Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations How many is too many?...BG harvest...

Here are a few thoughts on this.
Sex first. In a "balanced" BG-LMB pond where large males dominate, the subordinate males will not mature so they are easily recognizable until they are near 8". Thus when catching 6.5"-7.75" BG you likely will not be able to recognize males and females, at least not easily. When one can 'easily' recognize M-F BG at 6"-7.5" long, these fish are somewhat stunted and the population is not well balanced for production or goals of large, trophy BG. After seeing pictures of BG here on the forum from various parts of the US, there seems to be numerous strains of pure strain BG which makes using the firm or definite body characteristics such as using a distinct shape of the black gill flap as sole means of recognizing M&F. Body color can vary quite a bit based on season and pond characteristics. Thus body color generally tends to be specific to each pond. To separate more accurately and consistently one should take time to be familiar with the variation of the BG population in each pond before making 99% positive IDs.

BG Harvest. Essentially we want to know how many fish can be removed and not damage the overall balance of numbers. Two common approaches, or actually three methods. Several items influence the first approach or method.

First method 1. For a half-way decent estimate of how many BG can be removed from a pond, the 1st thing one should know is how big is the pond - acres. Each pond will produce a certain poundage of fish per acre. 2nd thing is pond productivity. Basic productivity is what grows the fish. 3rd thing is pond transparency, clarity, turbidity as caused by phytoplankton and not silt/detritus. Most often a secchi disk helps to determine this. Generally, is the water greenish, or with a mud-dirt color hue? Clarity or turbidity relates back to productivity. 4th thing is amount of pelleted food added per acre per yr, again affecting productivity. All these items determine carrying capacity and annual fish production. Thus the more the productivity the more fish that can be "safely" harvested each year.

The Second Method to determine the allowable harvest is to do a fish survey which will provide estimates of fish species, numbers, and sizes. With that data one can get a real good estimate of what can be removed.

The Third Method and most common method is -- guess. In unsupervised situations often this amounts to - remove fish until you are tired fishing, it gets dark, or weather turns bad or the owner catches you fishing in his pond and kicks your butt out.

In summary for a best online answer to odlivin247's question of how many to remove, tell us the pond size, the water clarity, and how much feed is added daily and age of the pond -fishery, then we can provide some reasonable numbers of fish to remove. We assume the goal is growing big BG - correct?

The pond is just over half an acre...The clarity is usually right around 12-18 inches, green...I started feeding AM500 in May and am on my 4th bag, so averaging about a pound of feed a day.. The pond was built in 2001 and is a ground water clay-sandy loam bottom..

And yes big BG is the main goal...

Hey Esshup you could be right? The ear tab thing is not a fail safe I suppose and it does have some male colors but the ear tab sure is a lot smaller than that first fish! Sooooo maybe it's not a 100 percent way to tell that's for sure! Sorry if i misled anyone!!

RC

RC, I need a better head shot of the 10 inch CNBG to be sure, but it appears to be a male Arkansas intergrade CNBG with some copper band on forehead, usually a male characteristic.
G/

Can't tell for sure - need a better photo - focus on head and another on full body shot for positive ID.
G/

RC51, non-dominant males take on the appearance of females during spawning so they can infiltrate the dominant male nesting areas without getting chased off. The dominant male thinks they are female and when a female is around laying eggs, they'll get in a squirt or 2.

Fished for that fish hard tonight, but I think the GBH that has been hanging out at the pond lately has been creeping my post and found it 1st!!!

Outdoorlivn - have you read this essay about harvesting BG from the archives?
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=273316#Post273316

After reading or reviewing it and you have questions bring then here and we will try to provide more information for your specific harvest questions.

After reading that essay and reading it again...Then rereading some of it several more times, I have decided that I am going to shoot for around 30-50 of my 6" fish...I am sure I am heavy on numbers vs weight...

The LMB plus feeding have made a noticeable difference since buying the house in may...I just don't want to go in and over fish/remove fish that have a head start on being my 8+ inch fish...

Thanks for the suggestions and keep them coming if I am total off on my thinking...

Evidently you had not seen that info earlier? Did you find it informative and helpful? Do not hesitate to be critical or provide suggestions.
Your harvest number sounds reasonable. Consider removing around 30 6"-7" BG and then if it appears there are quite a few in this size class in April-May before spawn then remove 20 more.

Suggestion. To improve your management baseline information, I suggest that you measure length and write it down for every BG that is caught, harvested and/or released. This valuable information will allow you to compare current BG population size structure to future population structures.

It helps to use a small hook (No 8 or 6) with live bait such as earthworms or wax worms. Smaller hooks allow you to catch smaller BG such as 4" to 5" in addition to largest BG. If you plot this data or put it into a bar graph it will be a baseline comparison for all future angler catches. Thus you will be able to see if the BG catches or population is shifting toward smaller, larger or same sizes. While recording data it is also a good idea to keep track of how many LMB are caught for every 20 BG. This data allows you to determine if LMB are more numerous or fewer over time.

Finally got a chance to fish the pond tonight... Ended up removing 35 BG and a 3lb CC...BG were about half male and half female, several females still had eggs?... Caught way more males than females... The biggest fish kept was a deep hooked male that was just over 8" and weighed 8.? ounces on my digital scale.. Not the best scale for measuring BG..

Thanks for the help and looking forward to some 10" fish in the future..

Any pics ?

One really bad one...

That fish is in good condition !