A 4-5 in BG from last fall would be capable of spawning this summer (it would be a year old) unless it was suppressed by one or more factors such as lack of spawning areas or many larger male BG or poor condition due to lack of food.

WRT the BG stocked 6 mths earlier what size were those BG when they were stocked? If they were 2in when stocked then they are all the same year class. BG grow quickly , mature and grow old in a hurry down here. A 5 year old BG is old in a southern location while it is just reaching its prime up north. From a 2006 study :


Differences in Population Metrics between Bluegill and Redear

Sunfish: Implications for the Effectiveness of Harvest Restrictions

STEVE M. SAMMONS*

Department of Fisheries, Auburn University, 203 Swingle Hall, Auburn, Alabama 36849, USA

DAVID G. PARTRIDGE

Georgia Department of Natural Resources, 109 Hatchery Access Road, Dawson, Georgia 39842, USA

MICHAEL J. MACEINA

Department of Fisheries, Auburn University, 203 Swingle Hall, Auburn, Alabama 36849, USA

North American Journal of Fisheries Management 26:777–787, 2006

 Copyright by the American Fisheries Society 2006

DOI: 10.1577/M05-159.1


Many studies from northern systems have collected

bluegills as old as age 10–12 (Goedde and Coble 1981;

Otis et al. 1998; Schneider 1999); however, we rarely

collected bluegills older than age 5 in our reservoirs.

Ott et al. (2003) found few bluegills older than age 2 in

a Texas impoundment and attributed this to fast growth

rates and associated high mortality rates. Bluegill

harvest was assumed to be moderate because only 10–

12% of annual effort was directed at bluegills (Ott et al.

2003). However, Belk and Hales (1993) found bluegills

as old as age 9 in a South Carolina power plant

cooling lake where no fishing was allowed, so angling

may affect longevity of bluegills, even at moderate

rates of exploitation (Goedde and Coble 1981). In

contrast to bluegills, redear sunfish older than age 5

were common in our study reservoirs, and fish as old as

age 9 were collected in each reservoir.

Fish longevity has been linked to natural mortality

rates (Hoenig 1983), and the estimated natural

mortality of bluegills was generally greater than that

of redear sunfish in all three reservoirs.