Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Too Many Bluegill?

My pond is 2 years old, and is .63 acres. 300 BG and 45 CC were stocked it Oct of 04 and 90 Bass in May of 05.

These were very small fish from KDFW. Now the Bass are 8 to 11" long and the CC are 15 to 20 " long.
The BG are fingernail size to 7" long. I feed Catfish food nightly.

That all sounds pretty normal, my concern is that the number of blue gill is crazy. They are everwhere. In schools along the banks everwhere you look fish of all sizes.

Is this normal or is there too many BG?

Sounds just right to me for this point in time. Have your LMB spawned (do you see 2-6 in. LMB) ?

Great for your bass. Ideally there are YOY LMB coming up to in order to pressure the baby BG. 11 inch LMB should be thinking about spawning. If not, then they sure as heck will next year. Those class of '07 LMB will grow like gangbusters. Maybe someone more qualified than me will comment on getting a year class from LMB that size this year yet.

I don't think the bass have spawned yet, I have been putting minow traps out and all I get is BG.

On the grand sum of experience from my one pond :rolleyes: , I don't think LMB in KY up to 11" in June will spawn this year - your mileage may vary.

Bruce is right - the first LMB spawn you get, whether this year or next year, will grow like crazy. I wouldn't be surprised if they exceed the original stocker's growth rate, since they will have all the different sizes of forage available to eat when each size is optimum for them.

Theo have your LMB spawned yet this year? I am wondering if scsims pond is working like a southern pond or a northern pond. BG stunting seems more likely in northern ponds especially if they get 2 yr. classes ahead of the LMB. There is evidence that in southern locations if to many BG are present then the LMB may not spawn under those conditions.

I caught one the other day that had a boody tail. I don't know if that means it has spawned.

ewest:

My LMB spawned in mid-May, +/- a week.

scsims: (I keep trying to pronounce that "schisms")

I take fin and tail damage to be evidence of spawning, but obviously spawning's not the only thing that could cause it. Given my limited experience, LMB fry and fingerlings are the only things I use as conclusive evidence.

scsims keep an eye out for yoy LMB and let us know if you don't see any this summer. If you don't see any we can go from there. A seine survey really helps.

I caught a bass yesterday that was about 12" and looked skinny. It looked like it had a deflated belly, is that a sign of a post spawn fish?

Spawning can give that result as can not enough to eat. Did its head size seem right or to big for the fish. What about overall condition of the fish? What about other LMB - do they look the same?

It looked like a healthy fish. It was the only one I caught yesterday.

But trust me they have plenty to eat.

A couple of week ago they looked some of them I caught looked fat and some where thin. But this was the longest one that I have caught.

The plumper bass that you caught either had eggs or had just eaten a fish or two. Thin bass were likely males or freshly spawned out females. I think you will get a small spawn of bass in 2006. Some northern bass had a late spwan in 2006 due to weather conditions. Hopefully your bgill were not too abundant to prevent a successful recruitment of 2006 new LMB. You should be seeing some new bass about 1.2" - 2" long in July. If you don't see any small bass 2"-4" long in September, I would buy some 2"-4" bass and add them to the pond; around 25-40 fingerlings per acre. This will provide you a 2006 year class of bass. You may need to thin some 2005 and 2006 bass in 2007 & 2008. Assuming most survived, 90 LMB was a lot to initially stock into a 0.6 acre pond.

I would not be concerned (yet) about too many BG as long as a fair number of those 90 LMB are still in your pond. It is always hard to guestimate how many of the original stockers survived. If your water is anything near clear, you should be seeing bass all over the place.

In my pond, I had a good sized LMB spawn last year when they were 10-11 inches. No BG were present at that time. If you find that your bass have spawned, you may want to consider removing some LMB this year. 90 11" bass will go through a lot of forage. I think you may start seeing the smaller intermediate BG decreasing and your original bass should put on some weight. At this point I would begin thinning lmb unless you are going for a bass crowded environment (slow or no LMB growth). In the average .6 acre pond, most of these 90 bass will need to be removed if you want to sustain reasonable growth rates. You might as well get started.

Well the amount of BG seams just rediculous in my pond. They are just everywhere from 1" size now to 8+". I caught some nice BG today.

The bass I caught today were the same as described before some long 12" with deflated belly and a few shorter and fatter.

I also have another question that I may start another thread if needed.

I am having problems catching Cats. They will eat the pellets good if I don't have a bobber out. If I stay quiet a feed the fish CC will be all over the place eating some are about 20" now. But forget about catching one as soon as you throw a bobber out... they are gone.

I've tried dead line as well. I havn't tried live bait though.

Is this normal?

Reference for you, scsims.

http://www.pondboss.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=001477

...and here's another one.

http://www.pondboss.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=001241

Thanks, Bruce. Man they do seam pretty smart. I've tried not feeding for a day but they are very consiensous of anything weird going on with there feeding.

In the spring I could catch them with a worm and bobber wile feeding, then it was all at once over.

I have found the best way to keep CC from eating much is to put a hook and bobber in the water just before and during the time the pellets are in the water. You may get one on the hook occasionally, but most of them will avoid the feeding area while you have a pole there, for some time to come.