I put 25 9-10" stockers in my pond 3 weeks ago. I have lots of forage(CNBG and soon Tilapia younguns)and also supplement floating fish pellets. The last two days I have been fishing for some BG for dinner and caught 4 of the HSB on redworms/bobber close to shore. Only one was in danger of being deep hooked.....will know in a couple of days I guess. How do I let these fish get bigger while still enjoying BG fishing in the pond? I expected the HSB to be in deeper water...

BarO, I believe I have some of the same class fish.
They are something else aren’t they?
I have ours in a ¼ acre “grow/out pond with BG, and catch them on pellet flies to transfer to main pond. Blue gill are for forage only in this pond, and the HSB controls their numbers.

In our main 2 acre pond, we feed opposite to your natural forage/supplemental-feed program.
Our primary program is aggressive feeding of high protein AQMX 600 pellets, supplemented by natural forage.
Don’t know if this is the answer to your problem or not?

The claim that HSB are deep open water is only partially true.
Like all predators, they follow the food.
They do prefer deeper open water in hot and cold water extremes, and when suspended between feeding periods.

Hope this helps,
George

Every HSB that's been caught in my pond was caught on a worm, while fishing for BG. Luckily, no losses yet that I know of. I wonder if the HSB are agressive enough to run with a worm before swallowing it, unlike many BG do.

Try and practice good catch and releasable fishing while working the BG. Consider circle hooks if you're not using them already. I switched to them for BG fishing this year and have noticeably fewer BG I HAVE to keep because of foul-hooking.

I suspect the circle hook size has to be matched to the mouth size of the prey for maximum lip-hooking, but haven't finished figuring that part out yet.

Theo, will you please let us know when you figure out which size circle hook is best for bluegill?

I can't help but think this is something simple that someone has down pat. Here's what I know now:

#10 circle hooks (all I have snelled up, so far) work pretty good for me (meaning very efficient lip-hooking) on BG up to about 7" - 7.5". Larger BG sometimes (30%??) get them inside their mouths, where they stick on something (tongue?) that is not yet to the gills and does not seem to bleed. Release with the hook still in (and with fingers crossed) is the best I can do in this situtation, so I am going to try #8s next (and have some #6s in reserve) and see how they work. Hopefully I can find a circle hook size that catches eatable culls efficiently and doesn't harm too many keepers. That's my hypothesis, anyway.

If I'm right, the "best size" hook would depend on your targetted fish (mouth) size.

I appreciate the input. I will try some circle hooks next time I make it into Gander Mtn. I will report back if anything else works.

I haven't worked out the different sizes, but circle hooks are all that I allow in my pond for live bait. They work very well at avoiding foul hook sets.

I have HSB in a large net. When they eat a minnow, they have to swim away very fast in order to swallow it before another one snatches it out of their mouth. Maybe they do that with everything they eat?

By far the coolest experiment i have ever done.

The HSB are the most aggressive fish I have ever raised

It is a lot of fun to raise your own fish in a net. Good job n8ly. I plan on adding a few HSB behind the net this fall along with some yoy BG and FH.

your BG and FH will be gone within about 4 days.

then just about anything gets eaten within 2 days after that.

LOL - this is a test to see if they can live in our low alkalinity water. The HSB will be 4in. (30 fish) the FH (several lbs) will be adults and yoy and the CNBG/RES will be 2 in stockers (250 fish)and they will all get artificial feed. If they grow out well and survive to fall/winter I will release them into the pond so they (along with all the 8 in LMB) can run for their lives from the big LMB.

I hope it works so I can later add a few adults to the pond.

The 4 inch HSB will eat all of the fatheads really fast. IT is unbelievable how aggressive they are. I put them in nets to see how they do in my lake too.

I have learned a ton about them. they work together to trap the fatheads and devour them. The fatheads hang out of their mouths, and the HSB have to swim really fast until they swallow completely or another will steal the food right out of their mouth.

They didn't eat artificial food very well until the fatheads were gone. We love netting baby bluegill and tossing them in.

I spend more time watching fish, feeders and buglights than i do fishing anymore.