Your idea will work. I have done it several times and wrote 3 articles in PB mag about growing fish in small cages. Look for a PM and I can send you some additional info about this. IMO and experience the best you could expect for BG growth is 1mm per day but reality will be an overall average of 0.5" per month in a cage with water above 65F. Note definitely not all will grow at the same rate. Some runts will accomplish 0.3" of growth per month, while the fastest growing ones will be close to 1.0"/mo. Water temps will be a big factor for how much growth you will get in AR conditions before winter.
As noted above you can overwinter your caged BG to add more growth on them next year. Then make your releases as they are proper size. You may find that you will want to do a sorting of individuals and a staggered timed release of the largest ones and continue to grow the slower growing ones to get more size.
Depending on pond conditions cage mesh can fairly quickly become clogged with FA. Outside walls can be scrubbed with a stiff bristle tar mop broom. I had two cages and just switched fish into a clean cage. esshup used a couple tilapia per cage to help clean FA on the mesh.
Mar-Apr 2007. CAGED FISH ON A SMALL SCALE. Cody in Part 1 of a 3 part article, describes the materials needed and how to build small cages to raise fish.
May-Jun 2007. CAGED FISH ON A SMALL SCALE. PART DEUX. Cody covers fish cage placement, selecting species, proper sizes, how many to stock, and feeding of fish in a cage.
Jul-Aug 2007. CAGED FISH ON A SMALL SCALE. In Part III, Cody discusses maintenance, moralities, harvest, and overwintering of fish in a cage.
Some of the early people that tried growing BG in cages was Farm Pond Harvest Magazine Leo Pachner and editor W.Ligler. "Salvaging Stunted Bluegills", Winter Issue Vol.5 No1. 1971.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 09/05/17 07:42 PM.
