Good questions. As usual here on the PB Forum for an answer - It all depends.
IMO there is a steep learning curve for you if you want to truly and consistently grow trophy BG.
1. Firstly, are you aware of the website bigbluegill.com
This will also be a good informational source to help you achieve your goals.
2. Read through the Common Pond Q&A topic in the Archives of growing big bluegill. Learn what factors it takes to get BG to the trophy size class. Focus on getting started to use proven BG stock that has the genetic ability to quickly grow to large sizes. Research well your BG supplier and his available stock. Trophy BG usually have genetic trophy parents.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=189988#Post1899883. IMO you are possibly too far north to use coppernose bluegill (CNBG). But learn about them and do homework to see if they will survive winters in your area of TN.
4. Feeding the fish pellets and not aerating is a slippery slope where you can easily get too many pounds of fish in the pond (too much carrying capacity), with too much organic decay with a dying plankton bloom, plus a mid summer pond turnover that in some combination will cause a hefty fish kill of trophy size fish. Be aware of this and manage closely with knowledge to minimize it.
5. There are a few options to achieve your goal of big BG in 0.5ac. Basically the management plan is to keep BG numbers low reducing competition so the remaining BG have plenty of food both pellets and natural items to grow to trophy sizes. If you feed pellets be sure to use high protein pellets (40% minimum) that are proven to grow healthy big bluegill. Explore the new specially designed BG food called Optimal.
http://optimalfishfood.com/free-sample/6. Before I add more advice please refine your goals.
Do you want to regularly harvest BG to eat?
Do you live at the pond where you can daily monitor & manage the fishery?
Would you consider using single sex male BG to maximize the number of large trophy size BG in the pond? Our Forum member TJ
has a trophy BG-YP pond where he grows single sex BG. Several of us have done it. See the link for some of his fish. Learn from his previous posts how it is done and what is involved. He may provide links to what he did to achieve his current fishery which works well for small ponds.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=33075&Number=438514#Post438514How much effort are you willing to put into growing trophy BG?. Efforts such as manual regular harvest of excess BG (non-angling) & bass, weed control manual & chemical, fish density monitoring (seining, trapping, data/record keeping), willing to regularly do supplemental stocking?
