I am noticing 3-5 a weeks dying for the last few weeks....I cant figure out what is going on. I would think if it was oxygen there would be a lot more of them.

My pond is 1.5 yrs old, fertilized, limed, and feeder running twice a day...deepest spot about 10ft average depth probably 4ft...I am in south alabama.

Input appreciated

What water temps are you seeing? Is there any fishing, catch/release going on? Any runoff due to heavy rains? Any other species affected?

Spawning stresses can be tough on the bigger males, and in a weakened state they may succumb more readily.

My gues is the water temp is in the high 80's maybe 90. A little catch and release but not much and we havent had a whole lot of rain recently

Look at the freshly dead fish. Are there any sores or red marks on them?

No sores or red marks

Your pond is only 1.5 years old and they are big bluegills? Were they planted as adults?

Could be post spawning mortality if they are predominantly males. They will spawn more than once a year.

What is the surface area of the pond?

Yeah they are BIG bluegills for a 1.5 yr pond.....I am 6"3" 250 and I can hardly put my hand around them. They were about normal stocking size 2" maybe when I stocked them in January 13.

I dont know the exact surface area....1 3/4 to 2 acres approximately.

We hadnt fished for them in a while so we caught a few the last couple days....all the she bream are heathly and about 50/50 on the bulls ...... some were paper thin.

Maybe it was a combination of extremely high temps and the last full moon just stressed them out too much

Wow that's some incredible growth!

If there was a full moon they may have spawned and been stressed by that and high temps as you say.

Yeah maybe they got gigaintism.... and there growing to fast... JK,JK.

I get same water temps here in Arkansas as you do I am sure and I have not seen any morts from spawning... but then again I am not at my pond 24/7. Take a pic or 2 of these super sized gills and let us see one of them.

RC

[url=]Dees Gill[/url]

Here is one caught by my daughter late March-Early April

Question: is that 2 months growth, or is that 14 months growth?

"fingerlings" are fish that are approximately 2"-4" long.

Good question. He said Jan 13. Not sure if 13 was the date or the year. I'd wager the year.

Yeah I was thinking 1.5 year old gills. At least I hope! If that is 2 months growth I want his BG!!!! Bruce couldn't even compete with that!

RC

Yea it was Jan 2013 and they were 2-3" long at the time

That is about the size of my largest BG and some hybrids that I stocked March 2013 (did not buy any hybrids but got a few). They come down to about my watch wrist band or about 9 inches.

I'd be perfectly happy if I could keep a good population of that size fish that I could easily catch when I wanted. I don't need 2# BG's, though would take one if it comes along. Right now have the size that I want, just not as many that size nor as easy to catch (sometimes) as I would like. The smaller ones I can catch. The larger ones are more of a challenge (at times). That could be me rather than the fish.

My understanding is that the first stocked bunch of fish usually do pretty well. The trick is to be able to manage the recruitment so the next generations of fish also get the growth desired.

That is a mighty nice fish at any rate albucknbass.