Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Bluegill variation

Bill, if 6+" BG were being stocked up here into a pond empty of BG, I would expect them to reach 8" or so in a year. With the longer growing season in TX, you might get some monsters big enough to give george's a run for their money.

If the pond is full of BG already (I can't remember your situation), I'd expect 1" of growth up here, more in TX.

WRT maximizing BG feeding with once-a-day (most days) hand feeding - my advice is let the CNBG tell you how to feed them best. This will mean trying different feeding locations, different sized areas to place the feed in, and different amounts until you find what seems to have the most feed go into the CNBG without waste (pellets which float to the edge of the pond uneaten are at best lost $ and at worst a source of water quality problems.

In my pond, I have BG, CC, LMB, and GC (plus a few feed trained RES) all eating pellets when I hand feed once a day. To maximize BG feeding I spread about 3 lbs (for just under an acre) out along maybe 80 yards of shore, from just off shore to as far into the pond as I can throw. Since the smaller BG greatly outnumber the big CC, LMB, and GC, spreading the feed out lets more BG have a chance to eat away from the relatively small portion of the feed area the big fish dominate. This approach seems to be most efficient for me, but I had to play around some to come up with it.

Don't worry about catching up after days you miss. Lusk (and many others) recommend feeding only 4-6 days per week. Do a search for "compensatory feeding" and read why not feeding every day can be a benefit.

You may also find that fishing is better on the day after the fish don't get fed. I do, and enjoy the added action (since I only get to fish about one day a week this year, I usually do it the day after I don't feed).

WRT prepared spawning areas, remember I am currently trying to prepare for fairly finicky SMB spawners. BG and LMB are much more tolerant in choice of spawning substrates, and are usually very successful on plain mud bottoms. Mine spawn AOK in my main pond with NO prepared beds. I imagine yours will appreciate the pea gravel, however.