Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Condello Strain Bluegill

Well my grandfather is planning on buying land in central/south Georgia in the next few years. Finally my plan for managing a trophy pond will come into play. In years past I was big into trophy bass fishing with aspirations for managing a personal trophy bass pond. But I recently became addicted to pan-fishing, specifically bluegill, partly due to their table fare.

Not only will a trophy bluegill pond suit our stomachs but also our pockets. Depending on the land, soil, ect.. I'm planning on a 1-5 acre pond with a "bigger the better" mentality but it's all dependent upon the lay of the land.

But the reason for this extremely long rant is to find these notorious Condello Strain Bluegill I keep seeing on the internet! The backbone for any trophy pond whether it be bass or bluegill is genetics and the Condello strain is a proven winner.

If someone could point me to a legitimate source of these fish I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank You

Actually, there are some wonderful threads on this website in regards to using selection process to improve growth rates, agressiveness, and feed conversion of various fish, including bluegill.

I've never made a penny specifically marketing my fish, but I've made sure that Matt Rayl had the very best opportunity to collect the right genetics from my efforts. Matt Rayl can be contacted at Mattrayl.com and can give you specific answers. I trust him.

We at Pond Boss are careful to not use the "Ask the Boss" as a direct marketing tool. Bob Lusk owns and operates this site, and has final say on what's appropriate to say on open threads. If you'd like me to comment on Matt Rayl, please feel free to contact me by PM, and I'll try to give you the best information. Thanks!!!

Although I've crossed Bruce's fish twice now with bluegills I got from Ohio (maybe call them O'Condello strain LOL) those genes are still producing some really nice fish for me. I can honestly say my males are already a pound at 9.5 inches and a 10.0 inch fish will run about 1 lb. 4 1/2 oz to 1 lb. 5 /2 oz. A 10.5 inch fish will be up to 1 lb. 7 1/2 oz. It will be interesting to see what an 11 inch fish will weight. I do harvest and sell anything 10 inches or larger to other taxidermists and they go like hotcakes! All I have to do is list them on a particular website and they are gone within a week at the most.

Here's an interesting thing: A few years ago I drained the biggest pond because some females had escaped a cage due to block of ice blowing up against it and weighing it down. Of course I started to get reproduction, which I didn't want (male only bluegill pond) hence why I drained it. (The bluegill are produced in another pond).

Anyway, I gave a bunch of 2 to 3 inch fish to an Amish taxidermist friend. They weren't feed trained and although not stunted didn't have that Condello piggie silver dollar configuration probably because they weren't fed commercial feed from the get go. Turns out the fish played catch up and the Amish friend's largest so far is now 1 lb. 12 oz. That's bigger than my biggest so far!

Once again a big thanks to Bruce and here's hoping Matt will do well with them.

Oh here's something that will make Bruce Chuckle. I had some new anglers over to fish for me (free labor) and they were floored by the proportions of the first few bluegills they caught in the 9 inch range. When I said throw those back they're too small they were stunned. Then once they caught a few in the 10 inch range they were flabbergasted. LOL Lot's of cell phone pictures were taken!

I have a retired DNR guy here every year to help catch the bluegill and perch, and another DNR property manager just wants to see one in person after one of the guys sent him some pictures on his cell phone.

Since the state considers a 6" BG to be harvestable size, I'll bet they're blown away by the giants you're producing, Cecil.

I would like to see them try their hand at managing a few of our lakes for bigger bluegills, as I think there's a public interest there.

Then again, that might conflict with the Gospel of Balance.

Don't feed, don't aerate, and don't mess with balance....

Perhaps but I believe Illinois and Ohio are already doing that?

At least we may finally get a bag limit on bluegills on some lakes having asked for it for years. I just hope it's only on lakes it will benefit and not across the board to simplify it. I know of some lakes where it wouldn't help and could create a backlash.

Fishkeeper, glad to see a southern friend that knows the difference between a BG and YP. Spread the word.

I have been a huge fan of Bruce, sharing a mutual love of BG since back in the days that BG were just the forage part of a stocking advice for a ”balanced” LMB, CC, BG pond.

I have enjoyed following his Condello strain BG program as well as Overton’s program with CNBG, utilizing the “selection process to improve growth rates, aggressiveness, and feed conversion” - as well as other fish such as the new Florida LMB Camelot Bell strain.

Interesting stuff - thanks Bruce!
George

Could someone point me to the thread that Bruce was originally talking about? I still for the life of me have a hard time finding old threads via the search feature if I don't know what the thread was.

+1 on needing better search tools, or a tutorial!

I was searching for a great picture someone posted, it was a scan out of a book that gave a chart of roughly how many minnows per pound or gallon of the various types of minnows, shiners, etc and also broke it out by size. I searched forever using every search term I could think of using the site search box and gave up.

I went to google and typed 'minnows per pound' and it was the first search result!!

That scanned chart came from ewest and was reposted by JKB, would be a good picture or scan to label and put in an easy to find archive.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=210910

Yeah the search engine here sucks. Hopefully someone can come along and give you some links.

Easiest way I find is to go to Google and enter key words then

site:forums.pondboss.com

It will only search pond boss that way...

I see a lot of sites have a little box that says 'custom google search' I assume that is what is happening, they are taking what is typed in that box and adding a little code to make sure the :forums.pondboss.com is added while the request is sent to google. Could that simple change be made in the forum software? If not we will do as 24/7 suggest above.

George is right, for people in the Southern Tier of the U.S. there are some cool options as far as coppernose bluegill and largemouth bass that have been improved from some thoughtful selection. Todd Overton and Greg Grimes are both good sources of information there. I talked to Matt Rayl last night and he's looking forward to discussing this with you, fishkeeper1.

I appreciate the help y'all and Bruce I will be sending Mr. Rayl an email shortly. But Cecil that is an impressive Bull you have there, I bet those Wardens have only heard of fish tales of bluegill that size.

Well they are actually biologists and I don't want to discredit them as they are quite knowledgeable. Unfortunately they don't have the option to manage public waters like we do our ponds.

Is this the link?

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=189988

Here's another relevant link.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=6061&Number=55868#Post55868

Here is also another interesting set of charts: Chapter 17

Link opens a PDF.

Here is the original thread where Eric posted the chart.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...true#Post240735