Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations How do I catch my bluegill?

I have a 0.4 acre pond I stocked a year ago with 200 6� CC , 100 6� HSB, 250 HBG, 50 redear, and 100 coppernose bluegill as well as 10 lbs of FHM.

The bluegill and red ears were small like 2-3�. I think they were big enough the HSB and CC didn�t get them but not sure. I can catch a HSB with ease every time I go out to the pond and have caught many cats as well. So far this year I have only caught two bluegill despite lots of trying with small jigs. I think there are still plenty of them in the pond as something sure loves biting us when we swim but I can�t seem to catch them. It has me concerned about their population as I have heard they are aggressive and easy to catch. I figure with 350 stocked and the coppernose breeding I would have to fight them off the pole.

Redear can be a bit challenging to catch, but HBG and CNBG shouldn't be.

My guess is that you are predator heavy. You have 300 6 inch predators stocked, and 400 small prey fish (in addition to the 10 lbs of FHM which will be eaten by everything).

Usually you want at least ten forage fish for every predator. Some people even go 30 to 1, if really want the predators to grow fast.

I have the best luck with a very small hook and small bait. I like a 1/64 or 1/32 oz jig head and a small bait about the size of a pea.

It may be better to have larger bait and hook if trying to catch large BG, but just to sample what you have a small hook and bait gets the most hook ups for me.

John F got me started on the Gulp Alive Waxies but even a quarter inch cut off a plastic worm works pretty well.

I had a bunch of kids out at a family reunion at my place. I fixed up a bunch of cane poles rigged like described above and they were pulling in BG as fast as the adults could take them off the hooks. One girl had her dads rod and wasn't catching anything. I took the big ole hook off and tied on one of my small jigs and she started pulling in fish after fish.

I'm not much of an angler but I do catch lots and lots of BG out of my ponds.

Are you feeding? If so, a home-made brown pom-pom fly should work.

Other things to try...

Worms,
Canned corn,

Slow sinking trout fly with no weight, maybe with a small bobber for casting weight. When using a bobber - I like to set it about 4 feet up from the fly so that the splash of the bobber has time to fade before the fly sinks very far.

Small spinner like a mepps or rooster tail,

OR a trap with an old sock filled with a small handful of feed , dog food, or corn. Bread tie the sock closed and tie it to the inside of the trap. A short ankle sock works fine or cut a regular sock down.

I don't know my hook sizes like John, but it really depends on your fish's mouth size. I like the small ones with the long shank for panfish, they don't get swallowed as easily.

Get some crickets....

I still use the 1/64 ounce jigs with #10 gold colored hooks. I usually mash down the barb for ease of release. Barb doesn't matter if you keep a tight line. I tip the jigs with a tiny Berkley "Gulp Alive" chartreuse or pink waxie. For a pole, I prefer the Mr Crappie graphite poles in 10 to 16 foot lengths. Six pound or four pound test monofilament line.

My technique is to swing the jig out as far as I can at about a 45 degree angle to the bank, then slowly sweep it back in front of me with frequent starts and stops. I make the line out about a foot shorter than the pole.

A long cane pole will work with these rigs, but will wear out the average person in less than an hour due to its weight.

If you happen to get a two pound or bigger CC on, you may begin to wonder if you will ever land it.

I have landed a CC over six pounds with this rig, but it was a heavily fed, lazy one that didn't really fight as hard as it should have for its size. Infrequent feeding will make CC stronger fighters for some reason, maybe more exercize catching small fish.

I use tungsten ice fishing jigs under a small slip bobber in my pond (and darn near every where else I fish) to catch fish. I tip the tiny jigs with northland, gulp, or bobby garland bg/crappie sized plastics. Sometimes I use red worms. Crickets are awesome but I never use them on my pond.

How are you catching your HSB? I've always heard they're hard to catch in ponds (super easy to catch on river backwaters lol) and it seems true on my pond. I haven't even seen the 175 hsb since stocking them last fall

Thanks for the suggestions guys - I will make a trip to cabelas for supplies and give them a try.

On the HSB I can catch them on anything. Mepps spinner, crappie jig, etc. Most of the time I use one of these. https://www.cabelas.com/catalog/product....g_ref=prd739496

Last night we catfished for about 45 minutes around 11 pm. It is stinking hot here right now got to 108 today so it takes a while to cool down. Anyway I was using Berkely Gulp catfish chunks with a bobber set about 4' deep in about 5' of water. I caught two catfish and also two HSB on the catfish bait.

Just stocked HSB at my place. Good to hear your report of their aggressive nature!

One thing to keep in mind is that they are notorious for fighting to the death in hot temps. I've been warned not to fish for them when water temps hit mid 80 and higher.

My guess is that you have very few bluegill, redear, coppernose left. You cant catchum cause they aint there

Agree, the pond is out of balance.

So I should add a bunch more bluegill?

IMHO you've really gotten advice that is spot on so far.
Determine if you have small BG by fishing with micro stuff. Try all kinds of feeding techniques, locations, and foods, all the while observing closely.

If you do add fish-BG, HBG, etc., try to get larger fish, bigger than what your two main predators can eat. Consider overfeeding your pond just before you release the new fish so that those predators have full bellies. Perhaps you'd want to cage your new fish for a couple of days. If you can afford it, dump several pounds of FHMs concurrent with the BG stocking to take the pressure and interest off the new sunfish.

3 years ago I added BG to our 1/4 acre bass overloaded pond. 2 years ago I added GSF. When I added BG I started pounding the LMB, removing more than 100 that first year. Next 2 years I killed another 75 or so LMB. So far this year I've only caught 7 of those dastardly "green trout" (bass) and only see a few when I'm fishing or walking the pond banks.

The YP and GSF numbers in the pond are rapidly increasing. Yay! The BG not so much. I saw 4 or 5 larger (7" to 9") BG yesterday while fishing, but not a single smaller one. The smaller BG must be getting eaten much more readily than the GSF and YP. Mine is a cooler water pond; trout persist over the summer. It could be that BG recruitment will not equal or exceed that of GSF or YP due to cool water temps.

Can any of our sunfish experts offer insight on what's keeping the BG numbers so very low and allowing the GSF and YP to apparently prosper? I still have a few oversized LMB, greater than 20", in the pond, that will never see water again if I can just get them flopping on the bank.

I went and bought some 1/32 jig heads and some gulp maggots. Went out today and tried them. Caught about 10 bluegill in 15 minutes. I guess the crappie jigs I was trying before were too big.

What was interesting is there were some bigger bluegill and then some maybe 1/3 the size of the big ones so they must have spawned. I feel relieved but still plan to add more.

Next time the fish truck rolls through town I will add 100 CNBG and 10 lbs of FHM.

I am no fish expert but even looking at the smallest of the bluegill I caught today and the biggest of the catfish or stripers I have caught I don't see them eating the bluegill.

I had one rod out cat fishing while I was catching bluegill and I caught another HSB on the catfish rig on bottom. Heck I have more luck catching HSB than catfish when I am cat fishing.