Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations noticing a decent % of my bluegill have red sores.

Background thread of my pond:http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=355548#Post355548

I'm probably going to self answer my own question, but I'm noticing 10-20% of my bluegill have red sores on their lower bellies and top fins. I've not noticed any largescale mortality of the fish and other than the negative appearance, the fish seem otherwise fat, healthy, and growing. I'm seeing it mainly in my catchable sized fish.

"Catchable" sized brings me to my question. I probably catch (and release) 25 or so bluegill/week for the last few month as I'm observing them feed and just for fun, and is this too much fishing for a 2 acre pond? I'm worried that my handling of these fish may be the stressor that allows an opportunistic pathogen (as from reading I'm assuming this is "red sore disease") to take hold in some of the fish.

Anyway, you guys are the experts and I'm still the noob here so I thought I would ask.

This pic (pulled from the internet) is approximately the severity that I'm seeing in my fish:

You're gonna see that from time to time. If there is no major fish kill, I wouldn't stress over it. Poor fishing handling techniques can certainly be a major cause of it...

See this.


http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92438#Post92438

yeah, best I can tell it is a self answered question. I need to chill with harassing my fish...LOL.

FWIW I use barbless and am very conscientious about handling my fish, but I guess too much is too much.

OTOH I guess my recatch rate on my fish is pretty good...

Thanks for the links.