Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain I want Big Fat Bluegill

Look out, forum, it's another engineer!

Welcome to the Big Bream Club. You don't have to have 'em to join, just appreciate 'em.

BG eat mostly small invertebrates - bugs, insect larvae, etc., both aquatic (growing in the pond) and terrestrial (falling in the pond).

The #1 thing you will have to do is limit BG numbers in the pond. Our chief resident Big BG expert, Bruce Condello, points out that the way to grow any species you desire to it's maximum size is to have WAY more food available for them than they can eat - so they stuff themselves all the time. Holding down the total number of BG means much more food for each BG remaining.

How big is your small pond? This will help you decide how you want to limit BG numbers. You may want to introduce a predator to eat small BG, either a numbers-limited predator, such as HSB or (usually) CC, or a reproducing predator like LMB. If your pond is small enough and your available management time is sufficient, you may want to limit BG numbers by angling, trapping, and seining. Or a combination of these two basic methods may work best for you. (For a pond under 1/4 acre, I think I would consider HSB and the human effort methods.)

Feeding pellets is a wonderful way to increase the amount of BG your pond can sustain. Make sure you're not feeding in excess, as this can lead to water quality problems and possible fish kills. Proper aeration will help you avoid these.

If you don't subscribe to PB Mag, I heartily recommend it. There have been probably 6 or so articles on growing big BG in the last year and a half, so consider getting those back issues. See Bill Cody's article indexes (indices???) in the archive section of the forum.

For a newbie, there is perhaps no better way to much a great deal about ponds than reading Bob Lusk's Basic Pond Management book. And search the forum for BG threads with Condello's inputs. That's the best place to find info from all the Big Bream Boys here.