One of my most frequently asked for fish to sell to other taxidermists is a bluegill -- one pound or bigger. As everyone knows here in the northern U.S., a one pound or better bluegill is rarer then a 5 or 6 pound bass. (A lot of bluegills that are bragged to be 1 pound are really 12 ouncers.)

If I could supply one pound or better gills they would be sold as quickly as available for about $50.00 a pop.I've sold some hybrids that are easy to get up to a pound, but most of my customers don't like the hybrids.

I could also forego the continously running well for trout and the subsequent electric bill and raise a more profitable fish that has a lower overhead.

You mentioned your feed trained male bluegills in your perch pond. I've thought of doing this too, as the bass in my main pond are just too aggressive to allow most of the gills to feed around them, although I am getting excellent growth on bluegills on natural feed.

I'm seriously considering making my present 1/10 acre trout pond a perch/smallmouth bass pond,(put the trout in another pond,) an maybe I should keep the smallmouth in the warmwater pond and put in yellow perch and bluegills of one sex as you do. There wouldn't be any need for walleye as the perch will be all female.

Or maybe the smallmouth won't be as aggressive as the largemouths. Any ideas?

What interests me is your choice of male bluegills over females. Obviously the one sex approach precludes any reproduction and subsequent overpopulation in a small pond. Why do you choose males over females? I know some texts says males grow larger, and I seem to have observed this in some natural lakes, but in my local area the biggest bluegills are females. I've observed this in many fish I take in to mount as a taxidermist also.They also obviously weigh more when they are egg laden.

Are there disadvantages of the females vs. males? I.E. egg absorption stress or other factors? Or have you had better luck getting larger bluegills by utilizing the males. Or could it be the males are easier to identify preventing any accidental addition of females?

What is the max size you've obtained with the feed trained males (not speaking of hybrids here)?
As I said earlier I've raised some bluegills over a pound and up to 11 inches (not hybrids) on feed when they fed with the bass in the warmwater pond.

It would be easy for me to cull out just males or just females from my warmwater pond to put into the 1/10th acre pond.

Thanks,

Cecil

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.