I have fed bluegill hundreds of dollars worth of feed, usually every day, for 5-1/2 years. I haven't raised one yet over nine inches. I guess feeding isn't the only answer. I have some bass in the two pound range to keep the small BG population down also, so overcrowding isn't it. Maybe simply poor genetics.
John, I don't believe its poor genetics. In Alabama, the lake that produced the world record BG (two of them) was determined to host run of the mill BG. Yes, there was nothing, absolutely nothing, they could determine was special about them. That small private lake, BTW, didn't grow those big bluegill by feeding either.
Your story isn't any different than many others. Feeding is no guarantee that BG are going to grow larger than a 1 lb. How big BG get is strictly a function of (how much food the water makes + feed), the number of BG, and finally how long the BG live. Obviously, the longer they live means that there must be fewer of them spread across the different year classes to limit the total number to some arbitrarily limited population. That's all there is to it. You don't need feed to do that. The largest BG I have ever caught (just under 12") came from a very poor pond that had hardly any weeds and crystal clear water. That example of a BG has been my holy grail ever since. The pond it came from also had strong (skinny) LMB population under 12" inches. So many lean bass is a good recipe for growing a population dominated by large BG.
We have members who grow large lepomis using feed. Probably the best example is Theo. His Fx BG/RES reproduce less than pure strain BG. Plus he harvests >= 400 intermediate sized Fx Hybrids every year from (I think) a 3/4 acre pond. Without this removal ... however ... it would not be possible to grow his brutes. Imagine five years of no harvest and his pond supporting 2000 more BG than he currently tries to maintain. With so many mouths . . . something would certainly give and his trophy pond would be shadow of its past and present. Not for lack of feed, however.
