Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Maximizing bluegill production

Hello all, we recently filled our ~1.5 acre forage pond with the goal of raising bluegill to stock into our bass pond. We would really like to maximize our capacity and seine as many bluegill as possible. Any tips/advice from folks with more experience than me. We will be using a feeding program and fertilizing but I am not overly knowledgeable as to the best feeding/fertilization practices for a pond like this with the goal of maximizing our 2-4 inch bluegill production. Stocked roughly 25 bluegills a couple weeks ago. Anyone have any advice before I dive in?

It’s going to take a heckuva long time to get very many bluegills starting with 25. In 1.5 acres, I would stock about 10 pounds of fingerlings.

Whatever you settle on doing, you should have a limit as to the daily rate of feed. I would start appropriate for the anticipated maximum number of fry. It will ramp up as they grow geometrically. At some point, to grow at maximum rates, you will have to exceed safe limits without aeration and water exchange capabilities. When this occurs you should fix the amount and not exceed that going forward. Monitor 20 or 30 samples each week to determine average lengths and compare their growth against their growth potential. When it falls below the growth curve significantly, then it would be OK to take them out then. Rinse and repeat if season and time allows.

FishingRod suggested incremental harvest. This can work to keep them growing at that limited amount of feed. It's a practice that is put to work worldwide and could help you to grow some into the 3 and 4" lengths. Growth rates will in part be dependent on the numbers of fingerlings in grow out and this can be very variable. Monitoring growth against expected growth will let you know when food is limiting growth.

Some questions.
1. Were the 25 BG stocked the current size of breeders?
2. Remember about 1/2 of the 25 BG were male and 1/2 female.
3. How soon do you want to have harvestable sizes of forage size BG?
4. What is the planned sizes of the forage size BG to be removed?
5. Have you tested the water for baseline fertility - primarily perametes of alkalinity, nitrates and soluable phosphate (aka ortho Phosphate)?
6. Do you have a secchi disk - commercial or homemade?
7. What are the planned methods for physically harvesting the forage sizes of YOY BG from 1.5 ac???

12 females, even if only 3"-4" in length should produce a fair amount of fingerlings. That 25 number was gnawing at me in way that got me thinking ... you've seen that number before. It was in a Todd Overton post on RES:


I presume a similar stocking of 25 BG in the 3"-4" sizes could produce 40,000 fingerlings based on his comment. 6"-8" brood females could produce as much as 8 times as many eggs so somewhere between 40,000 and 320,000 fingerlings potential.

Was kind of wondering why Todd would use small (probably unsexed) brooders as brood. But it made a lot of sense from this perspective. The first cohort was probably relatively small and these could reach 3" but not be too numerous to allow a second larger cohort. I suspect almost all the fingerlings recovered are from the first 2 spawns and most from the 2nd. Additional attempts to spawn probably would be unsuccessful because of the huge standing population of fingerling BG.

Hey Bill, the 25 bluegill that were stocked were roughly 4-8 inches in length. I would like to be able to harvest this fall or at the latest next spring. We have a 100 foot 3/4 inch seine and the pond is equipped with a bottom drain that can empty the entire pond if needed. We used a laser and put a riser pipe on it that will drain it down to the exact size that we thought would be most effective for seining. I haven't tested the pond for alkalinity, nitrates, phosphates, etc. but have a kit to test for alkalinity. Don't own a secchi disk at the moment.

I would definitely encourage harvesting the crop in the fall this year over the spring next year. Water filled with a very dense population of fingerlings will be very attractive to avian predators. In your lake, they will be more dispersed and hopefully, mostly LMB will be consuming them only as much as is needed to maximize growth.

jpsdad has good advice for harvest of the YOY. Knowing the alk, NO3 and PO4 will help with knowing and monitoring the natural or added fertility to help determine the productivity and how much could or should be harvested. It could vary noticably year to year - depending. Secchi disk or equivalent can help monitor existing fertility and ultimately an idea of annual YOY production. Keeping some applicable records of inputs to the pond, weekly secchi readings, and harvested numbers, sizes and pounds will be very helpful in future year's management.