Thread: Bluegill and Pond?

A 9-10lb flathead would be a welcome guest at a fish fry.

Like little trained dogs they hear my footsteps and swim like little missles towards shore. Mostly bluegill, some small cats and small bass. Don't feed every night or the same time but always just before dark.

Those catfish aren't live fish feeders!!!! Yellow cats eat live fish!!!! Get 10 male yellow cats problem solved!!!!!

Put up a sign or 2 keep out no fishing and set up 3 five gallon empty buckets They Will take care of the over population!!!!!!

Originally Posted by sharphook

Put up a sign or 2 keep out no fishing and set up 3 five gallon empty buckets They Will take care of the over population!!!!!!

Lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

married a lady and her family had 17 acre lake overrun with small stunted bass, many with wierd shapes and large bluegill, started catching and keeping the 12 - 15 inch bass and lots of the big bluegill and after a couple of years started seeing the bass fatter, more like normal, chunkier and still with big bluegill, just not as many. more in balance and it was in IL and couldn't get the cooperation we get in MO and they wouldn't provide crappie fingerlings and that lake had tons of structure and minnows and would have been incredible crappie lake too.

You need to fish hard for a while, and keep a few hundred bluegill, add some 4lb plus bass, and some larger cats as well. I've got a buddy that's been managing his for a long time and you can really tell. Average gill is 7-9"(usually keep about 150 per year), cats are between 3-14 lbs and we only keep a few a year(have to be over 7lbs) to keep them growing, and you're hard pressed to catch a bass under 2lbs, if we do happen to catch a smaller bass we keep them too. Is there an established minnow population in the pond? If not try adding some brushy structure, and buy a few pounds of minnows each year to add to the pond. If you don't add quite a bit of brush the minnows will swim around the pond in a big school, and get utterly decimated by the bass, bluegill, and cats.

Update: It's getting better the two photos are recent fish caught by my son. We've added some larger bass form my friends private neighborhood lake. We have taken 20 or so small 10 inch bass to a local public lake/pond and will continue this process. We've been supplement feeding the bluegill which have grown larger but haven't yet removed any. I bet if I had a cast net I could net 50 or more per try during feeding time so they my be going for a ride also. We have plenty of minnows and can see them swimming along the edge and it does have some cover but going to add some more. Should continue to improve.