We had an impromptu family gathering at the farm yesterday and the kin wanted to fish. Ok, break out the crickets and scales. I find crickets and artificial lures/flies produce less deep hooking than worms resulting in better survival of our released big fish. So we did some sampling, me handling the net, weighing and culling fish for the "eating' bucket.
I lost count but around 40 bluegills, one green sunfish and one hybrid. One large bluegill of 1.38 lbs was kept due to deep hooking. No readers caught this trip.
We kept 14 fish; 9 female and 3 male bluegills plus the green sunfish and hybrid. Green sunfish reinterred the pond during a 10 inch rain 6 months after stocking. There are not a great threat and we plan to keep it that way by removing all green sunfish and nature hybrids caught.
The top four bluegill weighed 1.38 lbs, 1.40 lbs, 1.40 lbs and a new pond record of 1.53 lbs. The green sunfish weighed 1.12 lbs and the hybrid 1.06 pounds. The greatest length was 10.5 inches.
As usual, once a pond gains a reputation for big fish friends you never knew begin asking for fishing rights. The kinfolk are even pressing for more fishing time and "un-supervised" fishing time. We have a small 1 acre plus pond that carries a high population of large bluegill which is a result of our management plan. We also are having more folks tell us how to manage the pond. We never realized how poorly we were doing.
We have no plans to change even if it miffs some folks.
We do allow some of the kinfolks to fish for bass unsupervised and help us remove those bass over 16 inches or so. The bluegills are our priority. All bluegill fishing is supervised by me.
