Pond Boss Forums PHOTO GALLERY Image Gallery bonafide 10+ incher

claytons recent posts and my recent experience catching BG and GSF on a large jointed rap motivated me to look back at a fish i caught a couple yrs ago. this guy absolutely slammed a whacky rigged 6-inch senko i cast up into cattails:

[IMG]http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i9/jdsmith2/fish/0707_10inGSF.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i9/jdsmith2/fish/0707_10inGSF2.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i9/jdsmith2/fish/0707_10inGSF3.jpg[/IMG]

i have caught GSF from my puddle i believed were larger than this fish, but did not have my camera, so they are just fish stories.....this one at least was witnessed and documented.

go clayton....you have some hawgs, i'll try and be better about photgraphing, and you clayton, bring a tape measure w/ you next time wont you?

SWEET!!!

Dave your the man! That GSF has got some cool color to it. The next biggin I catch I will put it up against a tape measure. That one looks a bit longer than 10 inches. Awesome fish.

I have measured a couple of them at 9" but nothing bigger... YET

We have instituted a new item to our "minimum" of tools to bring fishing... Tape is now in the pond-side tacklebox.

At this rate, we are falling in love with the big GSF and are reconsidering our approach. But don't tell anyone!

thanks RC, conditions to grow those big guys seems kinda rare. once i knew what i had here, i decided to go w/ the flow and am pretty happy catching one of these of lunkers from time to time.


clayton, despite all you have heard, having large GSF in the mix w/ LMB and BG is a fantastic bonus. particularly if you are adding more bass, i think you will see they have trouble surviving in numbers because the LMB (i believe) prefer them as forage (slimmer shape, easier to swallow). if i were in yer shoes, i'd definitely be keeping all the large ones in the pond.

Since this is an "image gallery" post I cannot seem to post a link to our 9.75" GSF, we grow some big ones as well.

Jeff

Try looking for the file manager function in the post options below. That should allow you to post a link to the pic, however, not the pic itself. If you want to post the pic itself you'll have to use the old method via flickr/photobucket/et al.

Who said green sunfish don't get very big and they are a nuisance? Never say never and there are always exceptions. D.I.E.D. thanks for reposting those pictures. It provides a goal for those with GSF. All is not bad if ones pond is "contaminated" with GSF.

Everything is fine in moderation, it's when you start having a population explosion that the trouble starts!

ha ha, mines .25 inches bigger than yers



thanks for chiming in bill and i couldnt agree more. p.s. i dont believe i posted that particular fish before.



well esshup its my contention that a few bucket mouths, and some BG in the system and i doubt the GSF could explode, they become quite RARE

I dont think I have ever seen a GSF over 9 inches before, thanks for the picture!

esshup says in this topic ""Everything is fine in moderation, it's when you start having a population explosion that the trouble starts!"" We must not forget that this does not apply just to green sunfish. Everyone should keep this in mind. Almost all fish and other animals (the list is large) when not controlled (checks and balances) will become problems, which includes many common things such as LMB, BG, mice, rabbits, bacteria, and even many plants will overpopulate to the point the population becomes stressed and crashes. Population control of predators and prey plus balance is the key to raising good "crops". That is why the concept of using sterile or low reproducing hybrids, single sex fish or non reproducing fish (HSB) can be very beneficial in many situations. One can have the "species" without the worry of overpopulation and stunting.

Excellent point Bill !!!! The list is indeed long - for example deer in the absence of control/predation. A very good example is tilapia. Some species have developed suppression methods to make more room for themselves with varying success (gshad for example).

OH SNAP!!!


Bill, That has been DIED's and my point all along. Any species of sunfish can overpopulate. In a smaller pond I would think that the reduced reproduction of GSF would help to reduce this problem. Granted the major drawback of GSF compared to say RES is IMHO that the GSF has the mouth and attitude to compete with juvenile LMB for forage. The recent article in Pond Boss about a SMB/RES combo makes me think that a property managed LMB/GSF pond would work just fine. That is what my pond was to begin with and if I had it to do over again I would not introduce the BG. I would still probably have introduced the RES and then would have a LMB/GSF/RES combo. I think that if properly managed (which I don't) a pond with this combo would work out well.

jhap, you might mention that within the goals we've discussed before........which correct me if i am wrong, would be to have a HIGH ACTION fishing hole with bonus huge GSF (and RES) that takes minimal active management to maintain. the high action is brought about mostly by hungry stunted bass w/ the occassional lunker.

I wouldn't mind having 6 or 8 of those brutes in my pond.

Do I get the check in the mail now? What about my honorery membership?

The balance of nature that Cody talks about is important to me.

I think bluegills need bass, rabbits need coyotes, and man has made a huge error by eliminating the bigger predators.

So the LMB would forage on the GSF, and the GSF would forage on the LMB. Reminds me
of a perpetual motion scheme.

All seriousness aside, I bet your LMB and GSF would be few but nice and large.

Yep, my goal is more of a high action pond rather than a "trophy" anything pond.

It will be interesting while fishing this year to see what is going on with my pond. Over the past two years fishing has been less than stellar. Sure we (and you and DWIED) have occasionally caught some decent sized LMB but the "action" is not what I'm hoping for. Unfortunately we haven't been able to spend enough time at the property to get any real sense of the pond population.