of their hands. And we didn't need to drive 90 miles for those lunkers. An 8-inch bluegill is a half-pound, a 10-inch jumbo a full pound.

We now have "double dippers," anglers who hit the same lake twice in one day, taking two limits. In Minnesota we're allowed a possession limit of 20, but there are those who give the second limit to neighbors and relatives. They call it gifting. Shame! This makes a quality bluegill fishery unsustainable.

Today natural resource departments nationwide are faced with the huge challenge of maintaining quality bluegill fisheries. Northern states have it tougher because of shorter growing seasons. Typically it takes eight years for a bluegill to grow to 8 inches.

The numbers are against them. Only walleyes are more sought-after. More than half our anglers fish bluegill at least once a year. Yet our lakes are teeming with stunted bluegills, proof 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 65 years. I use flies with barbless hooks, and I practice catch and release on the largest sunfish. Respectable keepers for me are just under 7 inches.

With advanced tackle and techniques, how is it we haven't seen a state-record sunfish caught since 1948? Just this past spring, my friend and four other anglers quit fishing walleyes because the ones they caught were too big for the slot, so they turned their attention to bluegills and caught and released 300 sunnies with only one over 7 inches. And this was once a premier bluegill lake.

How can that be? It's because so few grow to maximum length.

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. To fulfill their progeny for better-quality offspring, the eggs should be fertilized by an older, larger males. They carry the genes that are prone to grow larger offspring. Eventually if these sneakers are allowed to participate in the nuptials, there evolves a much greater chance of a stunted bluegill fishery.

Getting decent-sized bluegills back after the stunted phenomenon occurs is enormously difficult.

Selective harvest — cutting back the limit size and taking only medium-sized fish — is proving to be the best tool. We sunfish addicts need to police ourselves. I always return the big breeders to the water. I catch a lot of bluegills, and I keep just enough medium-sized 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, Hare's Ear and Pheasant Tail nymph patterns, Woolly Buggers representing leeches, streamers that look like minnows and topwater mayfly patterns, and lately I've found using artificial terrestrials on the surface is a blast.

It seems I've come full circle. I got hooked on fly-fishing bluegill, then trout, bass, northern pike and even muskie. I'm glad I never outgrew my love of bluegills. Now my focus is creating more conversation on how we can improve size structure for better-quality bluegill fishing. The really good news is that the DNR is forming special volunteer fish species workgroups to map out strategies to enhance fishing. 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 render only undersized panfish. Our young people should be able to have the same excitement we've experienced with this noble fish.

The mantra should be his: Snap a picture of the big breeders, return them to the water, and keep the medium-sized for the platter.