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Email me and I'll send you a pic of one out of the pond. Not sure how to post it here and I'm too lazy to try it. \:D

jjbaird@ligtel.com


If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Git off your butt and post it for us!

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Nah email me. :p I need to get back to work. I have a steelhead and four largemouths to paint.

Seriously if I get some time I will see if I can do it, but I just don't have the time right now.

Git off your butt?


If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Cecil, Bob didn't say "Get off you butt"
He said "GIT off" \:D .. southern slang. ;\)
It's cool when we're good enough friends to poke each other like that!

I'd like to see it!


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Cecil, nice fish! I thought I'd do you the favor of posting the image so everyone could see.



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Ohhh, brookies are cool, aren't they?

Cecil, who's holding the fish??


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From Bob Lusk: Dr. Dave Willis passed away January 13, 2014. He continues to be a key part of our Pond Boss family...and always will be.
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Geeeesh!!


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Thanks for posting the fish tritonvit! My parents who live on my property had friends visiting and this is one of them. Her name is Inge and she's German like my mother. She likes to fish and I sent her out to the pond. Lots of hooping and hollering. \:D

Fish in real life was a deeper orange not sure why the pic didn't duplicate it. It was 4 lbs. 4 1/2 oz. and 19 inches on a board. Biggest so far is 5 lbs. 10 1/2 oz. and 21 1/2 inches. I'm shipping that bigger one out Monday to New York and got $80.00 for it including shipping. The guy makes fish replicas and will be molding it. I didn't get a good pic of that one. Hope to have more pics later when we seriously go to harvest them by hook and line. Lots of volunteers!


If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Cecil,
You certainly know how to grow beautiful trout! Somehow I didn't believe they could be raised in captivity & have all the great coloration of wild fish since all the stock brooks I've seen didn't. Aparently you know your stuff! Congrats! I wouldn't have believed it came from a back yard!

Dave, Cecil said it was a friend of his parents holding the fish.


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How old was that BT from fry to harvest?


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Hey Readers, The real amazing thing is the size of the small pond that this fish was raised in; not much bigger than four car garage.

Cecil are you getting my emails?


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Bruce this is a 4 year old fish. Got him at about 6 to 8 inches on Halloween 2003 as a two year old with 150 others. Interestingly the fish was behind in growth at that age due to the 48 degree water year around that they were being raised in a raceway at the hatchery in northern Wisconin (Bayfield) on Lake Superior. I had brooks from a source previously from a source in Virgina (warmer water) that were already 10 inches at age 1. By age 2 I had one that was 18 + and almost 4 pounds. Most of those age 2 fish were about 2.5 lbs. However the fish from that source seemed to be done for at age 3. Typical domesticated eastern brook trout only live 3 or 4 years.

This fish is a Lake Nipigon strain Canadian brook trout with the brood stock originally netted off shoals on Lake Nipigon back in the 70's. For those of you that don't know that is a 90 mile long lake north of Lake Superior. The world record brook trout of 14 lbs was of this strain from the Nipigon River. I had a Lake Nipigon strain expert from Canada tell me they should live 6 to 8 years or more and I could grow ten pounders if I keep them long enough. I'm hoping for 6 to 7 pounders next fall! ;\)

I got these fish from the Red Cliff tribal hatchery north of Bayfield. Price was only 60 cents a piece! I gave them a dollar as I said they weren't charging enough. The following year they raised the price to $2.00! \:D A friend that was going to get some from them said, "
Gee thanks Cecil! Way to go!"

The Indians are planting these in Lake Superior to bring back the coasters. However technically they are not coasters.

Are you sorry you asked? \:\)


If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Bill,

I just emailed you. Sorry for the delay. I will call you soon.

Yep pond is 88 by 59 feet max depth 9 feet. Has up to 120 brook trout up to over 5 lbs in it right now. However you'll never see them until they come up to feed just before dark. They will only feed once per day too. Not sure why.


If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Not sorry I asked...just happy for you. And a little jealous.

Actually a lot jealous.


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 Quote:
Originally posted by Bruce Condello:
Not sorry I asked...just happy for you. And a little jealous.

Actually a lot jealous.
You shouldn't be. Your bluegills are incredible! I hope I get mine somewhere near that size.

BTW I got to do some more work on your bluegills. I'm getting closer to completing them.


If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Norm Kopecky (PB forum member and frequent poster) came and fished one of my ponds yesterday. He caught my best fish ever for future potential! It was an age-2 bluegill that was approx. 9 3/8 inches and one pound. It was a male with almost no development of secondary sexual characteristics. I think he was happy. ;\)


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Wow that is incredible for only 2 years of age. I know biologists that wouldn't believe you but I do.

Think you're the only one that is doing selective breeding on bluegills Bruce? I don't know anyone else that is. Most growers just grow them out and seine them up with no selective breeding.


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Bruce, could you elaborate a bit on your selective breeding techniques for bluegills that Cecil mentioned? I'm really interested in these types of projects.

Cecil, I just did some simple calculations and it looks like you've got over 1000+ pounds of fish/acre in your Brooke pond. That's amazing! Is this pond continously fed by a well or flowing stream?

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Tritonvt,

Actually I would say it is much more. With the few fish sampled, fish are running from about 3.75 lbs. to the biggest so far at 5 lbs. 10 oz. if you averaged those two and multiplied by 120 fish you get about 562.2 lbs. Pond is 1/10th acre so that is about 5,622 lbs. per acre. I would guess there has been some mortality as I have found about a half a dozen this year so there are probably less fish than 120. Some dead fish never float up especially trout according to a trout farmer I know.

I run about 38 gpms of well water into the pond which would come out to 14.79 lbs per gallon. I think the extensive Chara actually allows for extended carrying capacity due to the high surface area for nitrification. It also adds oxygen in the daytime, and there seems to be enough flow and aeration at night to keep oxygen levels high enough.

I've see a guide that recommends about 12.5 lbs. per gallon in my situation of an earthen pond.


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Astounding BG, Bruce!

You set the bar high.

P.S. Wonderful trout, Cecil. But I'm not trying to grow big trout, so I don't hate you (just Bruce \:D ).


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Just keep in mind all....

Age-2 in mid-September represents nearly three years of growth (more accurately three full growing seasons). I actually think I've sampled this fish before. I think his size progression was as follows:

Spawned May 2003
Size Sept. 16,2003 Approximately 3.5 inches
Size Sept. 16,2004 Approximately 7.5 inches
Size Sept. 16,2005 9.375 inches and 1 pound

This fish came from my first spawn involving all superior quality feed trained bluegill. It will definitely be a brood fish next year!!!

Also, Norm and I caught some age-1 fish that were 7-7.5 inches. They looked great, and were also lacking any evidence of sexual maturity.

Norm caught this fish out of a pond that had no fish at all in it before 2003 so it's pretty much a lock as to what year class it is. Ask Norm when he posts again--it looked like a baby with a big jiggly belly.

tritonvt check the following thread. http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=001816


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2 words Very Nice.

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CB1 & Bruce :

You guys continue to amaze. You seem to grow both beautiful fish and have very good records/info on thier history. That ,I am sure ,not only helps your work but helps others here with their ponds. Thanks for sharing . Buy the way a 4+ lb. BT and a 1lb BG are superior results and are not common in the over all pond scene. ewest

PS-- Bruce I have never seen a BG with a " big jiggly belly" . I expect corroboration from Norm.
















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Ah but Ewest, According to my DNR it's easy to grow big fish -- all you have to do is feed them. That's why none of my record fish can be entered as state records. Funny thing is I don't even know of any fish farms or other ponds that feed with fish this big.

Conversely my DNR produced a pond management manual that said feeding bluegills to get better growth "is a waste of time."

BTW, this brook trout and numerous others are more "unofficial state records" along with my 2 lb. 13 oz. yellow perch which was the 3rd biggest yellow perch ever recorded in the U.S.


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"Yep pond is 88 by 59 feet max depth 9 feet. Has up to 120 brook trout up to over 5 lbs in it right now."

Nice fish and bigger ones to follow. Congratulations Cecil!!

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