Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Georgia Giant Help

I spent last Thursday thru Monday at my farm where my lake is located (Southern Illinois). On Friday morning I sprayed the algae and primrose with the chemicals I purchased from Herman Brothers. On Saturday, the primrose was already turning brown.

On 3 of those days, we tried fishing with crickets, meal worms and corn and did not catch any Georgia Giants. The only thing we caught were a few small BG and CC. We did catch bass on rooster tails and jigs. I did locate a 100 foot long seine and next time at the farm we are going to seine a portion of the lake.

I am feeding at 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. as Nate suggested and I was pleasantly surprised to see the BG eating the feed. I did not notice any other fish other than BG. They seem to be eating all the feed the feeder dispenses each time and at other times throughout the day, I would throw out handfuls of feed and they would eat it also. Should I feed more than twice per day if they are still hungry?

Also, I reinstalled the bug lights which at night cripple the bugs onto the water surface. There were mayflies and other bugs falling to the surface, but I did not notice any of the crippled bugs being eaten. I also noticed near dusk the BG seemed to stop eating the feed. So, I guess my question is will BG, LB and/or CC feed on the crippled bugs on the surface at night? If so, why aren’t they eating the crippled bugs? Are the bug lights a gimmick or do they work?

I walked the entire perimeter of the lake and did not notice any spawning activity at all (no LB, BG or Georgia Giants).

I do have a large population of mature bullfrogs. Does that mean anything for the fish?

I have seen the bug lights work best when kept near a bigger light, such as a green light.

In my pond the smaller bluegills were the only ones interested in surface feeding on the bugs that hit the water by the bug light. The larger bluegills seems to stay deep all the time.

BG have pretty small stomachs (compared to bass or cats) and will eat multiple times per day. IIRC some PMs here have mentioned feeding up to 4 times per day in the height of their feeding season.

Just remember not to feed more than they will clean up in 10-15 minutes. This often results in wasted feed and lower water quality.

P.S. If you could post a pic of the "smaller BG", I think we would be interested in seeing them. (Are they GG offspring ???)

Give the buglights some time, actually let me rephrase that, give the bluegills some time and they should congregate under those buglights. I have tried all of the buglights on the market, and none of them even compare to the bojo!

Also CJBS is right, the green light/bojo combination is dynamite for congregating and feeding fish throughout the night.

I gave it an entire summer.

Cecil, is there anything in life that works as advertised for everyone in every situation???

Only Ginzu knives ...

...and any product made by Popiel.

Quick update - good news - fish are actively eating all crippled bugs under bug lights, fun to watch. Feeding 3 times per day and fish are eating very aggressively, appears to be both BG and CC, along with 2 snapping turtles (soon to be in crock pot, tastes like chicken). Seeing lots of LB offspring. Caught numerous BG and some appeared to have eggs (fat bellies). I have a picture of a BG I caught and one of a snapping turtle eating the fish feed. The BG are 4 to 6 inches in length. Someone previously asked to see a picture of the BG to see if it was a GG offspring. I have the BG and turle pictures on my hard drive, but don't know how to attach the files to this thread. Can someone provide me direction on how to do so? Also, my large population of bullfrogs seems to have dissappeared. Could they have moved out/migrated or did someone help themselves to some frog legs? Thanks

See the Photo Posting thread in the Archives.

Thanks Theo - here are the bluegill and snapping turtle pictures.

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss71/ScottAlR/061609Bluegill.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss71/ScottAlR/061609SnappingTurtle.jpg

Sure hope I did this right.

Scott, if you put a "[IMG]" right before the link, and a "[/IMG]" right after the link, they will appear in the link like above.

Try it.

Does not look like a Georgia Giant offspring

I would guess that is some type of hybrid BG. It does not look like a pure BG to me.

Stuff him with pellets for a couple months and do another photo shoot.

Walt, that's mean ......... but funny.

Just to clarify, I meant whilst the fish is back in the water.

Didn't you know if it doesn't work for me it doesn't work for anyone Nate. Just kidding of course.

Looks like a regular gill to me though. I don't see any light margin on the gill tab do you?

I think it looks like an incognito bluegill that works for the CIA (or possibly the GSA).

Fins look like GSF/HBG ish to me - look at the shape and length. Mouth is questionable on my pic.

Makes sense to me.

On another note I have a friend that served in the Air National Guard with me that got snookered into the Georgia Giants hook line and sinker. I tried to tell him he'd been snookered but he wouldn't listen. His first shipment died on him so they sent him more.

Anyway the real hoot is I caught up with him several years later and asked him how big they were. He proudly told me they got up to 8 or 9 inches! I really had to hold back the snicker and bite my tongue at the same time. Good grief I've grow regular bluegills to slightly over 11 inches.

Georgia Giants are an excellent pond fish under the right conditions. Most on this site have always posted about GG without personal knowledge. Seperate Ken and GG. Thank you Bob Lusk for your open mind on this subject. I do not post often but when I do it is about some thing I have direct knowledge of!
Bill Duggan