Bluegills?

[Gage Zamrzla]

So I'm going fishing with a friend today for the first time in years. It got me thinking about when I was younger I would hook little 2"-3" bluegills from right under the dock. (We used barbless hooks and released them all). I was just wondering how big do those guys get? I assumed at the time being a young kid, that that was as big as they got . I'm just curious now if anyone could help.

 

[rjssniper]

3.28 lbs and 12 3/4" is ohio record. although i have a friend with a 1/2 acre pond who feeds a couple bags of bread a week to them and they get pretty big. i generally catch them in the 4-8" range though

 

[fobrinkle]

I've caught 12"ers up in the Upper peninsula of Michigan. Great looking fish when they are adults.

 

[kzimmerman]

Max I've seen in wild caught fish is 12". A well cared for captive specimen could easily exceed that, it will just take a long time.

 

[gar man]

Zimmerman pretty much said it. You'd want a 75 at least but a 125 would be better for life.

 

[westtncat]

Usually a good size bluegill is 8-10 inches. Although as some have mentioned they can and do get bigger. If you compare the state record bluegill with the average caught bluegill they look like monsters!

Another similar fish that gets slightly larger is the redear. Very similar to bluegill in appearance except they have a red tab on their gill. A common name for redear is shellcracker becuase they love to snack on snails.