Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Does anybody want bluegill?

I have too many bluegill. I don't fish so they've gotten out of control. I'm in Ontario OH. Please don't suggest that I start fishing for them myself. I am open to any other suggestions.
I have smallmouth bass as well but not sure if there are too many.

I get some help from a couple of local Herons and occassionally a Kingfisher but I've read that it's not good to let the bluegills outnumber everything and I do have that problem. Welcome all fishermen and women.

Welcome to the forum! If you have SMB and no LMB, then you learned what others have - SMB can't control BG. You could stock some HSB to chow down on the BG.

Oh, before I totally confuse you, fish acronyms .

Are you sure that you have smallmouth bass? I have found that some people do not really know the difference between smallmouth and largemouth bass. Where did you buy the bass? How big is the pond? How old is it? and Why do you think you have too many bluegill since you do not fish the pond? A normal balance of bass and sunfish is 10 to 20 sunfish for each bass.

Thank you for your replies. No, I am not sure! The pond was created 5 years before i bought the orchard, so, it's 30 years old and I was just told what it was stocked with.
Originally it had catfish but about 15 yrs ago I let someone fish for them and they had at least a dozen big ones in their bucket and seemed very anxious to get away before I had a look in the bucket. I think they were afraid I would want them back! I think they were really good at catching them!
But no one else ever caught another one here, though really only a couple of people have ever fished here. It is not visible from the road so no one knows there is a pond. Plus, there are lots of "fishing only" lakes here. (no wake lakes)

Oh, I must have hundreds of bluegill. The bass that I have seen are rarely more than 10 inches long and you are quite right-I would not know the difference between LMB and SMB. Thanks for asking.

Oh, you asked how big it is. It was stated as being an acre when I bought place 25 yrs ago. It was shaped like an upside down sombrero, shallow edges, deeper pit in center. Maybe 10 ft originally but since filled up with silt to less than 2 ft around the "brim" I dug a couple of catch pools ahead of it but it's fed by runoff so that didn't help all that much.

Then 8 yrs ago I doubled the size of the pond because I needed dirt for a foundation for a big pole barn. And of course making the pond bigger was a bonus. So it's a guess that's it's about 2 acres, if the first estimate was right.
The new section is steeper and was about 10 feet at bottom.

I had it dug beside the original pond, leaving just a small strip that was then dug away from both sides toward the middle to knock down the wall between the two. Which was about the only way I could see doing it without leaving fish stranded during construction. I pumped the level down to the pit area so as to eliminate pressure on that barrier, and it worked out well. That was more than you wanted to know, wasn't it!

If you really want to know how large your pond is, go here: http://www.acme.com/planimeter/ and measure it.

Cool Thanks

How to tell SMB from LMB

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/fish/bass/small_large.html