Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations ID Help; HBG or Pure Strain?

I’ve got a friend a work who owns about 40 acres in the Brenham, TX area with a ½ acre stock tank. The property has been in his family since the turn of the century.

He advised the only stocking of fish he is aware of is the introduction of some fishing tournament leftovers (LMB) and some “perch” years ago. Although I’ve never fished this pond I know from his description it is severely heavy with stunted 10” to 15” LMB.

When asked to see some pictures, he handed me the following of about 10 LMB on a stringer caught by his 30 year old son. He advised they caught a “good size” bluegill in the bunch.

After review of this picture, I thought I would post it for comments, due to the size and shape.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b91/oztrich/Brenham035.jpg

Looks like a pure green sunfish.

Not a regular BG. Probably a HBG. Has some GSF genes in it for sure. See this thread.

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=000439;p=1#000000

It looks almost if not 100% pure GSF to me. I always leave room for that 1% doubt. Compare it to photos of D.I.E.D.'s GSF; Opps Dave pulled those photos. Sorry. Note how slender the body is, compared to that of a HyBG of similar length. Other features also signal GSF to me. Even on a strong slanted pose, note the distinct 3 defined emerald streaks on the gill cover - a distinct GSF character. The fish in the above first-link-photo is large because of the crowding of LMB in the pond. Few GSF are surviving and survivors grow well to large sizes.

PS - If only a couple more "10 bass stringers" are removed from this "APPARENTLY" bass heavy 0.5 ac pond, expect the GSF to become much more numerous and they will also become significantly smaller as average sizes. A noticable tip in predator-prey balance may have already been done with the removal of 10 bass from just a 0.5 acre stock tank. The presence of at least a few 15" LMB in a bass crowded pond indicates to me that the pond is not severly crowded with LMB. The LMB may be somewhat crowded but not severely.

I'm really sorry guys, i didnt realize that when i moved pics into subfolders on photobucket, they would be removed (disconnected) on old threads on pondboss (was just trying to clean house...had over 80 pics in one bucket)........anyway, here are a couple GSF pics back for yer use......


Fish 1


Fish 3



edited post, removed extraneous pics.....

Thanks Dave for adding pics, although 2 pics would have been plenty to make my point. Thanks again. Your two photos show a nice color variation of the larger sized GSF.

i'll also vote that texas grey's friend has some really nice sized GSF.

sorry for the overkill bill, just tryin to put all pertinent pics on one thread......which gives me the following idea......which in turn, perhaps other pondmeisters could follow......each pondmeister should have their own thread to post pics of their fish......a kind of go to library available for other PMs and topics such as this one. i'll edit out all but a couple pics here and start such a thread at some point soon.

DIED I added your pics back to the original thread. Thanks for reposting.

I agree that fish has a high % of GSF genes.

Pure GSF are not easy to find according to a number of authors and researchers on hybrid lepomis. That is one reason they give for the high variability of the % of male offspring in F1 HBG (BG x GSF) . From 65% male in one study to 98% in another. Some think that the inability to find pure GSF even for studies which are controlled is a major factor. This also may play a part in why HBG have such a wide variety of appearances as per the linked thread.

Looks like a Green Sunny to me!

From my pond...




These guys are great fun to catch.

Big ones of GSF, like Jeff, Dave in el, and T Grey have in their ponds, are also good eating. Their thick backs make for nice fillets which is where the body bulk comes from in most of the hybrid BG crosses.

Notice the short quite round pectorial fins on these fish in the photos. This is another GSF feature whereas the fins are longer and progressively more pointed as more BG or RES genes are expressed.

Thanks for the advise.

After viewing the photos it's more than evident its a GSF.

I don't know of any fisheries in the area that actively advertize or sell GSF.

Any idea how these fish made it to this pond? The owner has no clue and he's been here for decades.

My personal belief is that human assistance was involved. Mine came from the hatchery along with BG.

Lets see . No stocking in many years. No known sellers of GSF. Stunted LMB (perfect size to wipe out 3-4in lepomis - normal GSF size). Low reproduction by GSF (2-10M) when compared to BG (50-80M) and LMB (15-20M). The one lepomis caught is a pure GSF. Must be Magic.

Or as Dave says "human assistance was involved". I assume that since it is described as a stock tank there is no stream influence. It would be good to see what a seine survey shows. Theories ?

I agree with the human assitance theory. The one known male green sunfish that was loose in our pond for a few years came from our neighbors hired hand. He would go down to the creek a mile away and siene 3-4" GSF for bait before he came over to fish for LMB. This pratice was stopped as soon as we discovered it but at least one male GSF survived and a small number of pumkinseed looking hybrids were caught over the next 7-8 years. This one male was removed by my brother years ago. I have not seen a hybrid in our pond for several years now but my brother in law claims he caught an 11" plus "pumkinseed" this last July. Had I not talked with the nieghbors hired hand by chance one day, we would have never known where that one male GSF came from.