Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations BG ID?

Face it george - you can't be a good influence on us without our being a bad influence on you!

That's probably one of the best-looking coppernose bluegill I have ever laid eyes on. I admit I have never paid that much attention to the bottom-side of a bluegill, but from the side view we see this whitish-blue coloration on the lower jaw a lot.

It's funny what we see and don't see when we look at a fish, and how over time and with consistent observation we start to notice new stuff.

This is a good post.

George as I posted and based on Todd's comments I would guess that is one of Todd's Fla variety CNBG (or an offspring) all grown up and ready for action !! It has that coloration.

I am culling Arkansas CNBG genetics, and preserving Florida trait BG’s, hopefully correct in most cases.

I culled about a dozen this morning, for dinner this evening – this being the largest - boga’d at 1.25#’s.

It was caught on a 3” bright chartreaus “glo in the dark” $Gill fly.
Would you have culled this fish?

Nope

I would have mounted it.

I would have kept it... no eaten it. Wait, no... ah, now I've got a headache.

What if you had caught two as large as this one with pure florida traits?

George the pond has a capacity for CNBG. In order to add new Fla genetics you need to harvest some of the Ark CNBG. With that in mind you will have to take some out. Taking out large male Ark CNBG is a good way to reduce their #s and dominance by them.

I'll bet that fish would fill up the bottom of a five gallon bucket!

Bruce, I understand your passion for the gills more and more as time passes.
An interesting observation that may or may not hold true, when our CNBG hit about 9 inches they seem to become much broader and thicker.
Maximum length presently seems to top-out at about 10.5 - 11 inches, and increasing weight gains to 1.25 – 1.5 #’s.

Thanks to Todd and Eric for educating me on CNBG ID, I am now more comfortable on culling.
I find if I hold them in a live well until their colors have stabilized they are easier to identify.
The younger and smaller are the ones I have problems with.
If they are iffy, they go back home.

Are you kidding, I would have built a shrine to it's mere existence in my pond, donned a traditional bluegill worship toga and danced circles around the shrine all while blaring "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" on my boom box. Is that wrong?

Yes, the traditional BG toga dances are performed to School of Fish music, not Iron Butterfly. :p

If I had that fish, a CNBG (Arkansas, Shmarkansas!), george, I think I'd have to try to get a year's worth of CNBGxNorthern BG crosses out of him (to see how they'd do in Ohio) before he expired from low temps next Winter. If I had him late in the year, I'd have to keep him alive indoors until Spring first.

I don't even get to cull fish that nice in my dreams, yet. Only once in a while do I even dream of catching BG that nice.

I’m not worried about taking out too many “Shmarkansas” CNBG.
We have so many gills that it is a sight to watch at feeding time, but don’t know how many HSB are included in the frenzy.
Three seconds of feed is cleaned up in a matter of minutes.
It is rare NOT to catch a couple of ~10 inch gills per session.

Last fall we collected more than a dozen 8 – 10” male SCNBG (new acronym Theo ) to transfer to ¼ acre pond, and a couple of dozen more male/female for the dinner table.
A dozen were harvested on Monday for the dinner table.

Probably about fifty 8 – 10+ inch Arkansas strain gills have been harvested.

ALL Florida CNBG male and female are being released.
15-hand size female pure Florida CNBG were obtained from Overton and stocked last fall.

With the culling program, there should be a tilt in the balance of CNBG toward Florida strain.

Should be an interesting genetic mix of this year’s crop.
I cannot tell any difference in the size or growth rate between Arkansas and Florida CNBG strains – so I guess “it all depends” on personal preference.

If we don't get another "gully washer" rain before hot weather to flush 4 years of fish poop build-up, the CNBG discussion may soon be academic.

Hi I just wanted to get an update on these fish and if they have grown anymore since this post and what size you pull out now?

Also since you feed them can you tell me how much and how often you feed them?

What type of food you use?

About how much this costs per month?

I want to start feeding mine, but not sure if I can afford to do so at this time, or willing to since I do not live at the location and the fear of someone stilling the feeder does not make me happy.

Also how long does it take to get these trained, say I wanted to go out to the pond and hand cast some feed out a few days a week?

Do you happen to have Catfish in the ponds as well or know how they take to food and how long it takes?

Just wondering as we are trying to get some ponds started but I have a feeling the fish are going to take for ever to grow with out a little help from me and some feed.

My kids love to fish and I think they would get a hoot out of watching them feed but just want to make sure I am not wasting time or money if I can not do it on a daily basis.

Any insight on this issue would be much appreciated.

Thanks

MrH, I lost most if not all of these fish in a fish kill.
The following link will document pure immature CNBG stocked following the fish kill and caught February 2009.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=207020&page=1

I will document further growth this fall.

I feed about 6lbs/acre Purina Aquamax 500/600 except coldest and hottest months - twice a day.

Currently about 150lbs/month at a cost of ~ $100/month
BG are raised on fish food and will go on feed as soon as consistant schedule established

No catfish - they are a problem if population in not controlled.

Good luck on your program.

Do you know what caused the kill?

100F temps - cold rain - neglected aeration schedule - massive plankton bloom ....

That’s too bad, I hope I do not run into that problem any time soon.

When did you restock your pond have you recently caught any this month and have pictures to post?

Also if one was to feed the fish for a while to get them to grow and then cut it off either slowly or cold turkey how would the fish respond?

Thanks

Too hot to fish .....

WHAT?

In other words... If you start a feeding program, you need to keep it up or you will have a lot of very hungry unhappy fish in a pond with an unnaturally high carrying capacity.

Which will lead to stunting, and bad pond mojo.

Bad pond mojo - I love that one. BPM