Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Texas bass/bluegill pond

Hi fellow pond owners and managers, first post. My family and I own a 1 acre pond that we hope to turn into a bass fishing pond. We stocked it 2 years and 10 months ago. We supplement feed the bluegill every day. The bluegill are there for mainly for the purpose of feeding the bass, however I do admit they are fairly fun to catch when the bass aren't biting, and they are also good to eat. There are some huge bluegill in there, like the one in the picture. It is the biggest one we've caught, but there are plenty in that ballpark so to speak. My question is, can a bass eat a bluegill that size? The biggest bass we have is 5 pounds, and if the bass will not eat it, I'd like to take bluegill that size out so to make room for ones the bass will eat. Any help is much appreciated!

A Hardy Welcome. You are doing something very right to get BG that size in 2yrs10 months! Good job growing fish.

These are my thoughts.
Firstly, that is a male BG due to distinct shape of the dark gill flap since the flap is relatively large and almost rectangular. Gill flap on a female will be slightly to noticeably smaller and more rounded - less 'boxy'.

For best BG management for big individuals you want to protect the big males and harvest predominately the girls. It is the big males that promote fast growth of the younger male BG by discouraging early maturation of the smaller males, thus the young guys grow faster when behaviorally dominated or bullied by the numerous big 'bull' males. A a result the the teenage males don't spend much time chasing girl BG. When the BG balance is as I described the teenage males will not become fully mature to spawn until they are around 8" long. So teenage males and females can and will look a lot alike. A bully male will have this 'boxy' obvious large dark gill flap. Provide us a few pictures and we can verify males & females for your pond.

Catch several large BG >8"+ with all the same close size and compare the shape of the dark gill flap. Those with the noticeably larger 'flaps' will be the males. Use photographs for comparison if you want to quickly return all fish alive to the pond. Or harvest 6-8 bigger BG and closely observe them.

Secondly that BG is way too big to be eaten by a bass less than 10-11 pounds. That size of BG is able to safely mingle with all the biggest bass. Your 5 lb bass are going to be looking to mainly eat BG that are 5"-7" long.

Thank you sir! That was very informative and helpful. Good to know we're doing something right. We are also quite surprised how quickly these fish have grown. I will post a few pictures of BG I catch perhaps tomorrow if it doesnt rain, which it might.

The big , dead LMB in the Newly Uploaded Imagages section shows what can happen when a hungry bass tries to eat a bluegill thats a bit too large.

what size was your bass when stocked? 5 lbs in less than 3 years seems huge if starting from a 2 or 4 inch bass.

LMB genetics here in Texas are found to be some of the best. Overtons fisheries here comes to mind. I have seen 2.9 lb growth in my pond in 10 months here starting with a 2 or 3" lmb fingerling. Five lbs in less than 3 years is doable here. Hulsey, sounds like a nice pond

Hulsey, Welcome from deep east Texas. That is a very nice bluegill and all in a one acre pond!! And 5 pound bass... amazing. What kind of feed are you using?

Welcome to PBF!

That sure is a nice BG.

One thing to keep in mind, if you harvest all your very best BG, you are removing some of your very best genetics for reproducing more nice BG.

Now if your only interest is LMB, that may not matter (an expert would be a better one to address that issue). Maybe producing lots of runty BG to feed LMB is as good as having good BG genetics.

But if you would like more nice BG to catch in the future the generally accepted best management practice is to return your biggest and best BG to the water to keep your best genetics in place and eat the one size class smaller fish, which are usually more abundant than your larger class.

I know, it is a lot easier to clean one big fish with as much meat as cleaning two slightly smaller ones. But if you want the best BG fishing in the future resist temptation of the easy meal now.

They were indeed 2-4 inch fingerlings. I was rounding up however. The biggest I've caught was this 4.6 lber about a month and a half ago. We've seen some on the pond that appear to be larger.

Thanks! We use Purina Game Fish Chow. And we use quite a bit of it, while being sure that everything we're throwing out is being eaten. The BG just can't get enough of it. As soon as it's thrown in, they flock to it within a second. I've also seen a couple small bass join in, but not as eagerly.

Good point. Me and my dad were just pondering that a couple days ago. We agreed to leave a few trophies in there, not only for genetics, but to have a few in there we know will not get eaten, therefore will be safe to spawn year in year out.

I was rounding up! lol, Don't we all when it comes to the size fish we catch. I never round down. A 3.4 lb lmb wound never be a 3 lb'er but a 3.6 might be a 4 lol. Welcome to this forum.