Managing Panfish for Sustainability

North America is filled with great fishing lakes populated with favorites like bluegills, crappies, and perch. What separates one fishery from another is the number of large adult fish that sustain a healthy balance between various year classes of fish. Seasoned panfish expert and fishing guide Brian “Bro” Brosdahl has spent a storied career understanding and chasing the best panfish bites in the upper Great Lakes. Bro shares, “A good fishery will have a representation from each spawning year class, so that there is a succession of adult fish to juvenile fish that will one day become adults who reproduce.”

In 40+ years of chasing panfish, he’s right. Bro continues: “In order to make it to adulthood, baby panfish of all kinds must successfully overcome the perils of life like seasonal changes in temperature and oxygenation, predation, and most importantly evade the angling attempts of humans. The fish that make it through all these challenges emerge as the smartest, most capable fish that spawn and make more smart, capable fish, keeping a fishery strong and in balance.” Bluegills and crappies are notorious for overrunning a body of water with smaller, stunted fish. This is often the case when the larger dominant spawning males are harvested by well-intended, but uninformed anglers.

Larger, adult fish with superior genetics establish a dominance over their smaller counterparts. When these big male bluegills are removed, species survival kicks in and this prompts the smaller younger males to become mature and spawn at an earlier age. Fundamentally this preserves the species, but it doesn’t preserve the balance between year classes. “Once a small bluegill starts to spawn, they put their focus on spawning and not on eating.

Bro continues: “Sure, everybody wants to catch some big bluegills and take them home for a nice fish fry. But what people don't realize is the difference between harvesting a nine-inch bluegill and harvesting a seven- or eight-inch bluegill is only a forkful of meat, but the effect on the fishery is massive. The goal is to harvest the medium-sized fish for dinner and make sure to let the big ones go.”

During spring when the water is warm, bluegills make their way from deep water to shallow spawning areas that are much smaller in area and very predictable in location. Panfish often spawn in the same locations each year making their location even more predictable for anglers.

Bro draws on experience and technology to find the fish, “You can get a good idea on where to find these shallow spawning areas on your LakeMaster maps in the spring, but the best thing is to use my MEGA 360 to see below the surface and know the fish are really there. When you see that tell-tale honeycomb look of bluegill beds, you know you’re on them. Sometimes, if you look closely, you can even see the small white returns on MEGA 360, showing bluegills actually sitting on the beds from 50 feet away!”

Anglers can find themselves on spawning areas that have dozens if not hundreds of the biggest spawning fish in the lake all at one time.

Bro adds some context, “This is where an entire population of good, spawning fish can get wiped out in a weekend if not managed properly. We used to think that the lake had ‘schools’ of big bluegills, but now we know that there are only pods of them, far fewer in number.”

Let's face it: We all love a good meal of fresh fish, but keeping fish during this time can put an extra burden on a resource with so many of the adult fish congregating in one place. “This is why I’ve really stopped guiding for big bluegills because they’re so fragile. I don’t want to put too much pressure on them, rather just let them spawn and make bigger ‘gills for the future,” notes Bro.

It’s funny to think of such prolific creatures like panfish as fragile, but if we look at big panfish in the same way we trophy elk for quality deer management, it makes sense. With the right mindset and management, we will foster great fisheries for generations to come. Humminbird, and its parent company, Johnson Outdoors, understands the importance placed on being good stewards over the ecosystems we participate in. To read more about how the rest of the Johnson Outdoors family of brands view stewardship and conservation, head over to the Outdoor Adventure Blog.