We have a one acre plus pond that was renovated in fall of 2015 and stocked in late February 2016 with 50 largemouth, 800 coppernose bluegill, 200 redear and 10 pounds of flathead minnows from J. M. Malone and Sons in Arkansas. The bass did not spawn the first summer but both redear and coppernose did. I added another 60 bass caught in a relative's pond from 4-7 inches to aid in controlling the abundance of small bluegills. Our bass spawned this year, at least twice, based upon my observation of two different size classes of small bass.
We have fed a mix of AquaMax 500 and 600 pellets since early summer of 2016. During late summer this year we implemented harvest, using basic guidelines of bass over 14 inches and bluegill between 6 and 8 inches removed plus all green sunfish and hybrids removed regardless of size. Even with taking great care in removing all fish from the pond with Rotenone, we did get some green sunfish and hybrid migration back in during a 15 inch rain event from the intermittent stream our pond empties into. Even with a friend owning a pest control business, acquiring Rotenone "legally" was a real pain.
We caught, weighed and released our first coppernose in September this year that made 16 ounces. The bulk of our original stocking are from 8 inches to 9.75 inches.
A typical stocker I caught and released yesterday estimated at 9 inches plus and pushing the 16 ounce mark.
Other than a handful of deep hooked bluegills, we have not intentionally removed any over the 8 inch mark.
We have no idea how many of the original 800 coppernose survived to this point. The two daily feedings are well attended though.
My question is this.
Where do we go from here in regards to harvest of our bluegills over 8 inches?
