Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Bill Cody, about your male feed trained bluegills

One of my most frequently asked for fish to sell to other taxidermists is a bluegill -- one pound or bigger. As everyone knows here in the northern U.S., a one pound or better bluegill is rarer then a 5 or 6 pound bass. (A lot of bluegills that are bragged to be 1 pound are really 12 ouncers.)

If I could supply one pound or better gills they would be sold as quickly as available for about $50.00 a pop.I've sold some hybrids that are easy to get up to a pound, but most of my customers don't like the hybrids.

I could also forego the continously running well for trout and the subsequent electric bill and raise a more profitable fish that has a lower overhead.

You mentioned your feed trained male bluegills in your perch pond. I've thought of doing this too, as the bass in my main pond are just too aggressive to allow most of the gills to feed around them, although I am getting excellent growth on bluegills on natural feed.

I'm seriously considering making my present 1/10 acre trout pond a perch/smallmouth bass pond,(put the trout in another pond,) an maybe I should keep the smallmouth in the warmwater pond and put in yellow perch and bluegills of one sex as you do. There wouldn't be any need for walleye as the perch will be all female.

Or maybe the smallmouth won't be as aggressive as the largemouths. Any ideas?

What interests me is your choice of male bluegills over females. Obviously the one sex approach precludes any reproduction and subsequent overpopulation in a small pond. Why do you choose males over females? I know some texts says males grow larger, and I seem to have observed this in some natural lakes, but in my local area the biggest bluegills are females. I've observed this in many fish I take in to mount as a taxidermist also.They also obviously weigh more when they are egg laden.

Are there disadvantages of the females vs. males? I.E. egg absorption stress or other factors? Or have you had better luck getting larger bluegills by utilizing the males. Or could it be the males are easier to identify preventing any accidental addition of females?

What is the max size you've obtained with the feed trained males (not speaking of hybrids here)?
As I said earlier I've raised some bluegills over a pound and up to 11 inches (not hybrids) on feed when they fed with the bass in the warmwater pond.

It would be easy for me to cull out just males or just females from my warmwater pond to put into the 1/10th acre pond.

Thanks,

Cecil

Cecil:

Your insight from the taxidermist's point of view is very much out of the manstream for this site. Your posts move a man to think.

Here at my home in the Texas Hill Country, I have a spare acre that I am currently not using. I also have two wells to provide the water necessary to carry me through droughts. Perhaps I should build a pond and raise trophy bluegill.

With our long growing season, and my controlled setting, I think I could raise 11-inch bluegill that weigh 1 pound, or slightly more. If I sold my crop at, say $40 a head, how many 1-pounders would I need to produce each year to break even?

I suspect your answer will dissuade me and keep me out of the fish farming business.

FYI, if I could raise threadfin shad and have 3-5 inch adults ready in May and June, I would sell out. Every knowledgeable pondmeister in a 200-mile radius would be whining for more.

Mark McDonald
Editor, Pond Boss

Cecil - You are right on about bgill size; females are usu wider thru the back, thus heavier. But are they longer? I have not verified that females get longer than the males. I've seen real big'ns of both sex. I prefer to work with males for two reasons:

1. Mature males are always recognizable for me, no mistakes; at least not yet. I always isolate them if in doubt. Sometimes some female looking fish will later, develop male features as the population allows farther development into breeding condition (delayed maturation).
It only takes one male if your are using all females to produce offspring. Newest research, IL Nat Hist Surv (unpublished except in summer2002 issue F.P. Harvest) verifies this. McD needs to keep more abrest of the newest literature & get it to us in PBoss. So far I have not found any females that develop male features; such as the rare whitetail deer with redimentary antlers.

2. I think the males are better looking fish with more color than the females. Personal preference only, thus I use them. However as stated above males often have not as meaty fillets as the females esp during nesting / breeding season when off feed.
I'm not aware of any egg absorption stress in bgill. Is it more stressful than absorbing sperm? PS- My males still build nests even though no females present.

I had the same probem when I had LMB w/ bgill and perch. LMB & catfish hogging the feed. SMB will not doubt also hog feed away from most of the less aggressive BG. BG will have to feed at the periphery.

What benefit of SMB in the pond? SMB are also aggressive at the pellet food table. They may out compete the perch & bgill at the food table and AGAIN you are back to feed trained fish going off feed. They (pellet eating SMB) seem to be dominate in my pond with perch and during the warmest periods seem to force the perch off feed. No so in the pond w/out bass. Seems to me your trophy panfish pond would be better off if they were on feed and ALSO had huge amounts of natural feed to utilize during periods when you are not feeding such as cold months.

Of the 6-8 male bgill stocked (not my pond) max size usu 11"+ with one 12". They were harvested by the pondowner thus don't know where growth would have stopped before natural death. Now I'm working on my own male bgill crop in my pond; this is year two; they look 9.5" maybe pushing 10". I won't know until I sample this winter. McD wants pictures; we will try to help him out.
Did I cover all your ?? BC

Bill,

Yes, you did answer my questions and as I suspected. The only downside to the males I can see is spawning stress as they make the beds. I've seen them rough themselves up pretty good at this time. I think I'm gonna give your approach a try, but I there is a remote possibility I will go with all females and we can compare notes.But then again that may be risky.

Do you suggest feed training the culled bluegills in a cage before transfer?

Mark,

I won't presuade you not to, but as you probably know there is a saying among aquaculturists that goes something like this:

If you want to make a small fortune in aquaculture than you need to spend a large fortune.

Fortunately I have another occcupation than raising fish, and would never dream of going into intensive aquaculture. Too risky for me. But raising some trout, bass, perch, and bluegills on the property for profit and fun is more acceptable. Bill is right on several things, but one thing I can really relate to. When you feed the fish and they are growing it can be a lot of fun, and I believe therapeutic.

So right about culturing fish. Dicey business.

Only thing riskier than raising fish is HAULING them.

Mark McDonald
editor