I am pleased with my CNBG growth rates in my grow out pond. The image below shows size differences over the course of 1 month and 5 days. At this rate they will need to be moved to their permanent home sooner than I thought.

fat little tummies on them too!

They grow fast when they are that size.

Good to know guys. I need some more 3 to 4" size from the first spawn after winter. That 3 to 4" size seems to be in lower numbers than I would like them to be just after winter months. Figure they are feed on through the winter months which puts fewer in the pond right after winter. By using a cast net away from my feeders I find about 20% of my bg catch is in the 3" in size in Early March.

A 3 inch CNBG in early March was likely a late hatched (sept) from last year.

I'm going to try to keep this thread updated with monthly pics to track the growth trends. I need to start putting a tape measure in the picture for reference and throwing them on digital scale for weight. Now that the fish are actively taking feed, I can confirm that the fish in the picture above is about average or slightly above average.

My plan was monthly updates but I netted a few fish today and am astonished at the growth that has occurred in the 15 days since the last photo opp.

I decided to throw the cast net yesterday and get a bit more scientific with my growth rate monitoring. I was able to catch 12 fish and made an attempt to measure length and weight. out of the group I had 2 fish that were definitely RES, 2 that I still could not accurately determine, and the rest confidently CNBG. Using one of the relative weight spreadsheets I found on this site, I plugged the numbers in and found that while the CNBG were running 110% to 120% relative weight, the RES were showing about 70% relative weight. The 2 unknown fish were also low relative weight and shorter which makes me suspect they are also RES. Is it normal for RES to start off slower that CNBG? One slight issue is that my scale only measures in 1/10 oz resolution so some of the data may be off. I should have switched it to grams before I started.

You can see the data here:
Relative Weight Spreadsheet

I was finally able to catch a few CNBG from the new pond. These fish have been in my ponds for right at 4 months now. I caught 3 fish and they all measured 5 inches give or take. The pond is absolutely crawling with fathead minnows and they get 2 servings per day of Optimal Panfish. I think I have a shot at hitting the 8 inch goal by winter.

Very nice.

Were any of them weighed for relative weights?

Not yet. I honestly hadn't had any luck catching them since I stocked them so I wasn't prepared to measure/weigh. Hoping to get the girls to catch a few now that they are biting better and I'll get weights then.

Beautiful colors on that CNBG.

Those are going to be some really beautiful fish in a couple more years.

Here's some pics from August and September. Its wild to see the difference since March of this year! Still very pleased! I tried to get some weights but it was so hot it caused my scale to overheat and not work properly. Maybe some other time.

August 26th 2018


Sept 26th 2018

Excellent!

Very nice work. I like the variation in your fish.

I've seen evidence of at least 2 or 3 panfish spawns in this pond over the summer so I thought it was time to take inventory of my recruitment. A few nights ago I went out with the cast net after dark to see what was happening. It didn't take long to discover that I need a predator fish ASAP. Here's what I was catching with almost every toss of the net:


Unfortunately the fall fish truck didn't have any largemouth available, but I was able to find some F1 bass at a fish farm about an hour north of me. I stocked 30 of the little guys this week. In the meantime, I'm probably going to run the seine through this weekend and see if I can't find some buyers for the larger CNBG fingerlings. I doubt these bass are going to grow quickly enough to stay on top of the larger age class and I really only want my original 100 CNBG and 25 RES from this spring surviving. I was impressed with these bass. Very healthy and lively:

Oh, and I happened on a few RES while cast netting. They look like they are doing well also. This fish is right at 6" long:

Very nice. Your plan is coming together!! Congrats!!

Yes it is! I'm very interested to see how this first winter season affects the pond. I've been very pleased with almost every aspect thus far.

Spring update. Caught this chunk lastnight. Possibly a RES/BG cross? I have not been able to catch any of the bass on hook yet but finally got one with the cast net. Fairly pleased with the winter growth on these guys.

That BG/RES (?) is very nice. Thanks for the updates.