Nighthawk makes a great point about PA waters...the state has an impossible job in panfish management, with the wide variety of water sizes, quality, species present, natural predators, and fishing pressure. Ideally, they could have seperate regs for each body of water...but even an environmentally conscious angler would quickly tire of that, and really, it would probably make criminals out of confused anglers more than anything, so there's no real solution.

Sure, it's hard to find fat bluegills in easy-access public water...and out-of-the-way ponds with fat gills are a secret as closely guarded as a pristine wild trout stream in my area...but people have learned to deal with this and, really, the situation as-is really DOES provide plenty of small fish to get children interested in the sport, from ice-out to freeze...which certainly counts for something.

In a way, its a nice kind of catch-22, in that the people who are truly passionate about finding good fishing will definitely find it...with some time and effort in searching, walking, and asking.