Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose On Mutt Pond

We have been removing several LMB to make room for ladder stocking more walleye this fall. Here is a walleye my bride caught tonight. 21 inches 2 lbs 14 oz.

For you folks with small ponds like mine (0.5 acre), IMO don't be afraid of adding a few walleye. As long as you make sure they have forage, IMO they make a great bonus catch!

Nice fish Bill. I hear those critters eat well

How many walleye did you put in your pond? I plan to stock some in my small pond this fall.

Thanks Pat. IMO WE are definitely one of the best eating fresh water fish.


Freg,

I stocked 11. I have other apex predators in the pond,(LMB, SMB and CC) so I kept the numbers of WE low to keep from overwhelming my forage base. The WE this size seem to be helping control LMB recruitment which I consider another plus. IMO A 20 inch+ WE can, and do, easily catch and eat 4 to 5 inch LMB. I have 10 more 8 to 10 inch WE on order for ladder stocking this fall.

Dang Bill, I just noticed that you started this thread in 2015

Dave,

It's been a fun and learning experience for sure! I need to go back and read thru the thread from the beginning someday soon to refresh this old man's memory! Might even find a few things that were left open that I can close the loop on or update.

We decided to harvest some gills to further reduce the current pond biomass before stocking the new walleye. Based on this summer's fishing results, we knew that our most prevalent slot size is 8 to 10 inch. We were able to harvest 15 in about an hour. Here is a photo of some typical fish. Question to those with a more experienced eye than mine. Are these BG or HBG or....

Nice lookin BG Bill, I probably need to remove a bunch from my puddle in hopes to replace with BCP, lol

I would guess, (heavy on the guess) you have two female BG and one male BG. Is this that new game show " Name that Fish"?

Thanks guys! Roundy, I love that show!

My first thought was BG but I always starting doubting my guess when I see that aqua blue on the jaw. Is that blue a typical pure blood NBG trait?

All my BG have blue like that Bill.... we ain’t north for sure.....

Thanks Pat!

It has been an unusually wet year and our water table pond never went to low pool as in past years so my visibility to the GC impact on plant life has been limited. I can say that our GC seem to have targeted the Small leaf pondweed, Potamogeton pusillus, as their preferred diet and to a lesser extent, the floating leaf pondweed. I have noted no significant impact to the hardy lilies, eel grass or marginals. Have to admit, Bill C, you have me nervous that 2 GC may be 2 too many as the impact these 2 twelve inch fish (when stocked) have had in the first year I would consider significant. Sure hope they choose FA as their next preferred food!

BillD. I think your GC as they grow another year older, will start working more heavily next on the floating leaf pond weed. Thus next year you will see fewer floating leaves as the GC eat the vegetation before it reaches the surface. When I had eel grass and GC the GC worked heaviest on the spring eel grass that still had leaves from the prior year's plants. Keep an eye on the progress of your GC and keep us informed how they perform on your weed community.

Despite the body color variation of the one individual, I think all the BG in your picture are males. I base this on shape of the opercular flap. Color variation can be significant in BG from some ponds.

Thanks for the inputs Bill. I had the 1st and 3rd as males and wasn't sure on the second as the flap seemed more rounded.

The pond is down a foot or so and I took another look at the vegetation. As usual you are on target with your assessment. The only floating pond weed I see is that growing up in the middle of a Lily. The GC cleared all they had easy access to!

Bill D what can you tell us about the source of the BG ?

Agree with Bill that they look male but they have wide side barring for northern BG. That is more common with CNBG.

Ewest,

My brood stock came from Pierce Lake and Baumann Lake. I believe both are stocked by the Illinois DNR so the BG would have originally come from one of their hatcheries, most likely, Jack Wolfe.

Some of the northern older bluegill will often have the wide side barring. Depending on type of habitat the barring varies in how dark it its. I have some pictures of BG with the wide dark barring pattern; mostly older fish from fairly clear water and dark bottoms.

I find this extremely interesting Bill. So if I catch BG with the wide dark barring in the future, should I assume they are older fish and go ahead and harvest them so they don't just end up turtle or FA food on the bottom of the pond?

I'm not sure the noticeable wide barring is consistent enough for older BG to use as a guideline for harvest. Barring or noticable stripes on the side of BG is very likely highly variable depending on water body and esp water clarity. I would use BG size or length as a better guide of when to harvest.

Bill, it's been awhile I know but what condition were the ovaries in this fish, if you recall??

Snipe,

Actually, I do remember because I was a little surprised by what I saw. The ovaries were surprisingly large to me for the time of year. Maybe 60 to 70%+ of what you would expect to see in a prespawn female in the spring.

Now answer a question for me...How the HECK did you know that was a female from that photo? Size of the fish?

Shape of head and eyes is one of the keys (after looking at 10,000-15,000 every spring) and not often will you find a 21" male :-))

Thanks Snipe, Makes sense! Was the condition of the ovaries of my Sept caught female what you expected?

Anybody know of a definitive way to tell male from female WE? I read an article somewhere that said the anal opening of a male is round and female's is "keyhole" shaped. Any truth to that?

This is the best way I can tell them apart:

Throw them in the live well.

If there are males and females mixed together, the females will be the ones shouting and complaining about the temperature and the crowded quarters. The males will be cowering in the corner.