Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Adding female perch to the bluegill pond?

O.k. to make a long story short the plan was to grow large male bluegills monoculture in the small 1/10th acre pond to the right in the photo.



However, due to circumstances we won't go into an undetermined amount of females ended up in the pond. Consequently I did have some reproduction last summer, and going into fall I had fry that were about 1 inch in size and another group that was probably 2 inches. If I had to estimate I would say there are a several hundred fry in the pond from the two spawns. No where near the amount if there would be an equal number of males and females which would have to be in the thousands. I also know they are being preyed on by the bluegills, but not as much as I would like. There are about 500 adult 6.5 to 8.5 inch bluegills in the pond predominantly males.

Anyway, I'm thinking of adding some female perch to do even even better job of cropping down the fry in this very small pond to keep it from getting out of hand. I also am thinking of catching bluegills out of the pond during the peak spawning time that are determined to be females, and moving them to this larger pond to reduce reproduction and total number of fish. I believe I have too many bluegills in the pond presently. But I did get about 1.5 inches of growth on the 7 inch fish I planted for the year.



I do want to culture a couple hundred bluegill fry in a flow through tank annually so I don't have to purchase them, and practice some culling of slower growers like Dr. Einstein Condello.

When I want fry it seems it would be quite easy to capture them in a minnow trap in this larger pond where many of the females will be going. I want to increase the bluegill population in the bigger pond anyway as perch planting will terminate in that particular pond starting this year.

Thoughts? Any ideas on a ballpark figure for numbers of perch to put into the pond? I'm thinking a couple dozen 11 to 12 inch perch would do the job. More -- less? The present fry seem to be perfect in size for them to forage on, and if they do eat them up the perch are pellet trained. Maybe plant numbers a little high to be sure to do the job?

I realize bass would do an even better job of cropping down bluegills, but I would run into the same problem I have had with the larger pond with bluegills and perch in conjuction with largemouth bass. The bass are so agressive they don't allow the panfish to feed at optimum levels. And of course once the bass got to be of a large size they would crop more and larger bluegills than I would want. Perch also have smaller mouths - even the big ones -- so they would forage on smaller fish.

I am glad to know the BG added almost 2in. as per our discussion of last spring.

What about a small mesh BG trap that only the less than 2in. can get in to help the YP do their job. That would give you a source of small BG to stock with (or move) as per your comment above with out taking them out of the big pond. Also the trap would act as an indicator of how many small BG are left. As the trap and YP do their job you should reach the point where no small BG show up in the trap. At that point you can decide on what to do with the YP. Also if lots keep showing up in the trap you could add more YP. Over winter I don't know that LMB would do a better job on the small BG than the large YP due to metabolic rate differences. I think I would start to move out a few large BG ( but not the biggest) to the big pond if you think there are to many for the carrying capacity before water temps. start to rise. As you catch them you could note stats. and decide if it stays or goes.

Enough for now. Probably more than needed.

Yes, trapping the pond itself is an option too but I would need to do it before the next spawn. Not sure it matters which pond the fingerlings come from though as long as I cull for faster growers. And yes thet trap(s) would be an indicator of thw quantity of bluegill fingerlings.

Actually bass was never an option in this pond. Just too many negatives as I mentioned. Although their metabolism is reduced in the cold water of winter, yellow perch are suprisingly quite active and agressive in winter. I can catch them more easily in the warmwater pond in winter even though they are outnumbered by bass and probably bluegills in numbers.

Thanks for the imput. Sounds like some good ideas.

Cecil,

I think the yellow perch are a great idea. I didn't realize how much pressure perch can put on bluegill until I read ewest's study link a few weeks ago.

Just wondering. Could you put pressure on <2in. bluegill with the yellow perch, and then use a trap to put some pressure on intermediate sizes?



This would seem to be a good source of fish for the growout tank (or two) that you plan to build. Make sure to call me at (402) 429-2912 if you have any specific question on the tank or just to chat.

Seems like in a .1 acre pond you could maybe estimate that BG consumption if you go to ewests report.

Is it not feasible to run a transfer pump and drain/seine? That's what I do annually, but I'll admit it's a big hassle.

It will be really interesting to assess the yellow perch Wr's after a few months with the YOY bluegill. Maybe this is another source of income for a master capitalist like you.

CB1- ewest is showing evidence of all his reading of the literature. Trapping and seining would be good ways to thin and selectively remove fish from the BG pond. Trapping success quickly decreases as the length of trapping episodes increase. Some fish also get trap smart, thus seining or draining are about the only way of removing these wise fish. I have a long, deep 1/2" mesh seine to net your BG pond. You need to build yourself one or two small bgill traps. A smaller version Bruce's trap would be good. I make my traps from 1/4" and 1/2" hardware cloth, thus I do no need a frame. Both ways work.

Adding predators. I don't think the 11"-12" perch will eat bgill much larger than 1"-1.5", although the gape of 11"-12" perch is capable of swallowing a 3" bgill. It would be very interesting to test this theory. As you suggest, perch should consume more fish than the LMbass during winter however the LMB will consume more fish than the perch during 70+F temps. One to several 12"-13" male LMB, would I think, be acceptable in the BG pond. Get the male LMB off the big pond spawning beds in May. I could help with this job .

Some larger perch mixed in with a dominance of bgill should be no problem. Since a significant percentage of your male bgill are sort of timid feeders (Yingling RAS BG) the perch should get plenty of pellets for acceptable growth. Be sure to measure each perch that you add to the bgill pond so you can monitor growth rates.

NUMBERS - I would not hesitate to put up to 14-24 perch into the Bgill pond. Some of the perch may revert to pellet feeding and not eat small bgill.

Bill,

All good points and I may revert to seining too. If I get the eletroshocker going that could be an option also.

I will tell you two years ago I couldn't keep the big perch off of the tip up when using the largest shiners I could find. I'm talking really big shiners five to six inches. Couldn't get a bass on the tip ups but everytime the flag went up it was a 13 to 14 inch perch.

As far as water temps I'm thinking of spraying in a little of the trout pond water into the adjacent BG pond on the surface to aerate. Not enough to chill the water but just enough to add some D.O. It's either that are purchase a surface aerator along with the diffuser. Spraying water to the pond would be cheaper.

I'm still hestitant to put bass in even if I knew they were males. I don't want them to intimidate the bluegills. I want the bluegills to feed freely and not be stressed by bass. I've seen bass stress bluegills in a cage even though the bluegills were much bigger than the bass. Thye seem to remember they are the predators.

Thanks for the info. The trap looks easy to build. Should be fun. Contrary to what Bill says I think the perch will eat bluegills up to 2 inches maybe more. I have found them to be very agressive fish.

Cecil,

Do you have any updates to add to this thread??