Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Bluegill Movement

My question concerns bluegill movement around feeders. Are they homebody welfare hogs or do they move around the pond to forage for supplemental food items when not waiting on the feeder to discharge? I only try to feed supplementally and not to satiation per feeding...i.e.about 1.5 pounds per feeding, three times daily. They would readily consume more, much more. However, my intent is to have balanced fishing over the entire pond with nice bluegill rather than welfare hogs inhabitating a small area of the pond. If indeed they don't forage when not fed, am I restricting growth with limited feeding and would be better off not feeding at all. I might add the pond is 2 years old, 6+ acres, and stocked with large mouth bass, bluegill, shellcracker, and 10 grass carp. I fertilize to 18-24 inch visibility.

All I know for sure is that my BG are NOT present at the feeding location except for a window of 2-4 hours around their normal (once a day now, twice a day when the days are longer) feeding time. I assume they are looking for food and avoiding being eaten the rest of the day.

I would expect that very few of the BG population would be around the feeder in a 6 acre pond.

The bluegill on my 1.25 acre pond have clear individuality from fish to fish. There's a small percentage that mill around the feeder for most of the day. There are more that migrate to the feeder during and immediately preceding feeding time. There are also some bluegill that will not even acknowledge the existence of pelleted feed and subsist on natural forage only. Two years ago I did stomach samples at various times of day which confirmed these findings. If you feed to satiety, I am absolutely certain that you will not create a complete welfare state, you will simply bulk up those fish that prefer this method of foraging.

BTW, faw. That was a really good first post. It shows that you already have a good grasp on what you're doing. You should hang around here and keep us informed as to future progress.

Also, I haven't learned to do live stomach samples with any proficiency. The fish I sampled were killed and eaten.

I can't do live stomach samples, either.

In my experience, however, BG which have pelleted feed as a large percentage of their diet have, shall we say, "fish by-products" that are quite different from BG which do not eat pellets.

Pelleted feed -> rather granular waste products, medium brown in color.

Natural feed -> black/very dark waste, very fine texture.

As my Grandpa used to say, "A bird in the hand can get messy at times."

Anyone else find these differences?

I see you took the thread title literally. Bluegill "movement"??

Yeah, I've seen the same thing.

faw :

Welcome to the forum. I think you are in good shape with your plan. Most articles that address supp. feeding provide that one feeder will only service at most 3 acres for BG. That is because they (BG) will not travel far to engage in supp. feeding. The smaller the BG the less distance they will travel to get to the feeder and many will not swim out through open water. I have seen info that says they will stay with in 300 ft. of feeder. I agree with Bruce that even if feed to satiety they will still forage on their own to meet food demands.They eat small amounts often and will forage between supp. feedings. But given that you are only supp. feeding I don't think you need to worry about BG being lazy. You should get added growth and reproduction from your plan. Keep us posted. I will look for additional info and post as found. ewest

Faw, good question and good answers from respondents…

I’ve often wondered the same – when it’s time for the feeders to go off, hundreds of BG are waiting for the feeder to go off.

They literally splash the water out on the bank when feeders go off – it’s fun to watch. I can’t afford to feed the greedy rascals to satiations..

In fact, you can walk to the feeder and they will gather – splash the water with fly line, toss pellet fly and hang on to your 5wt fly rod.
I do this to check on growth and condition of fish ……

We run two feeders in a 2-acre pond, set to go off at the same time, to avoid BG and HSB to concentrate at one spot on the pond.

George Glazener

Thanks for the replys fellas. Your combined input most helpful in answering my question. Though I am an old guy (3 score down, starting 10), I am relatively new to pond management. I wanted a pond years before I had one built. Waited for the right time; right time never comes for most of us. Marriage was stable so I bit the bullet and took the leap of faith and did it. What a great leap! Most of what I have learned, I got from "Pond Boss" and lurking this site gleaning information from you guys. Usually, the answer to any question I might have can be found here. I feel I can offer very little constructive advice or expertise, only experiences and challenges I have successfully encountered or failed in miserably, like when I killed my larger fish last May by overfertilization an resulting DO crash. The old saw of "a little knowlege can be a dangerous thing" should be heeded carefully. I learned it the hard way. Set me back a year, but that is another story. A good serving of "humble pie" is a great teacher. Thanks for the input.

The fact that you are thoughtfully going through this process, and the resulting observations mean that you have a lot to offer the forum. That is the number one way that the rest of us learn.

Faw, you can offer a lot, believe me. I have learned far more from my failures than successes. Your actual experiences are most valuable, far more valuable than theory.

Your questions on BG feeding got some good answers that match my experience also. I've caught BG that were clearly stuffed with pellets, far away from the feeders. You don't need to do a stomach test to tell cause they spit it back up when caught. The problem with feeding that I have experienced is not welfare BG, but welfare LMB. They hang out in wait to pick off BG at the feeders. Its an easy meal, and partially as a result, they refuse any lures in the pond. Wondering if you have seen anything similar?

The great thing about the forum is we can all learn not just from our own mistakes, but from each others.

Have you ever tried a Bagley Bluegill crankbait?

It is one of my favorite baits for catching very big LMB's that are picking off male BG's as they are defending their spawning beds. It should work quite well next to your feeder.

(Keys to the my bagely BG crankbait pattern are, occupied BG spawining beds out infront of a rip rap bank, some wind blowning into into the bank, and there needs to be some deeper water nearby.)

Shorty, dont mind Meadowlark, he just can't catch a full LMB.

Come on autumn and water turkeys; that will change the subject.

Seriously, ML, sorry to hear of the damage in E tx. My chain saws are in Miss., but I have become proficient with them if you need help.

:D

Just trying to be heplful!

PS Shhhhhh on the Bagely BG crankbait big bass pattern, I don't want everybody knowing about it, I've won a few club tournaments on that pattern.

Bagely BG crankbait would be a little difficult on the 5 wt fly rod but I'll give it a try and keep your secret Shorty.

faw,
I feel the bluegill establish home range. This is typical of prey species. Bass, Catfish etc being predator is not this way. So a bluegill 500 feet away does not have a clue the feeder is going off. People can ot belive how agressive fish are at the feeder but if you weighted all the ones there what % of pond carrying capapcity is around feeder??? So we sell usually 2-3 feeders for a 6 ace pond. Depends on many factors, budget being a main one.

Also the key word is supplemental feding. That is what it is. They will eat other items as well. If you want to feed 0.5 per day that will help 1.5 lbs 3 times will help that much more. I feel this leads to better health for the bluegill this in turns translates into bass gain via larger bluegill to eat and increases in reproduction form healtheir bluegill.

It also might mean easy fishing for bluegil around the feeder, ok what is worng with this especially if talking about kids. It also might mean easier meals for bass, ok this means larger bass that I have never seen any harder to catch, in fact have argured helathier bass has more energy to chase down spinnerbait.

So yes the bluegill are getting a handout but money well spend if wanting increased bluegill or bass growth.

(Be forewarned, I'm gonna philosophize here)

"Sport fishermen," depending on their inclinations, could have a problem with easy fishing at the feeder. But everyone should feel free to make their sport (whatever it may be) as challenging as they want to handle. E.G. wrt deer, I don't have a problem with longbow hunting, crossbow hunting, handgun hunting, or long gun hunting - choose what you want (I have done all of these except crossbow, depending on the time I have to hunt at each stage of my life).

As a fishing farmer (not currently a fishfarmer, IMO) I note that I get fat steers for the butcher much easier in the pen where I put 50 lbs of grain a day. I don't consider this sporting, but I don't consider it wrong, either. It's an efficient way to get protein. If someone wants to say fishing at the feeder isn't sporting, go ahead. But it is at least an efficient way to get protein.

Finally (and in reference to Greg's note) as far as fishing goes I am still a kid. And I hope that wrt fishing, I never completely grow up.

Don't forget that supplemental BG feeding probably leads to better Wr's entering winter. This in turn will almost certainly increase fecundity. All animals are this way. Health and vitality drive reproduction. This would logically mean that YOY and small, younger largemouth will have better prey selection in spring of following year. Not that you HAVE to feed, you really don't...but if you do there seems to be a "trickle up" effect for predators that can't be ignored.

Meadowlark,
You're right, I had noticed opportunistic bass preying on bluegill around the feeder when bluegill were preoccupied with feeding. I guess this proves a point: (1) all semi-intelligent creatures and greater will generally take the easy route given the choice and (2) that easy choices can result in dire consequences. As an old gentleman once told me, "The short way home may not be the best way home."

Greg Grimes,
Your reply was a great summarization to my original question. Thanks.

I like that one, Faw. Spoken like one who knows. Thanks.

Bruce that is exactly what I meant by "translates into bass gain via larger bluegill to eat and increases in reproduction from healtheir bluegill." I forget that this board is way more knowdledgeable than my client base. If I said fecunidty rate they wouild flip out on me. Thanks for clearing that up though because that is a huge point when adding feeders for increased bass produciton. Also that increase in fecundity rate is one reason to fertilize unproductive lakes as well.

Here are my favorite points about feeding bluegill. Supplemental feeding expedites growth rates. It also reduces, during part of the year, competition for natural bluegill food. As Dr. Condello notes, fecundity and relative weights increase. Oftentimes, we see greater survival of young of the year in ponds consistently fed. During electrofishing surveys, it's common to find adult bluegill, stuffed to the gills with fish food, more than 100 feet from the feeder.
Keep in mind, when a bluegill loads up on fish food, during warm months, it takes less than 8 hours to digest. Unless a feeder spits out those precious nuggets every 8 hours, bluegill still are compelled to feed. One other thing, not all bluegill come to the feed. Bluegill are similar to other animals in that some are aggressive, some are passive, some are average. Some hide, some thrust themselves into the line of feeder fire, others stand at the back of the line.
If I have seen one bass ambush bluegill nibbling on pellets near a feeder, I have seen two thousand.
That's about all I have to say about that.

Just to chime in I might mention that I noticed very early on in my short pond experience that not a great percentage of my fish were getting feed from the feeder or in the area I might hand feed. I also wondered if that might create a bunch of welfare fish that got lazy around the feeding station. This might sound like heresy but my solution was to feed my fish all over. I have a path that goes 2/3 the way around my pond so each time I feed I walk the whole path and throw feed all along. This only works for hand feeding but I feel that at least I manage to get some feed into some of the fish that don't hang out near the feeder. I have many times experimented with feeding only at the feeding station first, wait until the fish are feeding hard, then go the rest of the way around and throw a little out. I find that no matter how many fish are feeding by the feeder there is still plenty that will feed everywhere else. I have observed fish in my pond travel about 50 feet to get to the food. So I think that if all you do is have one or two feeding stations, depending on pond size of course, you are probably only getting supplemental feed into a small number of fish.