Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations HBG spawn! Crap!

Just put HBG in October of last year with CC. Put HSB and YP about a month ago. I was hoping the CC,HSB,and YP could keep them in check. Worried my HSB won't be big enough yet to get the job done. They were under 5 inches and the YP were between 6 and 10. What should I do? Thanks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvKtOjKOpQE&list=UUtsKh7PcjwdZIzWlkTRYkyQ&index=1

What size HBG did you stock in October?

How about putting in one larger LMB?

2 inch HBG and 6-8 inch CC.

That might work. I wish I could sex them. I would throw in a few. I'm afraid they would prob just hammer the fatheads though. I did notice the fatheads were hammering the beds. I'm guessing they are eating the eggs.

Looks like you have lots of spawning habbitat!!

How new is the pond?

Just started filling in October after a do over regarding a leak.

Can you lay your hands on some larger HSB? I wouldn't panic though....just because the males build nests doesn't mean they are about to get out of control.....technically, there shouldn't many ladies present, and the boys are just going through the motions, mostly for nought.

They were 2" in Oct of last year, and they're spawning now?

Yes. I don't know what they were eating in that newly filled pond all winter but some look to be over 5 inches. If I get a chance ill try to catch a few tomorrow. I noticed while feeding there is only one fish on each nest. They stand up on tail and fan the clay out. I didn't even think about the males just doing their thing. Makes since. Is it normal for HBG to grow that fast. My pond never fully iced over and melted every day with all the black pond dye I put in it in fall. Thanks spark.

I think it would be hard for them to spawn this quick. Was the pond drained completely down and killed off?

Are you sure you did not get some BG mixed in with your HBG?

Like sprkplug said they should be mostly male and just doing their thing.

How big are the new spawn you see, maybe they were just some slow growers from your stocking.

Yes and completely drained and lined with 18 inches of clay. Not sure on anything being mixed. If i get some free time this afternoon I'm going to try to catch a few and get pics. Last pics I showed people were iffy on their genetics. Have not seen any spawn except what I believe are FHM fry. They are everywhere. I think I just panicked when I seen all the beds encircling my whole pond.

So you are more concerned there are beds not that you have actually seen HBG fry.

No HBG fry. Crapload of FHM is all I've seen. I just walked out to pond and there was one heck of a turf war going on. Those HBG are like little heat seeking torpedos bombing the others. Every bed had one fish on it today.

Well managed to catch 4. Rainmans YP would not leave the worm alone. Here they are all around 5 inches.

Do these look like quality HBG?

they look to be very healthy!! smaller eyes, large forehead, and looks as though they have some girth.

The coloring is Beautiful!! Most of our HBG look more like GSF.

That's a sigh of relief. Last time people were unsure. Is 2 inches to 5 inches a good start since October?

Spark, do any of these look like females? Nothing but AM for my babies.

Had a chance to crop finally.

They look great....outstanding growth through the winter period. It's hard to tell when they are smaller, but I think your first photo MIGHT be a female.....don't panic, I'm just going by coloration and opercular tab shape....very hard to tell.

Just tell yourself that you WILL have some females present. It's unavoidable in this situation. Keep all vegetation and cover to an absolute minimum, and you might throw a few LMB in there to help you sleep better at night. Single sex Bass would be nice, but I don't worry about it....they'll eat their own offspring also, and I see VERY little LMB recruitment in my pond....simply not enough forage for a population of LMB.

Ok thanks. I'm trying to learn to sex them to cull every time I catch one. I'm going to just catch one bass and throw in with them unless I can figure out how to sex them. I wish you could buy single sex LMB.

If the LMB in your area are still on the nest, or are guarding the newly hatched LMB fry, you can be assured that the ones you catch are males. If you see 2 LMB on the nest, then all bets are off on which sex you catch.

Also I did gill hook one and it was bleeding pretty bad. Have feeling he will a floater this morning. What is the best kind of hook to catch these things while trying to prevent mortality. I was using a long shank. Always ignored these types of fish all my life because they never got big in the rivers around me. We only ever caught them for trot line bait. Never even knew a bluegill would get that big until I found this website and forum. Can't wait to take my daughter out to catch one of these. She is only 14 months right now so they should be pretty nice sized at that time.

Awesome Esshup. Off to the local ponds to check.

Use a 1" or <2" Curly tail grub on a small mini jig. White works very well for visibility. Use polarized glasses. When you see the white disappear, set the hook, don't wait until you feel the bite. I use 1/100th or 1/80th oz. jigheads. I've found them in Cabelas.

90% of the time I use them unpainted. Thread the curly tail grub on the hook, aligning the seam mark in the grub with the bend of the hook. I prefer to have the curly tail going straight up. If it's to one side or the other, the jig will swim to the left or the right, depending which way you missed threading it on perfectly "up".

I've found that Mr. Twister brand of scented curly tails and mini-crawfish outfish the Berkley power baits by a small margin, but both outfish the non-scented versions by a large margin. If you can find them, the mini-crawfish and nymphs seem to outfish the curly tail grubs.