Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Bluegill loss from Miserable Winter of 2010

Hi,
We finally are getting some decent weather here in northern OH. The sun has been out for about 5 days in a row!! What a treat this is. I went down to look at the pond which still has 3/4 ice cover, except where the bubbler was going all winter. I found about 5 dead blue gill :(. One was a male, and must have been about 3-4lbs. There are many many small baby gills that have been lost too. I hope there aren't more. Just checking if anyone else has a loss? Thanks.

I think it'll be one of the more interesting springs, seeing how these BOWs will look after such a hard winter. Keep this thread updated please.

Kay

I'm still ice covered on my main pond, but my micro's are all okay thus far. I know there will be some loss...I can only hope it's not too bad. Our winter was far too harsh for there not to be some morts.

Micros?

His <1 acre ponds.

Sorry C - .5, .35, .2 acre ponds. My micros! They are ice free and saw nothing bloated and floating...thank goodness. Guess I could still have some surprises waiting for me though as the weather warms up.

Three to four pounds? Pics please!!! That's one heck of a big BG!!

I'm thinking she meant to type 3/4 lbs.

If not, expect Condello to show up and obtain a DNA sample for cloning purposes.

Maybe Kay has a secret for growing big BG?
Kay - winter especially with ice & snow cover is the hardest season on fish. Usually the most vulnerable are the smallest and oldest & weakest fish in the pond. Assuming adequate oxygen (DO) concentrations in the pond during ice cover, when one sees bunches of the smallest fish from last year dead at ice off it suggests they were too crowded and did not have enough food and fat reserves going into winter. Also a lack of proper sized predators contributes to having too many mortalities during a stressful winter. In those cases, Mother Nature performs the necessary task of thinning out too many and/or the weakest fish based on the current pond conditions.

We did have a very few CNBG in several size ranges and some TShad winter-kill. No BG were noted in the bunch.

Had about 2/3 of my ice off yesterday. No floaters this year, fortunately. I do have several thousand bullfrog tadpoles swimming around in the SMB-YP-RES pond. :

Fortunate for whom??

For me, of course.

I found out last year that funny smell floaters have doesn't always cook out.

The smell doesn't cook out? Ewe! I don't eat a floater unless he's at least still kicking a little when I scoop him out of the water. I'm glad someone else experimented with this before I did.

Hi Bill, Well, our BG are big. My son took a pic with his cell phone, but I don't know if he saved it. Anyway we fish for BG during spawning season. We usually manage to get a lot of large bull BG. We have blue-zilla gills - and the bass know it - well for the most part!! Two of the floaters were the blue-zillas. The others were female.
Most of BG's are so tame when they see me coming down the hill they make a V -line straight for the shore and the food. We feed them top of the line food about x3 a day. The whole family enjoys the pond, but must admit my son and I are the true keepers of the pond.

The ice is finally out on my 2 acre pond and I haven't oticed any floaters. I was worried too with the large amount of snow cover we had. I caught two 15 inch crappie and three 12-14 inch bass in the shallows in about 10 minutes this morning. I didn't think anything would be biting yet ,but we have had some massive rains for the last week or so. Good for the pond as it is full!!!!! Can't wait for warmer weather next week

I had only two RES floaters. Big, big ones, not 4 lbs. though. Either 10 year old original planters or second generation, as there have never been any small ones. Every year I get one or two. I don't have snow and never ice up, but they just can't make it through the winter. Old age and stress I would imagine. Really saddens me but part of the life cycle. Once they are gone I think this pond will have no RES left. I have to start to some selective harvesting just to give them a chance while they are still around. My FLA LMB are so stacked nothing survives.

Well,

Ice is long gone off the pond here in Central Ohio. My mother in law went out today and walked around it and gave me the update. I'm stuck inside with a broken knee for the next two weeks.

It appears that I lost the following this winter due to the ice cover I am assuming:

7 - bluegill/hybrid bluegill
1 - largemouth bass

I stocked 20 bass and 170 of the bluegill/hybrid in the fall. I am planning to get my windmill this spring and install it, I just didn't have time this fall to get it in. Anyone think this is any reason to panic with this number of fish loss? I thought I might have some, and I guess not losing them all is a good thing.

There is a good chance that you lost more than that. An awful lot of fish die and sink. However, both BG and bass can replenish themselves. The key will be to look in the shallows for small fish.

Busted knee; OUCH!!