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Joined: Mar 2009
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In a previous post I divulged that I had learned that my pond has had HBG stocked in it in the past. This got me to wondering if I have pure bred bluegills or some sort of F2s, F3s, etc. Here are a couple of fish from my pond. Please give me your opinions on their ancestry. Fishy1  Fishy2 
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Picture 1: Female purebred bluegill
Picture 2: Female purebred bluegill
Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
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Number 2 is probably the largest bluegill I've caught in this pond in the 13 months that I've owned it. Should I add new genetics, cull every bluegill I catch, or both?
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If you want to help bulk up your bass, in addition to a strong bass culling program, you don't want to remove any bluegill.
Add some new pure bluegill is a good idea, but you might want to find 5" or larger BG so they don't just get eaten by the existing bass populations.
Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:"
"She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."
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Sunil is exactly right. It depends on your goals. Big bluegill, or big bass?
Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
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I agree too.  On another note the bluegill don't look terribly slow growing to me. The eye size is in the normal range for the size of the fish. The body conformation is similar to the body conformation of fish from public waters around me. In case you didn't know this, a fish's eye grows at a standard rate regardless of the growth of the rest of the fish. Therefore if the body is stunted the eye will look quite large. Also the fins of a fish will be quite large in proportion to the body on a slow growing fish. Conversely the eyes, head, and fins will look quite small on a fast growing fish. There are a few exceptions to this as in species that normally have large eyes regardless of their growth. Crappies come to mind. There may be other factors on why you're not getting larger bluegills than just slow growth.
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 04/21/10 12:47 PM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
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I don't need ten pound bass or three pound bluegills, but could I have an occasional five pound bass and bluegill over a pound?
Cecil, what other factors could be keeping me from getting larger BGs?
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To help the BG grow, feed 'em AquaMax! I was feeding generic catfish food from TSC to them, and noticed a marked increase in their size when I switched to AM 500, then 600 last year. I think I'll feed a mix of both sizes this year starting next month.
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I have a new feeder on order from Greg. Hasn't gotten here yet.
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Agreed. Aquamax has done wonders in my tank. Well worth the extra money for a bag. I feed AM 2000 and 3000.
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I agree too. On another note the bluegill don't look terribly slow growing to me. The eye size is in the normal range for the size of the fish. The body conformation is similar to the body conformation of fish from public waters around me. In case you didn't know this, a fish's eye grows at a standard rate regardless of the growth of the rest of the fish. Therefore if the body is stunted the eye will look quite large. Also the fins of a fish will be quite large in proportion to the body on a slow growing fish. Conversely the eyes, head, and fins will look quite small on a fast growing fish. There are a few exceptions to this as in species that normally have large eyes regardless of their growth. Crappies come to mind. There may be other factors on why you're not getting larger bluegills than just slow growth. That's really interesting stuff, Cecil. Thanks for posting that - I've never seen those tips previously. I've often wondered how old our fish are in our ponds as no one I've been able to find really has any idea of the stocking history. I'll have to start looking at those characteristics as I catch fish.
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