Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Sunil, eat your heart out!

Sooo true.

Agreed! there is a lot to be said for longevity!

Here's a picture of a large bluegill out of my favorite lake in Massachusetts I used to fish as a kid. A friend on the Internet sent it to me a few days ago.



The lake is kettle lake that is 35 acres and 55 feet deep. Most of it drops off like a rock and it's not especially fertile with a clarity of probably 20 or 25 feet. It has really large zooplankton that the trout in the lake cram themselves with. I have no doubt the bluegills do too. Slow growing long lived bluegills.



The friend spoke to me how frustrated was to only catch one of the really large fish he believes are in the 11 inch range and the largest he's seen in several years. He says you can visually see the fish but can't get them to hit anything - nitecrawlers - flies or anything. Personally I think it's a combination of water clarity and the big bluegills feed on large zooplankton. And as we all know large trophy fish aren't that way because the are gullible.

I'd love to take the boat out there in a couple of weeks but probably won't be able to get the funds together. Most people don't fish for bluegills out there as they consider them trash fish.

This fish taken out of Lake Michigan last year on a downrigger was estimated to be a couple hundred years old!

LMAO!

If he had only held it out to the camera it really would have looked big.

That is the rare Great Lakes subspecies of BG...

Lepomis macrochirus gianticus!

Some have not that the honor of being educated in camera techiques by Dr. Condello.

Beautiful fish Cecil, very impressive!!

I do have one teeny, lighthearted criticism though.......a couple of pros like Cecil and Scott get together to procure some fish, and there's no photos with a BG on the scale?

The SMB and YP get all the glory....

Yeah, we measured a few BG, but didn't take pics. Didn't weigh any of them either, although a scale was at pond side.....

Cecil did put one BG on the tape, and it did hit 10", but it immediately went back into the pond.

If the weather is O.K. when he seines the pond, I'll try like heck to get him to hold the fish while I take pictures and weigh a few.

Yeah I think we can arrange that Scott especially since I've got taxidermists chomping at the bits to buy some 10 inch fish in good condition. I'm pretty sure the parasite irritation will be healed up then too.

I think you could have heard the sigh all the way to the west coast from taxidermists on a taxidermy website when I told them I didn't come up with what they wanted this year.

Cecil, they are there, and I'll bet we could catch some by angling once the spawning stress is gone. But, the mark from the hook might be objectionable.

Have your circular tanks set up, I'll bring the hauling tank. We could probably sort out some fish to sell when seined. I'll make sure to bring Mikey - 6 hands are better than 2.

Those are awesome yp guys......Those would make a beatiful mount especially with a ten to twelve pound walleye chasing them.

Talk to Cecil! If you furnish the 'eye, I'll bet he'd furnish the YP. Here's a SMB that he did for me.

I'll see if I can catch an 11" (BG) tonight for you guys.. Been wanting to bg fish lately anyways but the winds been strong seems like everyday.

Here's one that's pretty close just a pic I had on my phone.. I ate this fish he completely engulfed a small crankbait

Hook damage is not an issue.



I just hope I have enough tanks to do the job. Two of my biggest ones will be farmed out to high schools and I hope to have four 200 gallon tanks in the basement in operation by then. I do have that big 800 gallon blue one though. We can move fish with the tank I the trailer I suppose.

Wow that's a big one!

That fish was caught early last year before I started feeding.. I've caught multiple bigger than him but the one pictured seemed to have a longer tail than normal.. Should be able to do some good tonight.. Cecil would you be interested in larger fish for cast or anything?

Bluegillkiller,

Thanks for the offer but I don't do custom casts.

Save 'em till they get to that magical 11 inches!

Any idea how much that fish weighed and how old it was?

Figured I'd offer, I know there's another taxidermist on a fish site who offers a free mount for BG over 11"..

No idea on fishes age weight was over a pound at 548 grams 1lb 4oz roughly.. The pond is 30 yrs old and had no management until beginning of last year.. So not really sure about fish ages..

Cecil that is a beatiful job on that smallmouth. Very very nice paint job. Esshup what are the stats on that fish. Did you catch him from your pond?

I caught the fish the 2nd week in September in a Northern Wi. lake. It was a square SMB. 19" long and 19" around. I thought it weighed 6# when I caught it, but after a year plus in the freezer Cecil weighed it at less than that.

The lake was invaded by Rusty Crayfish and the SMB fishing exploded. Even the locals are pretty tight lipped about it, I only know about it because a friend has a house on the lake and we use it as our base to deer hunt from.

My buddy wanted to go Musky fishing, so we threw lures for a couple of hours without even a follow. I decided to throw a Manns -1 and lost 5 or 6 before getting the hooks to stick in this one. I swear that I could look up at the fish from the boat - they seemed to be jumping that high.

That evening right after sunset, the Northern Lights danced for about an hour and a half - that was the best show that I've seen them put on. Rare for that early in the year.

I had a larger one follow the lure to the pier in front of the house, but I couldn't get it to hit.

Thanks but the picture doesn't do it justice for some reason. It looks different in person to my eyes.

Cecil, it might be the bright sunlight that it was in for the picture.