I haven't taken an "average" weight lately of my fish because I've been trying to minimize handling.
The most interesting events of the last several weeks...
I had one bluegill die. This is the first indoor mortality in the last two winters. He was a really nice one. When I removed him from the tank one morning I decided to do an autopsy. When I opened him up I discovered that he had a mass of pellets (Aquamax 600) stuck in his throat. His belly was full of pellet matter, so I'm assuming that he choked to death doing what he loved--eating.
Bill and Cecil had warned me that this might happen, so I took heed and have fed smaller pellets the rest of the winter.
On a good note, I weighed the biggest bluegill in the tank and he was a mind-boggling 350 grams. At 88 weeks that's pretty solid for a Nebraska bluegill. He was also just short of 9 inches at 225 mm.
That's a Wr of 131. I think the mean Wr is maybe in the low 120's because it's harder to maintain incredible body condition in the winter with big fish. They just require SO MUCH more food, and I'm only out there two or three times each week. I'm afraid to set the feeder settings too high because if the water quality crashes all that extra food would fry my fish. So basically I settle for excellent body condition instead of "extra excellent".
Regardless, it's working out really well.
Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
