Although I've crossed Bruce's fish twice now with bluegills I got from Ohio (maybe call them O'Condello strain LOL) those genes are still producing some really nice fish for me. I can honestly say my males are already a pound at 9.5 inches and a 10.0 inch fish will run about 1 lb. 4 1/2 oz to 1 lb. 5 /2 oz. A 10.5 inch fish will be up to 1 lb. 7 1/2 oz. It will be interesting to see what an 11 inch fish will weight. I do harvest and sell anything 10 inches or larger to other taxidermists and they go like hotcakes! All I have to do is list them on a particular website and they are gone within a week at the most.
Here's an interesting thing: A few years ago I drained the biggest pond because some females had escaped a cage due to block of ice blowing up against it and weighing it down. Of course I started to get reproduction, which I didn't want (male only bluegill pond) hence why I drained it. (The bluegill are produced in another pond).
Anyway, I gave a bunch of 2 to 3 inch fish to an Amish taxidermist friend. They weren't feed trained and although not stunted didn't have that Condello piggie silver dollar configuration probably because they weren't fed commercial feed from the get go. Turns out the fish played catch up and the Amish friend's largest so far is now 1 lb. 12 oz. That's bigger than my biggest so far!
Once again a big thanks to Bruce and here's hoping Matt will do well with them.
Oh here's something that will make Bruce Chuckle. I had some new anglers over to fish for me (free labor) and they were floored by the proportions of the first few bluegills they caught in the 9 inch range. When I said throw those back they're too small they were stunned. Then once they caught a few in the 10 inch range they were flabbergasted. LOL Lot's of cell phone pictures were taken!
I have a retired DNR guy here every year to help catch the bluegill and perch, and another DNR property manager just wants to see one in person after one of the guys sent him some pictures on his cell phone.
