Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Giant Green Sunfish

7 years ago my grandfather decide to dig a pond for no particular reason. Being the owner of his own construction company, he had all the necessary machines available to him. The end result was a 1/4 acre gently sloping hole that is 15 feet in the center.He never added fish to this pond except for a bag of gold fish he bought after it filled up. over the years various family members have thrown in LMB, SMB, NP, and different species of panfish. The pond also contains brown bullhead.Occasionally I bring a bucket of shiners to throw in and watch them get destroyed while I catch a few fish. The results of my family and their "stocking" has been quite impressive, but it is not what I want it to be. right now there is an abundance of large GSF and smaller bass in the 10-14 inch range. I did catch 1 lunker and I believe she owns the pond. my goals are to make make the bass fishery better while I talk him into digging another larger and more thought-out pond.

Here is a picture of the GSF. It measured 10.5 inches long.

There is a lot here on mgt. of small ponds. Balance is not easy but can be done.

Oh man, JHAP and DIED will go ballistic over that pic of that GSF.

Is that a green sunfish or a hybrid?

I think Sunil is correct, that GSF CROPPED is a hybrid.

What gave that away as a Hybrid? From the size of it's mouth I too would have guessed GSF.

Thanks

Coloration and body form indicate hybrid to me.

I agree - HBG.

Mouth on a GSF same size fish as one in the picture has a bigger mouth than one in the picture. Mouth on a GSF will extend backward past the front of the eye sometimes to the middle of the eye.

I made a circle tour of several of my favorite "public" fishing areas this afternoon. I got a very fat 20-inch LMB, which will be dinner tonight. I got it in one of my favorite SMB spots. I also got several nice smallies in this hole.

But, I also got a whole bunch of sunfish hybrids on large baits in this spot, and at a secondary SMB spot. Many of the sunfish were unidentifiable. I kept a few for dinner because of their size and thickness. They had characteristics of long-ear, green sunfish, bluegill, and who knows what else. No two looked alike. I was casting 7-9 inch plastics for SMB, but I was catching 4-8 inch multi-colored hybrid sunfish with nearly every cast.

My HBG/CC pond is extremely active. No bait goes untouched for more than a few seconds. However, my BG/RES/LMB/CC pond is like all the fish went on vacation somewhere else.

This got me to wondering -- should we be stocking a few green sunfish in our primary bluegill ponds? Or, maybe a few hybrids?

I think you should be taking pics..

Your HBG/CC is prolly more active because it don't have the forage to support itself, like the other pond..

I would consider that fish a GSF dominant hybrid. Looks like a female to me.

ha ha, brings back some memories for sure.

greg yer lucky to have those, even though not pure GSF, I think its a hybrid as well. hybrid nonetheless, it takes very special conditions to grow fish like that. stunted overpopulated bass with only GSF type forage to eat is the best recipe for a trophy like that.

here are some shots of big greenies for comparison. i believe these to be very close to, if not pure GSF. they are all what i consider trophy class, in the 9 to 11 inch range, and from my pond but several years ago.

While I agree it has a lot of GSF in it, I do believe the last one has some Joba in it as well.

They all look like pure GSF to me, and yes they are trophy GSF.