The last 4 to 5 times(2 months) I fished for my cnbg I have caught almost all males. It makes no difference what water depths I am fishing or the type of bait I am using (beaded flies or gulp baits). The mix of males to females is like 90% males. I am confident I can tell the difference based on ear tabs and color of the fish and the body shape. I originally thought the males were on the nest but like yesterday I was at the feeder where I caught 80% or 90% male bg. Most of these bg were in the 8 to 9.5" and the few females I caught were in the 7" range with a few 5" sized. Only one 8.5" female was caught. This can't be the norm is it?

When I used to fly-fish bluegill in local waterways during the spawning season, I'd catch several males off each bed before the females would start. Not sure if this is the phenomenon you're seeing or not.

I have not watched breeder sized CNBG of any strain that much but there is the possibility that males and females have different microhabitat preferences even when not directly associated with nesting areas. Females may have different nutritional needs that take them into locations, particularly depths, where they are not encountering your lures. When it comes to catches around the feeders, the larger males could easily be displacing smaller females by outright aggression alone.

Hand-paint BG I am watching closely do defend feeding sites very aggressively. Females of other sunfishes like Redspotted Sunfish and some Longear stocks move about in small shoals of 2 to 5 individuals in deeper water well away from where males seem to hold territories.

I snorkel a lot and have some really nice good seeing culture volumes allowing some observations but still only enough to hint at what is going on. There is a lot of seasonal stuff too.

Will, I can say that one of those fishing times, I believe the males were on the nest or guarding nest because of water depths and location at that time and all the fish were males. But since then it seams no matter where I fish in the pond, I catch 90% or more males. Water depth to lets say 8' it still will be males that bite. I have fished the deeper 10 to 12 foot depths in the pond, when trying to catch a red ear and using Shorty's methods of dragging or slow moving dark colored baits (jigs) but I still only catch cnbg. The pond is 3+ acres and is aerated where it looks to be the same water temps no matter the depth. What is the deal? it seams I have mostly male cnbg. And very few Red ears and even when I see a red ear from e shocking the fish is in the 5" size, not sure of the sex and not many of those, even with the large original stocking numbers. And I thought I was a fisherman lol

Is it possible fish you stocked with had a skewed sex ratio? That is possible of you purchased super-grade fish. Once they are pushing 3" and are all the same age / cohort, you can have where males dominate the largest size class, especially the males that ultimately take on the nesting male look.

Keep watching and reporting what you find. I have wondered what the outcome would be if the first spawns in a newly stocked pond are skewed (which can happen but not often). Not saying that is the case and I would be surprised if it were but unusual events are possible. CNBG have been noted to have 50/50 +- spawns.

Mechanism I suggest would give a skewed sex ratio even though ratio at hatch 50/50 and survival rate not a function of sex. We can achieve it with Northern BG where pushing 90% of larger fish (top 25% based on weight) are male when they are pulled from a single group spawned within a window of only a few days. Size where males have really pulled ahead is when they are >3".

You can also get seriously skewed sex ratios from single-matings where gender is a function of genetics rather than environment. This only appears when a very small number of broods represented in a cohort. Some broods can be 90% one sex or the other, but you do not see it if multiple broods with differing sex ratios average each other out.

Tracy- growing cnbg has been my passion since my first pond in 2008. i tried to aggressively cull females right from the beginning. my first pond had otter problems year after year. i bought fish several different times to restock to try to offset the otters. i would buy 5" inch fish so they would survive bass predation. i got them from different suppliers also. i even once cage raised some smaller ones to release.

I almost never caught a female. i couldn't figure it out.

3 years ago i built my new pond. stocked it with 2500 2-3" cnbg from a totally different supplier. guess what. rarely do i catch a female. i have written on here and asked the same question as you several times. i am finding it harder to believe they hatch 50/50. if so, the females must fall prey to bass easier than the males.

Scott, have you seen evidence of reproduction in those stocks? Not nests, rather fry.

In some settings that would be ideal. Settings would be where highest quality CNBG angling desired or where you are trying to raise the fish for use as food. The same situation would conflict with using CNBG as a forage.

When sexing, did you do any confirmation when dressing them out. Some CNBG females can look a lot like a male when in comes to size of operculum tabs.

The pond was stocked 3 yrs ago (Overtons fisheries cnbg) this coming November using around 1,000 cnbg per acre along with some res. They were stocked primarily for lmb forage. I added more Res (1,800 total) the following February.(I never catch one) So, yesterday afternoon 45 min before the feeders went off, I used a 7'cast net and made several cast near all 3 of the feeders and I would catch around 5 to 6 female cnbg up to 7.5" with most of them being in the 5 to 6" size. I did see an occasional small male in the 5" range but most were female in the net. I am not sure what that tells me other than the male may be more aggressive or faster swimming in order to get to the bait sooner than a female. Or maybe the female is smarter than the male and recognizes the fishing lure where the male does not. PS, no way I am telling my wife I think the female might be smarter. lol And where were the large males that I catch when fishing in the same area? Maybe they are faster swimmers and able to outswim the females when a net comes into play.

I also see this in my pond. I'm gonna say maybe every 1 out of every 10 or 12 CNBG I catch may be a female. I seem to catch more females in colder months. I also have RES and cant seem to catch any of them except 4 or 5 inch ones and I know I have bigger ones then that. Or the GBH got them.... That is one bad thing about CNBG and RES they like to spawn fairly shallow so they are possible GBH food at times...

RC

RC, in one of my first cast I caught a 14" hsb which totally surprised me Another note is there were at least 5 tfs caught in each and every cast.

Very nice... Maybe I should get a net and give that a try. I would freak out if I pulled up a couple of big ole 12 inch RES.... I'm sure your bass are loving them tfs everywhere...

I can say this though. When I bought my CNBG I never even gave a male to female ration a thought... I was such a noobie then lol. I do however always see about20 to 25 beds in two different spots in my pond. So I never really gave it any thought and just figured I had enough to get the job done.

RC

yes. i have a lot of different size/age young bg. they were stocked February 2015. i constantly see freshly hatched fry.

i usually go by ear tab size, copper band on their nose, scale tipping, etc.

For me, it's pretty easy to tell the sex of the cnbg when they are in the larger size range of 7"'s or better and more questionable when sexing smaller size. Ear tab is the first thing I look at and then color and body shape. And I will look for scale tipping if I am not sure. I may be wrong when sexing the smaller 4 to 5" sized cnbg, it's possible. But when fishing over this past summer months the males are caught more than the females. like Scott and Rc, I am catching 1 female out of 10 bg, even when off the nest. What's up with that? And where the heck are the res?

I suggest checking by expressing gametes to confirm. I sex sunfish almost daily and CNBG are among them. Error can come from being over reliant some external characters. Some female CNBG's have ear tabs bigger than you might expect.

I can catch RES on the shore with a worm and a bobber but none of my larger RES seem to be around. I have not caught a larger RES 9 plus inches sense 2013... I caught a few that year that were around 10 inches. So I know I have them or they have died. However I consistently catch 3 to 5 inch RES so I know they have got to be reproducing at some point.... Just cant seem to find Mom and Dad is all... lol

RC

Mom and dad need not be large in some populations. I have bred BG that were at best 2" total length and RES can be done only slightly larger. That means the fish you are catching could easily be the breeding adults. They need not be stunted for reproduction to occur at such small sizes. Something else operates causing such small breeders.