Rick, There is lots and lots of information about raising bgill here. Search through the old topics for a wealth of information. Bruce is one of our top bgill raisers.

As you will soon discover after reading the old BG posts the traditional way to raise trophy BG is to maintain a crowded predator population that keeps the number of young bgill to a minimum. Crowded predators almost always means a predominance of smaller sized predators i. e. very few if any big bass.

I am not going to be able to provide any new insight to raising bgill here. It has basically all been said previously. Search and read it. There are probably some new "outside of the box" ways being developed to raise big bluegills. Stay tuned here and subscribve to Pond Boss magazine where these ideas are presented and described. Look in the Products Forum for my listing of ALL the contents of old issues of PBoss magazine. If you still have questions come back and we will try to provide answers.

I leave you with one idea to keep in mind. Get good genetic stock for your initial bgill stocking. Ask the hatchery about the source of their stock and how big it gets. References are often good to get. A mediocre bgill will eat about the same amount of food as a bgill with good genetics. However the mediocre bgill will never get as big as the bgill with better genetics.

aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine -
America's Journal of Pond Management