sizes of sunfish ?

I often wonder why some waters around us never produce large sunfish to any degree .
and maybe 15 minutes up the road at a lake on the same river , they get huge ?
interesting for sure and it might be a depth related thing or possibly freshwater shrimp population driven ?
anyway at the spot I frequent for chasing crappie they are darn active right about now and none have much size ,but at that lake they rarely get any size on them .
the black crappie in those 2 locations have the same thing going on as well , this lake has a rare few decent ones and the lake with the larger bluegill has giants ...?
anyway ...
here are a few that hit the other day during my crappie hunt . :highfive

strange stuff fo sho Outlaw have wondered that myself. have had a few lakes/ponds where they get really big and yet on most lakes I fish they are not quite hand sized. especially in lil lake at LSL where they get decent sized in a lake that can produce a few really big crappie but tons of dink size. in fact most bigger lakes I fish they don't get any size to them.

Even seen it in certain areas of large lakes will produce consistently a certain size fish

Good question. You have to think maybe lack of predators to thin the population, and/or lack of food sources?:dono
Bob

possibly a 2 fold or more thing , average lake depth is possibly a culprit ,along with food sources as well .
around here the larger lakes with more depth and lots of surface acres have in most cases the largest sunfish in them .
a biologist type explained one time the importance of the many species of freshwater shrimp to the sunfish diet .
not sure really , but to be sure this lake has the 6 inch average thing going on .
the 2 lakes are about the same surface area ,but one has a much deeper average depth

Almost all species of sunfish are prolific breeders. They can easily over populate to well beyond what the local lake forage base can supply. This results in stunted fish. Quality of forage base also plays a role, and predation of course. From my understanding once a population gets too big, there is no way to reverse it unless you drain the pond or lake and start over. Instead you just have a repetitive cycle of stunted fish for that body of water.

I do know the lake I fish for bull blue gill and shellies is definitely better cause of the food. They don't call it Muscle Shoals for nothing. But the water is also deeper there. Dono now .

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Originally Posted by Panfish Nation

Almost all species of sunfish are prolific breeders. They can easily over populate to well beyond what the local lake forage base can supply. This results in stunted fish. Quality of forage base also plays a role, and predation of course. From my understanding once a population gets too big, there is no way to reverse it unless you drain the pond or lake and start over. Instead you just have a repetitive cycle of stunted fish for that body of water.

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the problem with that theory is there are not real large numbers of bluegill in either of the water bodies and neither have exceptional bluegill numbers, it seems to be more of a depth related issue for reasons unknown.
i know another lake that is also really deep and the bluegill there get large as well and a lake down from it on that same river system has the same issue and its shallow as well .
interesting for sure

And then you have places like Merritt’s Mill Pond which is a 202 acre shallow impoundment that produces trophy BG and SC. It held the world record SC until just recently.


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there are small lakes that are shallow here that have monsters in them , fair field is well known for 1 lb gills in large numbers and its a pretty small shallow power plant lake .
it is likely something in the way of forage that drives it in my opinion , not sure though