Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Found my first bluegill beds!

Was walking the pond tonight and noticed a white object in the pond so I went to check to see what blew in and to my surprise it was pure white gravel in a circle about 8"-10" in diameter. Having only owned this pond for a year I've only ever seen leaf litter on the bottom but my bluegills apparently found gravel under the leaves. I'm guessing when they built the pond (dug and ground water) they lined it with gravel so I'm hopefully that my diffuser is doing the job of reducing the amount of organics on the bottom as it looks like they didn't have to go far down to find the gravel. I've also cut all the small trees around the pond and several over hanging branches to reduce leaves and allow sunlight in. I caught 2 females loaded with eggs last week and have left the pond alone since for them to take care of business! Hopefully with the full moon this week we will have our first successful bluegill spawn in our pond!

Was it just one circle ? BG usually nest in colonies. Could it be a LMB bed? BG beds pic

It was just a single bed, never thought of it being a LMB it's shallow, only in about 1 ft of water. I have not seen the male on the nest yet the mosquitoes are so bad right now I haven't been hanging around long by the pond though!
I'll see if I can get a picture tonight, the glare was so bad the other night all you could see was the reflection on the surface

Here is the best pic I could get of one the the 2 that are close to shore but on opposite sides of the pond. I hung out by the edge for awhile and didn't observe anything guarding it the dark shape is a branch laying over part of it. Maybe the gills are a little deeper where I can't see them. It would be even better if its a lmb!

I have a similar, single, very clear sandy ring in the shallows as well. I see nothing at the bottom and schools of minnows swim over and through it. No adult fish seen. I'll keep an eye on it. I have no LMB or SMB, only RES, LES but I'm not sure if any of those are large enough to spawn yet.

Experts, where do RES hang out in reference to their spawning circle? Bluegill tend to hover over the middle but how about RES?

Sparkie attempted to educate me on BG spawn and I am learning I hope. One thing I did pick up on was they might make a nest and then change there minds and abandon it. Another thing he taught me was BG will have a whole bunch of nests together. IMO Seeing only one nest would suggest another species at work.

It could be a Pumpkinseed nest. They aren't colony spawners from what I've observed of them around here. They do nest in shallow water, shallower than Bluegills.

Sweet! I do have pumpkinseeds, also could be abandoned my water level is down 6-8" from the lack of rain the last few weeks so maybe they gave up on it thinking it was too shallow

I'm no expert, but our RES act very similar to BG. The larger males will usually choose a central location for a nest, while the smaller individuals are relegated to the perimeter.