Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Sunfish/Bluegills

Last fall I put in a 2 acre(Northern Climate) pond which is spring fed max depth is 14ft average depth is 10.I am looking to raise trophy size gills.Whats the best bang for the buck?hybrid,green,coppernose or just a local strain thats found around the area?

There are some threads that have a wealth of information on choosing the correct kind/strain of panfish. We will try to guide you to some of these.

One really important consideration is that this coming month's issue of Pond Boss will be dealing with raising trophy bluegill. There was also an article that I authored last year on the same subject. So it would be a good idea, and I mean this really sincerely, to subscribe to the magazine.

Maybe before the day is up ewest or I will help to direct you to some threads that deal with this exact question.

Welcome to the forum, Rick. We adore our Texans, and all southerners in general, but it's always nice to get another "northern climate" person.

Here's one place to start, Rick.

http://www.pondboss.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/u...;result_start=0

Rick B.

I second Bruce's comments and welcome you to the forum. Bruce , CB1 and Bill Cody have been working on an all male BG pond concept and Dave Willis has written a number of articles on BG. I recommend you get Pond Boss Mag. They are all northern PB's. There is much here on the forum about the lepomis ( BG,RES,and others including various hybrids). We will be glad to help but we need to know what are your goals for the pond. One basic is that no pond with fish remains static. Any of the BG type fish require management usually by having a predator species in the pond.

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.

Thanks for your input,greatly appreciated.

Does the WNY indicate you are in western NY? If so you are pretty limited to what species/strain you select Coppernose are not recommended in the north. They are a southern strain. Green sunfish do not grow as large as BG, are generally not sold by suppliers, and are not common in our area. Hybrid BG will revert back to green sunfish in time. You may also want to steer clear of pumkinseeds which are quite common around us.

BTW I live in the Olean Area. Feel free to contact me if you need local sources. Good Luck

Yes, I live in Western New York and will send you a email for some local sources.BTW nice looking pond and the Bass picture is great.