Wow Theo, those are really beautiful. But tell the truth, your daughter has been sneaking you some proprietary info on domesticated Bluefins, right?
My experience mirrors Theo's that SMB alone will not effectively manage BG populations. Additional pressure from predators such as YP, WE, and HSB have resulted in BG population management in my 2 ac fishery, but also required frequent trapping, angling, and cast netting in order to get my stunted BG population under control. Important to note my pond is also virtually devoid of structure - allowing HSB to feed in open water as their pelagic nature dictates.
+2
3 acre pond with SMB, BG, RES, HSB YP and a pretty good smattering of WE, lots of rocks, humps and drop-offs for structure. I will probably remove close to 100# of BG this season, in stunt prevention efforts. Like TJ, I fish, trap, and net pretty constantly from early spring until the feeder goes off in November. This year I'm also stocking very heavily with spotfin shiners, in the hopes that they'll raid nests, and perhaps eat a lot of larval stage bluegills. Jury is out on that one, but I enjoy trapping and watching the shiners....some of my small SMB have learned that a fat guy with a white bucket means easy pickings and will come up to greet me when I do a shiner release.
I have a large population of SMB in the 16-22 inch range, and can say without equivocation that they just can't begin to hold the BG in check in my situation. With less cover, the combination of all these predators might have a better chance, but that would reduce some of my angling pleasure, which is the whole reason I'm doing this in the first place.
Please don't take this as an indictment of the idea....I love fishing for bluegills, and wouldn't change anything if I was doing it all over again, with one possible exception--I have always wondered if I established the SMB, HSB and WE first, then added a limited number of fair sized BG, if a different balance might have been achieved. This would be exactly the opposite of the usual "forage first" approach, but with this type of nonideal, rapidly producing forage, better control might be possible if the predators far outnumber the prey from the get go.
