Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Clarification on growing hugracious BG

I've done some searching, but if Im sorry if I missed it

I'm wanting some jaw dropping BG in my little 1/2 acrea pond. I've stocked about 100 CNBG fingerlings once in may (2-3") and once in june (5-6") I have been feeding since my initial stocking of BG, but all ive had available to me was sportsmans choice catfish food 32%protein. I finally found a dealer that would order some aquamax 400 for me. I'll be picking it up next week. Next year, Ill put some LMB fingerlings in

My question is, how long before I should start culling? Should it begin next year? Minimum order on fish is 25. On the LMB fingerlings, will this be to many?

I'm mainly looking at what lenght of time I should give before evaluating, and culling. At what point should I start culling, and what size should I cull at that point?
Thanks Denny

dennis:

I'd stock 50 fingerling LMB or even 75. You will want a LMB heavy pond. I'd bone up on identifying the different sexes of BG, because you'll want to cull out females, and any thin slowly growing (they are longer than the other BG) males.

Personal choice here, but if I caught some very large females, that were more round (good vertical height vs. length) I'd leave them in for good genetics. You will be able to tell next year (and possibly this year) the round looking fish from the longer, more slender BG.

If you are referring to culling LMB, I wouldn't cull any out until they got to 16". Then cull every one that is larger than that. You want a lot of small LMB in the pond and more male BG than females. Later on this year, try bumping up the food to 500 size, then 600 size. I'm feeding BG in one pond that are only 4"-5" long and they are eating AM600. I'm amazed at how small the fish are that are eating the 600 pellets vs. the fish in my pond. Mine, even at 8" still prefer 500.

I actuially wasn't thinking of culling the LMB, unless i'll need to. My goal is big BG. The LMB will be put in there for just that.

So if im reading you right, Next year begin culling BG for shape more than over all size. Keeping mostly males, and really nice bodied Females?

yep, keep mostly males and nicely formed females in the pond. The less females in the pond means less babies, leaving more food for the BG in the pond. Once the LMB get over 16" then cull because if they get much bigger they can start eating some of the BG that you'd probably want to keep in the pond.

Also search the forum again.. This subject has been beat to death.. Cull all females and any males that look little or weak.. Once everything gets going good I'd keep all gills under 8" and all females no matter what.. You can't have enough bass in your pond.. Good food is key for you..

I could find info on what to cull, just not when I should start. ill admit, I was prolly overlooking it. I didn't know if I should star year 1,2,3, or whenever they were big enough to hook.

thanks for the info

You may need to cull only a few of the original stocker BG. Most of them will thrive in this low density/high nutrition scenario. Get a bag of AM500 ASAP. A
lot of your 400 will sink and potentially go in utilized. Not only will 16 inch bass eat larger bluegill, they will eat smaller LMB. I'd strive for the highest number of 10-13 inch fish you can get.

Any chance you can do a little cage culture? It's a great way to perform some high level selection on YOY BG. I'm doing that right now. I'm having a hard time collecting large numbers of 4-6 inch bluegill, so I'm starting with 2-4's and growing them out. That's the ultimate ticket IMHO.

Listen to Bruce. He knows how to grow large BG quickly.

Bruce:

The last time I tried cage culture I had some bullies that really grew quick, and some that looked like they were stunted. How often and how should culling BG in a cage be done?

my first order in, i seperated the smaller ones and put them in tanks. I feed them some new life spectrums small fish food and cyclopeze. both are very high protein 45-50%. They grow like crazy on it.

I noticed the samething you did esshup. about 3 out of 25 got the biggest and meanest.
how earley can you tell male from female? one of my bigger ones had more of the charictaristics of a female. paler, almost silver, were the other ones that grew big were dark with pronounced strips and dark spot on the rear of the dorsal fin. This one was the meanest, and i had to put it in a tank alone, or the others didnt get to eat.

. Start with fish as similar in size as possible. Once a fish has demonstrated he's a slow grower (you'll know in one month) you have two choices...eliminate him from the program, or have a downgrade cage available and give the slower growers another chance. Three cages would be ideal. Don't handle and sort TOO much however because the handling stress can cost you some of your best fish.

I wouldn't even attempt to ID by sex until at least seven inches. I would like to emphasize one MAJOR point. DO NOT cull super-fat 5-7 inch fish because you think they are female. There is a very good chance that you'd be eliminating your high-end males that are slow maturing. These are your potential two-pound fish.

BTW, Hugracious is a cool word. :-)

how about ginormous?

oh and were would I found out how to set up a cage culture?

Fantastic articles in Pond Boss back issues.

I also plan on writing a future article on integrating cage culture into your fishing dock.

I'm planning a dock now, that would be great. in fact I was thinking of fixing a live well in it. guess unstead I could do 3

You and I need to talk.

Bruce, put up some pics of "The dock that Nate built".

Will do. I'm saving all the best stuff for a pond boss article.

O.K. I saw what it looked like already. I am impressed on what can be built in a VERY short amount of time!