I've been on an "extended work week" schedule for the last 11 months, which has really limited my life and my pond management activities. For much of last summer, and all of this spring, I've mostly been feeding only on Friday and Saturday evenings when the water temperature has been above about 60 degrees.
The 150 lbs. of feed I was using two seasons ago for my approximate 0.7 acre pond, has dropped to about 30 lbs. per season now -- and I can see a really big difference. Hopefully, in the next few weeks, I can post what has happened. From what I'm seeing, in just one season, my average bluegill catch has dropped from over 9-inches per fishing session, to about 7-inches per fishing session.
During the most recent spawning, the males I was catching averaged about 7 inches, rather than over 10 inches last year. I still have a number of large bluegill in the pond, but they seem to have become a very distinct minority.
I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but the ratio of small to large bluegills sure seems to be related to my big cutbacks in my feeding activities.
