Those are some nice bluegill! Is the one in the middle a coppermose? I agree that they may be interbreeding. I've also caught a few that are a little over seven inches and fat that I'd like to call a redear sunfish but they do not have any red coloration around their gill flap. Will take more pictures as I catch them. They have been feeding much less due to the cold weather. (31 degrees is COLD down here haha)
Rotenone looks like it would definitely be affordable. Hate to do that but the idea of having hsb and bluegill that large sounds pretty good.
The more I read about coppermose bluegill the more I like the sound of adding them and a few res with the hsb. I was thinking of emptying out 1/4 acre pond using rotenone wait a month or two then adding about 100 -150 hsb fingerlings and 300 coppermose bluegill and 75 res. Then I could give the bluegill in the 1/3 acre pond a little more of a chance to grow out. If i can continue to remove every small < 5 inch sunfish i catch and all the cc i catch that should give them enough space to fatten up a bit. After about 3 months or so catch as many fish out of 1/3 Acre pond as possible then rotenone, wait a month and start transferring about half the hsb res and cnbg from the smaller pond to it. I can even attempt to select for male cnbg and res only.
How does that plan sound? I know moving that many fish by catching them would be a little work but I have plenty of willing volunteers to fish and help .
Last edited by Lsutgrfan; 01/17/13 09:09 AM.
