Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Cody, Baird, NEDOC and Condello just seined the BG pond.

I think even Bill Cody and Cecil were impressed with the roundness. Even I was impressed by the roundness.

He is so round he does not have a lateral line but instead has a lateral curve.

Since I've been allowed to post again, I'd like to propose a new tool for assessing the status of one's bluegill population:

"Dr" or "rD"


This is, of course, the "relative diameter", which may be a more sensative measure of how pampered one's 'gills are than length or weight.

I think Dr. Bruce's bgill are predestine to grow beyond 12". We might get to see a 13"er in 3 yrs (2009).

Yep those sure were monster bluegills! But they are not easy to catch. Don't let anybody tell you pellet fish are easy to catch. Bruce's ponds were proof of that.

I put the ones I got from Bruce in the cage last night and they were already feeding rambunctiously this morning at first light and again this evening! That's a very good sign for fish that have just been beat around for 12 hours.

Had a scare this morning though. For some reason I woke up at about 3:50 A.M. and happened to look out at the pond and saw a Great Blue Heron standing on the cage! (It was a bright moonlit night). There was no cover on the cage! I didn't have time to build a cover for the cage before I left and was planning on doing it first thing in the morning. The good news is he was standing four feet above the bottom of the cage where the fish were -- so it's doubtful he could reach them. I would have run him off or some other fate but he flew off. I think he gave up in frustration. And I did check and it looks like all of them are still there. Got the cage cover done this morning along with shading. No more worries about herons. I'll try and take a pic of the cage tommorrow and post it.

Can you imagine hauling fish for 12 hours, consuming a few hundred dollars in gas and a heron eats them while you sleep? Man would that have been awful if that had happened!

BTW I'm calling them Nebraska Condello strain bluegills from here on out. Has a nice ring to it.

Thank you Bruce for everything and you were one heck of a host! Thank you Bill Cody for your insight and keeping me company on the road.

Major scare on the heron. Bet that got you going faster than any Starbucks ever could.

Based on the fate of Wickedinhere's recent thread, I would suggest a more "moderate[-or approved] response to our feathered fiends whoops I meant friends.

It all depends.

Words cannot express how thrilled I am to hear that.

It's just not right to subject those bluegills to torment and teasing...such a lil' head and round body. Sorta like me Those are some awesome specimen. You wanna lease them out for stud service?

Bruce, SUPER CSBG – congratulations.

I believe width to be important criteria in determining BG “size”.

To date our CNBG seem to top-out at about 11 inches long and become wider and thicker.
I think I will begin measuring width, or girth if more commonly used in fish measurement.

What do you think?

Cindy says girth is more important than length. (Which is odd because she doesn't usually comment on fish matters)

I am happy CSBG have made it from the Midwest (North Central definition) to the Midwest (Midwest definition). 1000 miles closer to getting some Cornhusker blood on my football team!

You're sneaky.

never under-estimate the reach of the Gallus underground RR

Cecil I bet you can fatten a few of those CSBG up and talk Bass Pro into buying them at top dollar. Just tell them they are the roundest most colorful BG ever from IN - make that the Midwest. Now that would be sneaky.

Here's another one from that seine haul.



I think about 25 of the 30 seined were something like this.

If Bruce doesn't mind I will breed them myself from now on, and potentially sell any extra offspring, but if I don't cross them with anything else they will always be Condello strain bluegills. Even if I do cross them with something else they will still have the Condello name i.e. Condello X Baird strain.

As far as selling to Bass Pro that is always a possibility. However Bruce has some potential there as well. With Nebraska being Cabelas' headquarters I would think that is a possibility for Bruce too.

Bruce all those guys have looonngg ear flaps. Same genes ?

Wait -- I thought Bill had all the pics. That is kinda like extending ones arms toward the camera when the fish pic is taken. You must have some pics also or did Bill snail email them to you.

Cecil I have been telling Bruce for some time that he could sell some of his outcasts for top $. I was kidding him in the post above -- but it is true , you could do that.

Soon yours will be Baird strain BG . Then you can sell them back as new and improved. Sounds like China -- get a few then copy , copy, copy and sell, sell ,sell. Some good marketing ideas -- no.

I think it's just natural variation. The parents came from a couple of locations that I always admired the size and health of the fish I caught.

Sell them back as new and improved and Baird strain bluegills. I like that.

I think I'll come up with some Baird strain yellow perch and sell them to Bruce.

I'd love to see some girth measurements on your fish, George. They look so tall!

Bill is systematically sending them to me. There is one picture yet to come where I'm trying to hold two of them that's pretty awesome.

Who was harder to hold, Bill or Cecil?