All of your points are extremely well taken.
Sometimes a person however can over-analyze the situation. If you can harvest as much as 40% of the adult population of any one species in any one year, you are almost always going to increase the growth rates of the remaining individuals. But with bluegill you get the added benefit of socially encouraging the younger males to compete for nesting grounds the following year. They will consequently spend much less time working nests and more time foraging. Not to mention the fact that male bluegill probably have a higher top end anyway as far as size. So it’s much simpler to at least momentarily disregard how the young of the year fish are doing in the equation. Good water quality and supplemental feeding will assure that this year‘s hatch gets off to a good start. Now you have the bluegill problem solved. Crappie are trickier. The easiest thing to do with them is harvest everything under an arbitrary length. Just my dad and I have made a significant effect on 1 acre ponds through harvest of crappie. This just leaves us with bass. That’s why I was curious what the ultimate goal is of the bass. Also, perhaps I haven’t read close enough but are we feeding pellets?
Last edited by brah; 05/23/20 07:08 PM.
