I have a number of cages for different purposes. I have two main bluegill cages. One is a 3'x3' cylinder. It gets most the BG we catch that are about 4 inches or less. The other is 4'x4'x4'. It gets larger BG that have swallowed hooks or have otherwise been to injured, like being hooked in the eye (which seems to be fairly common).

By mid to late summer, the cage for the smaller BG can have up to a hundred BG. I check the cage regularly. Healthy male fish that get to about 6 inches get returned to the pond. The healthy females at that size get filleted. At the end of the season, the remainder of small fish get a special Condello treatment before being returned to the pond as forage fish.

The larger of these two cages provides the majority of our fish for neighborhood fish fry parties. It will easily hold at least 50 mature fish. About a quarter of the fish that are put in this cage die within 12-24 hours of being put in there. If the deceased are still in good condition -- no discoloration, bloating, or unclear eyes, they get filleted and skinned. They either get quickly consumed or they are vacuum sealed and frozen.

I will take the largest females and runt males for filleting and serving at a party. Any healthy males over about 8-9 inches get released back into the pond.

All of my cages are hand fed, usually in the morning and evening.

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