Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Aggressive BG

1/3 acre pond, 10ft avg depth. Currently stocked with non-hybrid bluegills.

300 Bluegills stocked as 1-2 inch fingerlings last year. Plan is to introduce LMB fingerlings this year. Gills are now 3-6 inches in length on average and very healthy.

My problem....bluegills are very aggressive and constantly peck at anyone swimming anywhere in the pond. My wife and daughters want my babies gone :-(

I am assuming this is an over-population and lack of predator (not afraid of anything) issue.

Looking for advice.

Maybe time to introduce some 8-10in LMB??
Also planning to remove as many BG females as possible.

BG are known to peck. RES aren't known to peck. I don't know what you can do to minimize the problem shy of removing the BG.

RES?

Red Eared Sunfish...got it. Thx.

Start pecking back. Just make sure the oil is good and hot.

Do you currently feed the BG?

I don't know what causes fish to do this. It seems to only happen in a small percentage of ponds and lakes. In over sixty years of swimming in a lot of lakes, ponds, rivers, and creeks, I only remember it happening a few times, and it was mostly from yellow perch, not sunfish.

But, then there are fish pedicures.

I was in my pond tonight moving some pots and just checking things out and I bet I got bit/pecked 100 times by the little ones... One of them can out of no where and hit me so hard in the chest it about knocked the wind out of me!!!

They're hungry! And this is enhanced with the warmer water temps and their increased metabolism and the fact that you are probably not feeding them. They are going after the hairs on your body that undulate in the water similar to zooplankton. Once you get your predator fish in their you'll see a marked decrease in this problem or none at all.

I'd still wait until the fall to add your predator fish.

On a funny note my dad's nipples are brown and similar in size to a 5D06 pellet. Back when I had too many small gills in the pond he got nailed really hard in one nipple while we were swimming. Said it hurt bad enough he had to check and see if it was bleeding. We all laughed and laughed about it.

A couple weekends ago I was swimming with friends and their kids. We discovered numerous, countless, freshwater clams about 3 inches below the sandy bottom. We had fun digging them up and collecting them for a while when one of the kids opened one. A bluegill immediately found the guts and she thought that was the coolest thing, so everyone started popping them open and watching the bluegill circle all around us. Eventually, these fish were basically sitting in our laps eating the innards of these clams. We got a kick out of it.

*Disclaimer: Story gets gross here. I had a pretty significant scab over my knee from a baseball injury at the time. I wasn’t even going to swim, but was coaxed into it. Being in the water as long as we were, the scab softened up. I wasn’t even paying attention to it at the time, just having fun with the kids having the fish eat out of our hands, but felt a peck at my knee. I looked and the soft scab was just floating, only connected to my knee by a thread. Right then, the bluegill noticed as well, and it was like a school of piranha. I barely blinked and they had it pulled off and were carrying it away, fighting over it.

I'd have too say my BG have all but stopped with my feeding increase and introduction of HSB one of the two has greatly decreased their need to eat me alive..

Yup.....feeding them. Maybe I should feed them more?? They are at a very healthy weight. I may go back to feeding 2x per day.

Curious as to why?

You should feed them enough so it's all gone in 10 to 15 minutes. If they finish it sooner, you could give them more. Another possibility is to feed them different times of the day too. Depends on how much you want to fork out in dollars. Thinning them would help in not having so many mouths to feed. Which leads to adding a predator.

Any particular goals for you pond as to what its best end use is?