Here are some ideas for improving your bluegill (BG) population. The information generally applies also to coppernose bluegill since their reproduction (fecudity), habits, and behavior are similar to 'northern' and or pure strain BG. Note that CNBG are not cold water tolerant and do not survive well in ponds that get ice cover. This was written for someone with a smaller pond, but the information can be applied to larger ponds. As time allows more items will be added by the other moderators and myself as we find useful information on this topic. You can Private Message any moderator with your big BG ideas to get items added to this Archive topic. Thanks for using Pond Boss Forum.

See below for the two philosophies of stocking bluegills and bass southern vs northern ponds
Stocking bass and bluegill: north vs south:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=413792#Post413792


Here is a link to some handy nice Excel calculators for relative weights for LMB, SMB, HSB, WE(walleye), BG, BCP (blk crappie), YP (yellow perch). Plus standard weights for LMB, SMB, HSB, BG, Crappie, and CC.
http://texasprolakemanagement.com/blog/relative-weight-calculators


Several things to do for producing larger BG in the smaller pond. Here is the topic that started this Archive.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=189987#Post189987

1. The pond should be bass heavy with the population dominated by 6"-12" bass. The pond can or will have some 14"-16" bass but not lots of them. At most only a few larger bass per acre and whenever you catch one 15"-16" remove it. This means harvesting primarily the largest bass caught in the 14"+ range. Harvesting one 16"+ LMB makes room for 3-6 smaller bass that eat more little BG (1"-3") numbers than that one big 16" bass who eats mainly fewer BG and of 3"-6" size range. There are previous posts about why to do this. Larger bass can be caught by fishing with smaller BG (2"-4") under a bobber. Get the bigger bass out to make room for smaller bass who eat more smaller BG.

2. Feed the BG but just don't use generic catfish food or similar food in the 32% protein range common at various stores. NOTE: Purina Gamefish Chow (GFC) is 32% protein containing various sizes of pellets. IMO Use Purina Aquamax Carnivore (blue bag), Optimal BG or a fish food that has 41% protein. It grows bigger BG faster. Both are good fish food, but the AM Carnivore and Optimal BG are the better foods. Better food grows better animals. Plus they eat it better. For small ponds your size (0.1-0.5ac) and feeding mostly BG, a one or two 50 lb bags should last you one whole summer. Aquamax Carnivore is more expensive than GameFishChow, but what value do you place on having trophy BG? Obviously the bigger the pond, the more pellet feed that will be needed and vice versa. Also if you have other fish eating the pellets, then a lot more pellets will be needed. Catfish and other fish such as gizzard shad, carp, koi, and even bass can consume lots of pellets that should be going to feed BG. IMO Remove catfish from trophy BG ponds. In small ponds, you and another pondowner can share food purchases. Buy a bag of Purina 5D05 (3/16") and a bag of 5D06 (5/32") or 2 bags of Optimal Bluegill Junior and Optimal BG and mix the two and then split it between the two of you. This gives two sizes of high protein pellets; one for smaller BG 3-5" and one for 6-10"ers. Try not to hold or store Aquamax Carnivore pellets longer than one year.
During long term storage,,,,, the pellets can loose some of the nutrient, vitamin, and flavor qualities.

See what pellet feeding and a high numbers of minnows can do to produce growth of newly stocked bluegill in a new pond habitat. Note his feeding frequency. Growth from 1.5" fingerlings to very nice 7"-8" fish in just 4 months is possible even in northern ponds over the course of one summer. Getting good growth early in the fish's life is VERY important to producing the trophy size bluegill.
Number of growing days with water over 55F results in bigger bluegill faster. However BG grown in southern warmer waters do not grow as long as those in cooler northern water. Northern BG can grow really big it just take them longer.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=389022#Post389022

Pellet feeding bluegill test trial by Lakework.com in Georgia
https://lakework.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Bluegill-Feed-Trials.pdf

Another example of nice BG after just 2 years.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=389057#Post389057

How to manage BG 2-3 yrs after stocking to get trophy BG?
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=activetopics&range=7&type=t

FIN CLIPPING AND TAGGING TO MONITOR GROWTH AND WHEN STOCKED
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=544843#Post544843


3.Harvest mainly the female BG to help produce larger BG overall. Release larger male BG. Searching the old topics will produce lots of posts that will teach how to tell males from females and why to do it (see item 6). There might be a topic on this in the old posts or at bigbluegill.com (on the homepage, see on left side under RESOURCES the Heading of "Differentiating between male and female bluegill".

4. Don't overfish the small pond while releasing larger bass. Harvest those larger bass 14"+. Over fishing a small pond causes fish to be hook smart (shy) even the big BG based on the angling method used. A larger pond of 2+ acres can withstand a lot more fishing pressure than a 1/4 ac pond. For small ponds smaller than 1 ac, spend more time feeding fish, harvesting small fish with traps and seines, and angling for biggest bass and keeping records of lenghts and sizes of fish caught. Trends of growth and size structure of BG & bass will be evident after several years of keeping records.

5. Initially or whenever small BG appear abundant,,,, manually harvest some of the 2"-4" BG with angling and trapping until the pond becomes bass heavy. You know a pond is bass heavy when you mainly catch bass in the 6"-12" range and very seldom catch a large (16"-19") bass. Small BG that would normally be discarded can be used for hand feeding of them to big bass. I often cut the tails off the small BG and/or some/all of the side fins and toss them back into the pond. These impaired small BG swim abnormally and are easy meals for larger bass or catfish. This also conditions the larger predators so they are easier to catch when using BG as bait.

6. Get and read the 3 back issues of Pond Boss Mag (Mar-Apr, May-Jun, Jul-Aug 2006) of Growing Behemoth BG in Small Ponds by Cody, Condello and Baird. They discuss lots of details for producing trophy BG and recognizing male and female bluegill.

7. Visit the website bigbluegill.com and read some of the good items there about producing large BG.

Discussion of bluegill hybrids (intergrades), RES, and growth of bass and other forms of bluegill.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=432446&page=1

Discussion of Bluegill subspecies.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=279801

Last edited by Bill Cody; 08/17/22 08:12 PM.

aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine -
America's Journal of Pond Management