The bluegill is one of the most popular fish in Minnesota. For beginning anglers, it is usually the first fish they catch. Bluegills are found in most Minnesota waters, from small ponds to big lakes.

Identification

General description: A small, round-shaped game fish that's a part of the sunfish family.

Length: Four to eight inches.

Weight: One-quarter pound to a pound.

Color: Various shades of yellow and dark blue.

Reproduction

Bluegills spawn in the middle of spring. Their spawning beds, which are 6 to 12 inches in diameter, are found in shallow water. In some spots, as many as 50 beds may be clustered together. Spawning bluegills aggressively protect their spawning beds, attacking anything (even a hook) that comes near. That makes them easy to catch during the spring.

Food

Bluegills mainly eat underwater insects, small minnows, and small crustaceans. They feed all day long.

Predators

Larger fish, such as northerns, walleye, muskies, and largemouth bass.

Habitat and range

Ponds, lakes, and slow-moving rivers. The bluegill's native range is from Minnesota east to Maine and south to Arkansas and Georgia.

Population and management

The Minnesota bluegill population is healthy. The bluegill bag limit (the number of fish an angler can take each day) may be lowered in an attempt to produce larger bluegills. As of July 2004, anglers can keep 20 bluegills per day.

Fun facts

Some anglers call these fish sunnies or 'gills. During the spring, when bluegills spawn in shallow water, anglers sometimes use polarized sunglasses to see through the water and find the fish's spawning beds.