When we first set our goals after renovating the pond, we figured one pound bluegills would satisfy us. Our first "pounder" showed up last September, 19 months after stocking. We were tickled to say the least. This past couple of weeks we began light sampling and removing culls. Most of the bluegills from the original stocking weigh 14 ounces to 20 ounces, with 16 ounces showing up regularly. A few of the green sunfish/bluegill hybrids showed up and ended in the "eating" bucket. Red ears were sampled and beginning to spawn and showed some pretty good growth since last fall.
Our grand-nephew became bored with fishing "garden hackle" for the 'gills and went off to the other side of the pond to toss hardware for bass. He told me to take care of his rod while he was bass fishing. I did and this 9.5 inches, 1.25 bluegill made its appearance while I was manning the rod.
The photo does not do justice to the fish as it was all I could do to get my hand around enough meat to hold it. Our fish have slowed in the length department but are putting on thickness and width, top to bottom. It has now been 25 months since stocking and we have produce our first 1.25 pounder. We are getting greedy now and believe we can produce a 1.5 pounder by fall.
We spent yesterday mowing and weed eating, getting the pond ready for family gatherings and entertaining. We now are able to maintain 90 percent of the pond banks mowed/weedeating to make it easy for fishing. We plan to spend more time staying at the pond house than last year.
