Bruce said ""when it comes to ear tab shape and size, that there is a fairly significant overlap between males and females. If the only factor allowed in making a differential was the eartab, there would be a good number of females that would qualify as possible males,..."
This is what I was saying in my earlier post about fish #2 that sometimes a few females will have fairly large ear flaps. Ryans bgill #2 is a very good example of a fish you want to reject for stocking into your all male bgill pond. Stock only the definate and distinctly male looking individuals. Again when selecting male fish you have to see several fish of various sizes from the same pond before you can confidently sort and select the males. If you are a novice and don't see at least two or better three positive male features on a fish REJECT IT. The more practice you get the better and more profecient you will become at sorting males. Some ponds can have a larger percentage of "iffy" bgills than others. This could be due to the strain of bgill or environmental conditions. Obviously I stay away from getting fish from ponds with iffy bgills. I prefer to get my male bgill from sources that have individuals with pronounced or enlarged types of ear flaps. It makes sorting easier. I usually segregate all new males for awhile in a cage while I feed train them and allow male features to develop if the fish are not quite fully mature.
Yes the Figure 1 (Part II) of immature males was to show readers what immature male look like and that the immature males can look a lot like females, especially to novice bgill sorters. Note the article said that you want to select your males from a POPULATION that has late maturing males such as those in figure 1. We did not say that you should stock the type of individuals or sizes of fish that were in figure 1 of Part II. Presence of late maturing males mean you have a population of bgill that are growing relatively fast.
Note to magazine readers. Part 2 of our article left out our Table of Standard Weights for bluegill. I was not given a chance to proof a final copy before it was printed. I will some how try to get it inserted into Part 3 and make it conform to the title.
