Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait caging bluegills

I have an abundance of bluegills (2"-4")in one of my small ponds. I have a 4'x4'x4' cage built out of 3/4" square netting that I want to fasten on the end of the dock in my large pond. How many fish of the above size can I stock in this cage? What should I feed them?

Hi Mrbill

I've grown out up to 200 BG 4-7" in cages of similar size with no issues. I think you could easily go 250-300. Or, you can segregate the largest fish in another cage to enable smaller fish a square shot at forage and subsequent growth opportunities. 4" BG will bully the smaller fish to an extent - since cages are so easily and cheaply built, might be a consideration for you to whip up another one.

BG will readily feed train. I recommend Aqua Max because it's the only pellet I've ever used. Start with hydrated pellets if necessary, and over time begin introducing dry pellets. 2" BG can handle AM 400 [float/sink] while 4" can handle AM 500.

My suggestions are based solely on my personal experience cage growing BG. Hope some of this was helpful. Others will be along to share their insight - there's more than one way to manage a project like this - it's just what's worked for me historically.

Can you tell us more about your pond up there? Fish species, size of pond, your goals? Any photos? PA is beautiful country - love any chance I can get to see pics of the countryside there.

At a high density noted above or even lower 1/2 density noted above be prepared for the cage to develop heavy algae growths and know how to clean the cage mesh or transfer fish into a clean cage. As the caged fish get larger they will 'do' somewhat better if they are reduced to a lower density due to them wanting to be get territorial. Time to reduce the density depends of fish size and how long you want to hold them. Follow the experienced advice above.

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.

Thanks for the info on cage rearing the bluegills. Teehjaeh57: thanks for asking about the ponds. #1 was built in 1966 - 1/4th acre x 5ft deep. I raise minnows in it - mostly fatheads, some shiners. I probably harvest 5 to 10 thousand minnows a year to feed in my larger pond and to fish with. #2 is about 1/3rd acre x 5ft deep. I originally raised yellow perch in that pond to stock in my larger pond and to eat. Somehow bluegills invaded (ducks or muskrats may have carried fertile eggs from my larger pond) this is the source for the bluegills I want to put in the cage. I caught over 100 2 to 4 inchers ice fishing three weeks ago. #3 was built in 2007 - slightly larger that an acre 4 - 14 feet deep. It has an irregular shoreline with rock and brush piles a 4 foot dropoff 7 - 11 feet with stone wall stocked with LMB, YP, CC, BG, crayfish, large clams, and 3 huge koi. All three ponds have an abundance of green and bull frogs. I trap hundreds of the tadpoles every summer from the two smaller ponds and move them to the larger pond.

Keep us updated as to how the cage raising of the 2"-4" BG progresses. Other members will learn and find your experience useful for their pond.

Sounds very cool mrbill! Any photos of your place?

Mr. Bill, do you mind explaining how you trap tadpoles? Many of us have no experience with this.

Also, there have been lively discussions on the forum on how bluegill end up in other ponds. Birds are usually blamed but many have felt this is impossible or at least low likelihood for a bird to mouth a bluegill, not damage it, dump it or drop it in the new location, and then return back to the old location for more. This process would continue until enough live male and female bluegill are in the new location to successfully spawn etc.

I never thought of putting the blame on muskrat. You propose egg transfer on muskrat. Anyone have ideas on if this happens?

How else could enough mixed sex bluegill get into your pond #2? could highwater event flow some fish into pond #2?

Idea of the layout of the land, grade and location of ponds or pictures might help with this.

I'm not trying to pick on you, it is just that getting unwanted bluegill into a pond really puts a damper on many of our best laid plans (I imagine yours too..) so if we all understood better how these things happened maybe we could prevent it.

I assume someone fishing in one pond and dumping them in the other isn't a likelihood for you? Strangers bucket stocking fish after catching them in another body of water off your property a chance?

This story/scenario comes up so often, and the explanation always so consistently hard to believe (must have been kingfisher who dropped a meal, ducks who carried eggs..eggs must have been prefertilized? what fish took care of the eggs on the 'nest' until they matured?, animal transfer, osprey dropped..etc) that it really gets my 'want to know' going when we hear so many scenarios like yours.

Would love to see pictures. Your story sounds like we all can learn a lot from you!

CC

Tadpoles are very easy to trap with throw net [allow it to drop to bottom] or using minnow traps baited [with anything from pellets to bread, etc.] or, believe it or not, unbaited. I can harvest thousands weekly this way. There's an internet market calling for up to $3/ea! I never ended up pursuing it, but could easily harvest as many as needed for demand. My tadpoles are primarily American Bullfrog tadpoles, which are the largest.

I agree with teehjaeh on the trapping of tadpoles. I use the cylindrical 1/4 inch hardware cloth traps with a fistful of pellets - the same technique I use for the fathead minnows. The other method I have used is: I throw a small quantity of floating pellets on the water, then quickly drop my square drop net on top of them. The tadpoles swim on top of the net then I just quickly pick the net up - it is attached to a long pole so I can stay back from the water.

My #2 pond is about four feet higher than number three (the source of the bluegills. Unfortunately, while there is a drain pipe in #2, I can't drain it completely by gravity. I may try renting a pump from our local rental center and try to pump it dry. I really liked the perch better than the bluegills and would like to start them again.

Have never really taken any pictures of the ponds, but they are available on google chrome. If anyone is interested, I will supply long. and lat.

I am eager to start the rearing of the bluegills, but there was still over a foot of ice on the pond. I checked it yesterday when I put the spent Christmas trees on the ice. I wire them to a cement block to sink them.

I ended up putting (30) 3" to 5" bluegills in the cage in April they are eating pellets at this point. I have not checked them since I put them in.