Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Show off your catch Big female HBG

Caught her last night right before dark on a spur of the moment fishing trip. I didn't expect to fish, so I didn't have the scale or a tape. I laid her on a 2x8 bench seat on a picnic table.

What a hog! Congratulations!

How do we know that's not a 2x4 lol jk... That's definitely a fat girl I like the split tail wonder why..

What do/did you see that convinces you its female?

The coloration and body shape are what I'm basing this on. If you follow the curve from the fish's lips down to her pelvic fins, you'll see it's a relatively smooth transition, and flows fairly uninterrupted. On a male, there is a pronounced "hump" in the chest area, which causes a ledge, or bump in that arc.

My males are darker along the back, and their bellies are deep yellow or gold, especially pronounced during the spawn. They can be longer and not quite as tall, but not always.

Here are a couple males I caught last night also:



Here are a couple females from last year together with a native female. They are gravid in these photos, verified upon filleting.


Male from last year in spawning colors, and displaying the deep, pronounced chest hump.

I concur Sprkplug!

Thank you Cecil, confirmation from an expert like yourself helps me to believe that I really am learning something!

Spark how big is your pond? And what are you feed those monsters??? Very nice dude!!!

Goodness looks like an Oscar!

The HBG pond is 2/3 acre, and I feed AQ500. I considered switching to 600, but they seem to do all right on the smaller feed.

I have thought about this girl all day. When I started the HBG project, my goal was to get the fish up to 1.5lb. I truly feel that she had to be close to that mark. Naturally, I was alone with no scale...just lucky I keep a camera in the truck. Wetting a line was a spur of the moment idea, and I wasn't prepared for what I might catch.

My one consolation is thinking about what she will weigh in a few weeks, as spawning approaches.

Man it already looked like she was spawning!! Unreal dude!! I am excited to start feeding this year myself. I found a place that can get me AM500 for 30 bucks a bag. I can't wait to get it going!!

thx for sharing that beast!!

Have you thought about mixing the 500 and 600 together, that is what I have done, along with 400 as well but I doubt I will do that again, I just bought a bag of the to get my Tilapia going last year.

What you are doing is working though so may not want to change, but the larger fish may enjoy the larger pellets.

Let us know what you do.

Also how much do you feed per day, and about how many fish would you think are eating the food.

The only thing that throws me off on it being a female is the longer than normal ear flap edge. Everything else sure screams female though! Great looking fish.

I know, the larger tab is more indicative of a male. I try to look at the whole picture and base my judgement on a few characteristics and see how many female traits are displayed vs.those attributed to males.

Just for grins, check these out.... all females, all caught on the same day last year, all VERY gravid, all ended up on fillet table where sex was undeniably confirmed. I know HBG are predominantly male, and when compared against the total number of fish stocked, I am still within accepted limits regarding male to female ratio. But when you pull 8 females out in the span of 30 minutes, it does make you wonder.

A couple of these have larger opercular flaps, for females anyway.

Those are just some nice looking fish.

What time of year did you catch these?