Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations On the male bluegill only scenario

Hello,

This is my first post in which I am seeking whatever information the members may consider useful. So a little background. I enjoy fly fishing for large bluegill and fishing for large catfish and bass with bait. I live in Texas in an urban area. There are ponds in a variety of parks that provide me and my kids with fishing outings every two or three weeks. I release all bass and large catfish but keep maybe 40-50 6 to 7 inch bluegills each year. In most of the water I fish the bluegill mature at 6 to 7 inches. Where they grow much larger, I never harvest.

There are a couple of ponds near my house where one drains into the other. In the upper pond there are channel catfish stocked by the state (and Gambusia). In the lower pond there are bass, bluegill, and channel catfish. I was fishing the lower pond two falls ago where I was close to the upper pond and when I caught an easily identified male I just tossed it into upper pond. Maybe 12 of them and I would say they averaged between 6 and 7 inches. The following fall, last fall, I caught and released several 9 inch plus bluegill from the upper pond. I'm not sure what they weighed but they were plump. So I was dreaming I might ultimately catch even larger bluegill this year.

So far I have yet to catch any and I am beginning to wonder if they are still there. The pond is small (less than 1/4 acre) and no portion of it cannot be reached by fly casting. So three things come to mind to explain why the fish appear to be gone.

1. Perhaps someone harvested them.

2. They were finicky on the day I fished.

3. They have died of natural mortality.

It is the last possibility that concerns me the most. Perhaps they were pretty old when they were stocked. I would think that their lives in the upper pond would have been relatively free of competition stress and I was thinking last fall that their lives might vastly exceed what they might otherwise have been in the lower pond where they are overpopulated.

I know Cecil and Dr. Condello have done male only ponds and perhaps others. I am wondering what other's experience has been with regard to natural mortality under this scenario and if their male only bluegill live longer?