Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Bluegill spawning rates, north to south

Eric, that is indeed what I wanted to know. I rarely seem to witness the bG on bed during the full moon, etc. I think the first one might be set by that but once off it does nto follow that trend. 10 days on bed for males is about what I would guess as well. Thanks for info.

An interest in bringing this thread back to life.

My question is, if I am understanding what is said in this thread correctly, that each BG will only spawn once per year? In another way to state this is, BG spawn throughout the entire season, but only once per BG.

That's not what I got out of it?

Eric said:

It seems to be a process that starts in March {with a few BG} and hits its high in late May to early June { depending on the nearest full moon} stays strong through July and tapers off through Sept. I think based on my observations and info from others that most BG in this area spawn 5 times a year.

If your BG only spawned once a year your bass would never grow. If it takes 10 pounds of bait fish to equal 1 pound on a bass. IMO the bass would out eat the BG in no time? Or am I wrong?

RC

Here is another snip I found on this subject. Of course not sure how concrete any of this is....

Bluegill are an important species when it comes to fisheries management. Bluegill provide an excellent forage for bass due to their ability to reproduce at incredible rates. During one summer, a female bluegill can spawn three times releasing 2,300 to 81,100 eggs per spawn. This rate of reproduction is necessary to maintain adequate bass forage in a balanced bluegill/largemouth bass fishery and is why bluegill are preferred over other sunfish species.

But RC, look at what is said here:



I see this and think: when it is said the BG spawn more than once each year, it is a different female BG that comes in and spawns. Thus getting more than one spawn per year.

This has been the "sticky point" that I have been confused on since day one. No one seems to come out and say it just right for me to "get it".

You're both correct as far as I see it. I believe the traditional interpretation of a rolling spawn is when waves (or classes) of bluegills spawn at different times throughout the summer. However, that doesn't necessarily preclude the SAME female BG from participating in the rolling spawn, and spawning more than once a summer.

Yeah I'm not here to say who is right or wrong that's for sure! I'm like Fish just want to know. Or maybe it's both like spark says... what I do know is, it's a lot of babies!!!

I am going to include a link here provided by Sprkplug, which looks to be a tad newer in date than the start of this thread.

https://www.sdstate.edu/nrm/outreach/pond/upload/Bluegill-Nesting-Nov-Dec-2005.pdf

Third paragraph in, it talks about BG spawning.

My question to that info would be: How long between those intervals of "ripening" eggs? Is it just days, weeks, months?

I have finally gotten the broken link to work(thanks esshup), that is given by Ewest on page one. It is interesting!!! Here it is:

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...ite_id=1#import

Here is another article from SD State that I found while wondering this same thing yesterday, I was hoping my recently stocked bluegills will pull of a spawn this year

https://www.sdstate.edu/nrm/outreach/pon...ctober-2007.pdf

Another question for the fish biologists, if bluegill are introduced to a new waterbody could that trigger an additional spawn? From the article above it appears that existing population affects multiple spawns. I wonder if in a freshly stocked pond new stockers pull off multiple spawns for this reason and as the population grows the fish spawn less times in a year. Could also be the same in a bass heavy pond where most offspring are eaten triggering multiple spawns by the same fish. If there is room they will fill it!

Reports indicate from 1 to 11 times over a season.