Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Bluegill growth rate; bluegill management?

Ed - I hope you get lots of opinions on this one. Hopefully we can get southern experiences or experts on big bgill. Here's my northern two cents.
A one pound bgill is a big fish; around 10.4" long. I personally think the 8.5" to 9.0" bgills are easier to clean than the 10"+ fish. Fillets from the 8"-9" fish are nice serving sizes and cook quickly. Also bgill 9+" quickly dull my knife. Once the fish gets 10"+ the meat on the back gets a little tougher and somewhat thicker than the rest of the fillet; which makes cooking somewhat uneven. Anyway, I'm off topic.

If I was in LA the coppernose would be my first choice for stocking/growing/catching/eating. But based on our northern bgill, not coppernose, here are our optimum growth rates. I stress optimum, everything working just right.
2-3" fingerlings stocked in early spring can get 7"-8" by the end of the first summer. This is with unlimited premium food. Ideally bgill hatchlings could in the south get 3"to5" by one yr old.

Once they are sexually mature annual growth slows. The second year in pond (3 yr old fish) they could gain 1" = 8"-9". After 9" long, I usu only get 1/4" to 1/2" added to the length per year. A southern bgill could probably gain 1" per year after the 9". (1 lb = 10"-10.5"). NOTE: coppernose may have slightly more weight at 9.5"-10" than standard bgill.

Northern bgill grow slower and live longer than their southern counterparts. It is not uncommon to see bgill live 7-9 yrs in northern ponds. After they reach 9" they are lucky to gain 1/4" to 3.8" per year and add 1.5"to 2" before death. A 11"-12" bgill is a trophy class fish. If someone says they have over 12" bgill I would like to SEE PICTURES.
I think a key point to getting good growth from already big (9") bgill is to NOT keep them in crowded conditions. There is a word of "lebensraum" in population biology. It is from German and means living space or territory requirements as requirements for healthy life/growth. Crowded conditions reduce the lebensraum and then slower growth & poorer health results.
So I think an important point is to keep the young bluegills dramatically thinned in your pond so the existing adult fish have lebensraum and better growth should result. To keep bgill heavily thinned, a strong population of bass smaller than 14" is important. Trapping and manual thinning of bgill may also be necessary. Remove all bass larger than 14", protect bass smaller than 14".

Harvest. With fertilization and or a pellet feeding program you should be able to safely harvest 25%-30% of your crop each year. Here is the unknown part. How many pounds of bgill per acre can you grow per year?. It will depend on a lot of things. If we assume 300 lb/ac/yr production then a harvest of 75 to 100 lbs of bgill per acre is not unreasable. Assuming 40% waste for offal then 45 to 60 lbs of fillets.

Since you have a longer growing season you should be able to add a little to each of the examples; except bgill life span. But, I'm not sure how much more you will get because you are in LA.

I'll let your southern neighbors answer your pond depth issue for a trophy bgill pond.