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Show Cluegill Battlers Ever bait up a number six or eight hook, adjust the bobber, flip in your line andave the hog-wild blupgill tear the cane pole right out of your hands? No, you probably haven't. But, if this little panfish could compare in size with some of its larger brothers, much of your fishing would be a degenerate sport by comparison. Few other fish can make a line zing like a freshly-deceived bluegill. Like grandfather's clock, this little fellow is almost always ready to strike! Let's look at a few of the things that regulate his ticking, says Gilbert Weiss, cf the Missouri conservation department. depart-ment. Probably the best known member mem-ber of the sunfish family, the blue-gill blue-gill enjoys a wide range of latitude and longitude. Originally a native of the Mississippi, Great Lakes, and eastern seaboard drainage basin, the bluegill may now bs caught from New York to California Cali-fornia and from mid-Canada to Mexico. Although the ideal pond fish is yet to be found, fish cultur-ists cultur-ists would probably agree that the bluegill is our most adaptable, most successful pond-fish. Hence, the introduction of this species over most of the United States and much of Canada. Doubtless more people are familiar fa-miliar with the bluegill than any other one species; however, there remains, and probably always will, some confusion with other cousins of the sunfish clan. Common names are themselves confusing, for by locality the bluegill becomes pond-perch, pond-perch, punkinseed, bream, brim and a host of other misnomers. Like most other sunfish, the bluegill blue-gill is much flattened vertically. He is considerably rounded on his topside, whereas the belly follows somewhat straighter contour. Coloration, Col-oration, like most other fish, depends de-pends a great deal on the water it inhabits. The back is almost always al-ways a dark olive-green. Most of the upper two-thirds of the body and the head, excepting the lower gill covers and ear flaps, shares shades of olive-green, with a sprinkling of violet, purple, and lavender thrown in. The underpays under-pays are usually painted a rich yellow or yellowish-brown. The throat area is often a strikingly deep orange, bordered above by pale blue gill covers. As might be expected, the ear, or gill flap, is a deep blue-black. In many states, bluegills spawn from May to September. They are colonial spawners, and numbers of males may be seen guarding their respective nests in a spawning area. The nest, a small circular depression de-pression on a gravel bottom or a clean-swept area on clay or muck, is constructed by the male some time previous to spawning time. To the male also falls the chore of fanning the eggs to keep them aerated, free from silt, and to prevent an ever-hungry horde of scavengers from partaking of a free lunch. Actual counts of the eggs taken from female bluegills range from 3.000 to as many as 50.000, depending de-pending on the age, size, and physical phys-ical condition of the fish. Counts of fry taken from nests range upward to 60,000. Since the young ordinarily become be-come spawners themselves during their first year of life, the potential poten-tial number of offspring from a few fish becomes enormous over the span of a few years. Therein lies the reasoning behind the present pres-ent bass-bluegill pond stocking recommendations. Bluegills are primarily insect feeders; whereas, bass are predators, feeding largely upon young and immature bluegills. blue-gills. Nonetheless, there is danger in such large-scale reproduction. If balanced predator-prey relationships relation-ships are disturbed by mismanagement, misman-agement, overpopulation may readily occur in small bodies of water. As previously mentioned, the bluegill feeds largely on insects and their larva but an occasional minnow or small fish may be taken. AAA Don't "h'orss" 'Em The practice of "horsing" in a fish understandable under the stress and excitement of landing a big one is probably the cause of more lost fish than any other one thing. The angler can avoid it by keeping a fairly tight line, but easing up a bit when it appears the fish wants to fight hard. Play the fish until it is through fighting and can be brought up close without with-out dashing around in fright when it sees you. |