Last weekend was my son and I's first fly experience together. At the end of my folk's dock is a large set of bluegill beds and they were teaming with life. Just about every fly brought a great deal of interest and on a 4wt a lot of fun.

The down side was that a neighbor was watching my son and I catch and let go some very nice gills.

an hour later he and two other guys pulled up their boat within 20 feet of our dock. Sat there for three hours and took more than a 100 gills. Regardless of size they all went to the basket.

I walked out to the dock after an hour and made mention of how long it took the bed to recover the last time someone sat on it and cleaned it hard. Their comment back was that it sure did recover.

Well I guess I will see you all again in three or four years was all I could say.
I too favor taking a few gills for the table but being selective about it and not staying on a bed until its all but gone.
I guess some folks just see the world differently than I do

My son got a hard lesson in ecology.