Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Anybody seeing any bluegill fry yet up north?

Anyone seeing any bluegill fry yet in the northern states? I've had bluegills on the beds for almost a couple of weeks now in my bluegill production pond, but I'm not seeing any fry yet. I guess it's time to set up a light at night to see if there are any.

I do know I've got an uptick in pellet feeding in the pond of the broodstock, except for at least one diehard male that refuses to leave his spawning bed. My thinking is the first spawn is over for the most part?

Seems I've got about a blue million of 'em. They're jumping all over at the edge of the FA...getting swarmed by their own kind (Cannibals, anwyay!)and the Berkely GULP minnows on a tiny micro-jig work like a charm right now.

I checked last weekend here in SD. Absolutely no activity on the bluegill beds yet. Last year's colonies had algae, etc., on them. Smallies are just finishing, and schools of black fry are swimming up. The largemouths aren't even on the nests yet, but that has to be any day now.

Bluegills in Nebraska were just starting to come onto the beds last week. We plan to do a habitat assessment of nesting colonies next week down there.

I moved the perch feed training light from the perch production pond to the pier on bluegill production pond this evening. Just went out and checked, and sure enough I've got numerous very small bluegill fry under the light. They can't be more than a quarter of an inch long, if that. I'll bet I would have seen even more if I had the light on the other end of the pond where I observed most of the beds.

Sure wish I could get an algae bloom better than 4 feet though. After five applications of fertilizer from Greg Grimes in addition to alfalfa meal it seems hopeless. It's been a battle against the filamentous algae and some pondweed all spring. I guess the cold spring temps gave the filamentous algae the upper hand, and it's hogging some of the nutrients. Using a granular algaecide on it has been a waste of time and money.

I have fry in my pond. I just saw them yesterday darting in and out of the FA.

No BG fry yet but I have LMB fry and the BG are always right behind

I was down at the pond today and I saw an enormous cloud of fry. But how do I know hat kind of fry they are. I mean they are so tiny...If I net them will I be able to differentiate between BG and lmb?

Once the fry get to a particular size you can tell, but before then it's tough.

Eric West has posted some good fry pics of both species on this website. Perhaps he can direct us to the post or post them again?

In my case there are only bluegills in one pond and yellow perch in another. So no problem knowing what they are. One year I did get some fatheads in one of the ponds, but I'm careful not to do that again. Believe it or not I pumped water with a sump pump from one pond to the other and some fathead fry apparently survived the pumping.

See if these help.

LMB







BG

Its been my experience that LMB fry tend to swim in the big schools, and BG collect in much smaller schools.

Mine too. My bluegill fry also swim in small groups and circle the perimeter of my small 1/10th acre pond around and around.

Cecil, I was out again this weekend, and still no SD bluegills on the beds. It's GOTTA happen any day now??

My hybrid BG are not on beds yet. They should be by now, it's weird. I haven't checked water temp lately.

Dave,

I don't know about your location but when I used to live in Massachusetts, which could be at your latitude, there was no bedding until the middle of June and sometime later if it was unseasonably cool. When do your bluegills usually bed?

In Mass it was a quick affair of about a week and it occurred during the first heat wave in the lower 90's.

I was thinking early June, Cecil, but you know how "thinking" can be. Need to keep some better records!!

No evidence of bluegill on the beds as of this past Saturday. We are doing some fishing tomorrow afternoon and will check the normal bedding areas. The females have to be about ready to explode!

But Dwight you're in the arctic circle.

I noticed the first ones on the beds May 26th, then more popped up after that, and they were still on the beds Sunday. Now with the North wind that came thru, it blew a blanket of FA over the beds and they're gonem and there is FA in the beds as well. I hope they were able to pull off a spawn, especially the RES that were bedding along side of the BG beds.