Why Are Bluegill Getting Smaller? A Science-Based Path to Better Fishing

I think it's super smart to make those tighter regs on just certain lakes. It allows people who want those BIG fish, to seek out those low limit lakes. The guys who want a cooler full of average fish can go hit up a lake with standard regs.

Awesome little documentary. Would love to see more of these types of videos, across different species and regions of the country. 👍🏽

Grand Rapids born Biologist here. We are so fortunate for public outreach like this. Look at that view count!! 👀

As a new fisherman my first fish was a bluegill and I have slowly fallen in love with these beautiful and tasty fish, they fight like hell and are the colors on the small ones just makes me happy 🙌🏾 great video and thank you

From Grand Rapids, Michigan to Grand Rapids, Minnesota much love and respect. We need much more conservation efforts. Id love to catch the huge Gills my father tells stories about, but even more so, would love to see my own son catch some. 🤙🐟

Amazing video! I talk about this a lot and I’m glad to see a leader in the industry spreading his this information

A significant issue for crappie populations is side scanning sonar in the winter. Schools can easily be located that way and fishermen can set up right on top of them.

Back in the early 70s, we had a couple bays on the north side of Lake St. Clair, and it was nothing to load up on jumbo bluegill, and yellow perch. But we moved away from Michigan in 1975, and I never returned to go fishing anyways, but in 2009 I moved back, and took my boat back to the bays of childhood memory, and the thick pencil reeds that grew so dense in the those bays were nonexistent except for the edges along the shore of the little islands and weedbeds and sand bars. And they grew so thick that dad would have to use his Rapala knife to cut the reeds off the prop when we left. Really sucks too, because the sunfish and persh had plenty of hiding spots from the pike and muskie that would come through, so they grew massive. Dad said if they're under 10 inches, let them go to get bigger. But the zebra mussels and gobys have really changed things. The mussels are so thick on the river bottom they'll cut your line drifting for walleye too.

It really sounds like the Minnesota DNR has it well figured out for the Bluegill & Crappie size growth & harvest. Many years ago I fished the lakes in that state. I live in Missouri. I wish that this state had a better program like that. Great Video guys. Keep the Wonderful fishing information coming from the Other States. 👍👍

Saw some behind the scenes footage on Instagram of this, I've been waiting for this one! Awesome!

Excellent presentation. In my opinion and what i have experienced on the field, education is key. If you take a new angles and tell them “this is the limit because we say so”, they may follow the rule. In fact i noticed that they will try to get up to that limit and take the fish home. But if you educate the angler, they will become more involved and interested on the resources. They also like to share the information they have. And on the social aspect, there is better response when a fellow angler tells you for example “you should release that fish because...”. Versus when the game warden tells them they have to release that fish because its the law or you’ll get a fine.

Love these types of videos! Keep them coming

I fish a private farm pond that only me and a couple other people are allowed to fish and yesterday I caught 30 Shellcracker bream that we’re all about a pound and a half each, and of course, released them all… it’s just overfishing, plain and simple. That’s the problem of the decline of all the species of the lakes and especially the oceans,unfortunately

Yet i still to this day cant find a sunfish large enough to fillet within 40 miles of the Twin Cities.

Great content! Please spread the word about preserving the resources!

Glad to see this at home in north east Minnesota

First thing I taught my kids about fishing was how to identify and release bull males bluegills. I love this explanation. Someday, I’ll catch (and release) my first 10” bluegill. I’ve been fishing for over 40 years in Minnesota and I don’t have one yet. This DNR initiative will help.

I don’t even live in the state of Minnesota but I thought this video was great!

Such a GREAT video. Incredible amount of specific information. This Biologist did such a good job. Incredible. Wish I could get him down here to Louisiana to analyze my 10 acre lake. Thanks for creating this video and kudos to you and the Biologist.

Let 'em go let 'em grow