Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Proof of female bluegill helmet development.

I've seen that in CNBG males quite a bit. Even in the northern strain it seems the females have a more delicate bar pattern, and the male's bar pattern gets enhanced during spawning time.

Congrats at the PRs Bruce. I had assumed those were impossible to obtain by now.

Bruce, those photos are incredible!
What where you using when you caught that crappie?
What was your go to bait in general?

It is interesting to know that Bruce was "matching the hatch and conditions" like all pro fishermen tell everyone to do. Many casual anglers do not take that information to heart, but those who do are regularly successful. Bruce may elaboraate more on that topic in a PBoss magazine article about his trip (hint, hint).
It is also very interesting to me the CNBG males tend to not have noticably larger gill flaps, but the black scale tipping on the nape / forehead persists. Very important features when dealing with CNBG.

Bruce may tell you more about his technique and matching the hatch, but those who know his style think that he basically 'just fishes' with a jighead tipped with a nightcrawler. While that's what he does, that isn't what he does. It took him a while to figure out the bluegill moved out into the middle of the lake to feed on mayflies hatching late in the afternoon. Once he found them, he was able to catch them. He caught all the fish using a similar technique. The 8 pound bass was caught on 4 lb test line with a jig and night crawler. So was each fish he caught. But, from his years experience fishing and his innate understanding of how fish behave, he is able to figure out how a lake works, where the fish are and how to present his favorite bait to catch the fish.
Regarding the monsters he caught, I have led the team that has spent more than five years setting the stage for folks to be able to come and fish here. Some things we have done have been fundamental and simple, but reading this lake hasn't been so easy. Some of the things we've developed over the years and I have replicated them elsewhere...some non-traditional management stratagies that I won't talk about yet...until I understand the consequences much better.
I preach four fundamentals of lake and pond management that have been used here that absolutely work. All the rest is the art of fisheries management where you have to understand the specific site and its quirks and nuances.
This lake, bar none, is the most intriguing lake I have ever had the pleasure to help develop.
The Morgan Company has spent a lot of money to get it this way and consequently, their mission is to use the lake as the basis of the King Fisher Society. It costs lots of money to come here and you get what you pay for. Bruce's pictures tell a fraction of the tale...the big fish he has caught here, but there's lots more to tell, especially the story about what it took to grow those fish. The stories about the history of the lake, the role it played during the Civil War, the Morgan family and the phenomenal fishery as well as the experience how the King Fisher staff treats its guests is intriguing. No wonder people are willing to pay big dollars to come. After all, if someone of the national renown as Bruce Condello can break so many personal records in such short time, that speaks not only of his talent, but also of the experience and quality of the fishery.
The four principles, for those of you who haven't read my passionate preachings before, are:
1) Habitat--As goes the habitat, so goes what lives in it. We spent lots of time thinking, planning and executing the habitat plan back in 2005.
2) Food Chain--Not knowing how this lake would respond, we stocked the food chain in a traditional way. After all, the lake was originally built in 1835 and drained in 2000 to rehab the dam. It stayed down until late 2005. Then it filled and we stocked it. The pH hovers around 5 and the flow rate over the spillway is tremendous. Therefore, we chose to design a feeding program.
3) Genetics--The fish in Bruce's hands attest to what we've done genetically. Sounds easy, doesn't it?
4) Harvest--We aren't to this point, yet, but it is inevitable. At some point, this fishery will level off and a critical part of my job is to figure out when that happens and what to harvest. That will be a tough job.

There's the nutshell version of the biologist's angle of the fish Bruce caught.

Four bass, wieghing approximately 22 pounds combined, anesthetized with a clove derivative.

Dad with a big bluegill. Notice the extensive helmet development.

Note -- you guys -- that it was caught on a craw crank bait.

WOW to page 1

WOW to page 2

thanks for sharing pics of that trip here, eagerly awaiting more...

My biggest Nebraska gill from the old pond (11") came on a crank bait while bass fishing.

Ewest,
The pic shows a craw crank bait, but who knows what it was actually caught on???

Bruce, do you have a photo of the sucker you caught... I know, most wouldn't care but I like the oddball fish.

Bob, do you have have a list of the all the species documented in the lake? It sounds as though for having such a low pH it is still quite diverse!

Bruce it's obvious good genetics produced your smile and fishing passion. Although practice helped a bit with the fishing /catching ability. Impressive collection of fish. Sit down and take some time to work this into a PB article with numerous pictures.

Beautiful cabin. The King Fisher Society is inCREDible!

Here is a list of the fish species I have seen in this lake.
Largemouth bass
Native bluegill
Coppernose bluegill
Redear sunfish
Fliers
Redbreast
Green sunfish
Warmouth
Black-banded sunfish
Black crappie
Bullhead catfish (very few)
Chain pickerel
Black-banded topminnow
Golden shiners
Roach
Suckers

There's more, but that's all I can think of at the moment.

Didn't you say there were threadfins as well, Bob?

We stocked threadfins once, about two years ago, but they didn't take. I'm about halfway convinced they were mishandled by the driver. He didn't temper them properly.

Another species I thought of is 'raccoon perch'...North Carolina's colloquial name for yellow perch. There's a few of those in there, too.

It's been a good week here at King Fisher. We seined the two hatchery ponds and moved more than 2,000 two year old bluegill that range in size from 5-8 inches. Then, we restocked the smaller hatchery pond with 2,000 1-2" babies.

Nice images, dude.
Good camera, great photographer.

...and a good logo!

Thanks Bruce, that sucker photo is excellent! You can add spotted sucker to your life list, as that is what it is and a rather big one at that! Did you catch it on your jighead chunk of worm rig?

Quite a list of species in the lake. Very cool! Sounds like it is quite the fishery...

Bob, do you think the extremely low pH may have affected the threadfin's ability to take hold as well?

I do. I think the fish truck driver, in this case, didn't totally do his job. He showed up in the middle of the night and was in the process of simply releasing the fish before the property manager stopped him. The guy didn't have a pump and bucketed water from the lake. He was fatigued and just didn't do his job.
I think if the shad had a better opportunity when they were stocked, the results might have been different.
But, the bottom line is that the lake has a low pH, ranging from 5.3 to as low as 4.9, is flowing rapidly and flushing the lake.
At the same time, with this feeding program, I have watched native species of creatures (most of which don't come to the feeders) thrive as well.
I may try to convince these guys to try one more load and make sure they get here in the daylight with someone on the truck that knows what's going on.
Let that be a warning to all buyers of fish. There's a chain of events that occur. If something goes wrong in any link of that chain, fish don't survive. They must be healthy and collected properly, treated well in the holding tanks, digestive systems cleaned out, handled properly when loaded, tempered at each step, loaded at the right density in the compartments on the truck, hauled with the right amount of oxygen, tempered on site and handled as gently as possible while unloading. Lots of steps.
What was the question?