This thread is interesting. I live in an urban area and have one pond I like to visit where there are a fair number of 9" bluegill. In this pond I often fish with 5 to 6 in bluegill and catch an occasional large bass or large catfish. A couple of the catfish exceeded 10 lbs and several more than 5 lbs. I always release them and the 10 lb cats may have been just one. This is the only pond where I catch large bluegill and it is the best catfish pond as well.
Could anyone venture a guess as to the weight per acre required of 5 lb CC to be effective predators of bluegill in a hard water unfertilized pond with about 24 inches of clarity? At an appropriate density, the channel cat growth should be low. Given the long life channel catfish they might provide stable predation of bluegill for an extended period provided they are not harvested.
I just threw 5 1bs out there but what might be the most appropriate size for predation of 4 to 5 inch bluegill by CC?
