# My bluegill are growing



## Lundy

The feeding program is working. They have grown a lot in the last 2 years. Josh netted this one last night when he was feeding them just to see what one weighed. 1lb, 1 oz. Not bad.


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## USMC_Galloway

WOW! Look at that little chunky guy !


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## [email protected]

Awesome Lundy! That high protein diet really pushes them....Aquamax Grower?


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## Salmonid

awesome, I am about to get some fish pellets and start up early this year, you guys start the feeding yet? I usually use the Purina Game Fish Chow, quality food ( 36% protein) and cheap, $20 for a 50# bag.

Salmonid


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## F1504X4

Very nice looking fish!


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## Ben Fishing

What's your goal and feed program Kim?


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## Lundy

Ben Fishing said:


> What's your goal and feed program Kim?


I want to grow big blue gill. I have a bunch of small to medium bass and just a few larger ones. They are what they are and will do what ever they do But I really wanted to see if I could grow big gills. 

I began feeding the Purina Aquamax two years ago. I fed for one year with the Purina fish chow. Really big difference in how the fish prefer the Aquamax. 

I started feeding again about a week ago because the fish told me they were ready to be fed. If I went near the pond the entire school would come over under my feet. They were ready.

I did notice something this year that I haven't seen in years past. There are large numbers of small fry, bluegill, 1/2" - 1" long everywhere. In most years those are all eaten pretty quickly by the bass and crappie. It looks like the tilapia that I put in last year provided a food source that took some of the pressure off of the gills.

I eliminated over 25, 6-10 lb cats last year. I have 6 left that will be eliminated soon. I also will be starting a crappie reduction next week. I am going to try and catch and remove everything under 12" for a few weeks to see if I can reduce the population substantially. I know i can't catch them all but the way they have been biting I can sure pull 40-60 out pretty quickly, I think.

I really don't know what I am doing. I purchased a house that had this pond 3 years ago. I am learning as I go.


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## keith_r

check out the "pondboss" forum.. lots of good info and folks that will help you achieve your pond goals..


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## Ben Fishing

I'm learning as I'm going as well. My fish took feeding this past week. My pond is 1/3 acre which was built in 2008. My bluegills are now about hand sized. 

Here's my program and stocking list.

Species	Date Stocked	Quantity	Length
Fathead Minnows	Spring 2009	5 pounds	
Golden Shinners	Spring 2009	5 pounds	
Golden Shinners	Spring 2010	5 pounds	
Bull Frog Tadpoles	Spring 2010	200	
Amur	Spring 2010	4	8"-11"
Coppernose Bluegill	Spring 2010	100	1"-3"
Hybrid Bluegill	Spring 2010	200	100 @ 1"-3" & 100 @ 2"-4"
Redear Sunfish	Spring 2010	100	1"-3"
Channel Catfish	Spring 2010	50	3"-5"
Largemouth Bass	3/29/2011	35	3"
Fathead Minnows	3/29/2011	10 pounds	

I feed twice daily, morning and evening until mid October.
2014 should be the year for table fare. Until then, just pets.
My overall goal is to see if I can tip the scale with a 2 pound gill.


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## Fishman

Really nice gill, I've got a pretty good idea how big a hand held scale like that is, did your son get a length on the fish?


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## Big Joshy

no I didnt get a length. I was feeding them again today and I noticed another gill that is I believe at least 2 or 3 oz more that this one. I will measure the scale and will figure the length. I took the picture square on so that It would be an accurate way of doing it.

There are several in this size and tons just slightly smaller


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## Big Joshy

just did some calculating and came up with that fish being 9.82 inches give or take an 8th of an inch.

I put the standard weight at .82 lbs and came up with a relative weight of 134%


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## [email protected]

Ben Fishing, aren't you a little far North for Coppernose?

I usually start feeding around the 1st of April. Should be feeding now.


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## [email protected]

Lundy said:


> I began feeding the Purina Aquamax two years ago. I fed for one year with the Purina fish chow. Really big difference in how the fish prefer the Aquamax.
> 
> 
> I really don't know what I am doing. I purchased a house that had this pond 3 years ago. I am learning as I go.


I agree that the Aquamax really turns them on. You mix AM and GFC and they'll eat the AM first. It even looks and smells richer...it does cost more though.

Don't sell yourself short Lundy. You're doing it right and it's paying off.


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## Ben Fishing

[email protected] said:


> Ben Fishing, aren't you a little far North for Coppernose?
> 
> I usually start feeding around the 1st of April. Should be feeding now.


They've been in the pond since 2010, get fed twice daily, and are hand sized so far. I have 2 diffusers ran by a windmill. No winter kills yet.


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## JIMS SVT

Lundy said:


> I began feeding the Purina Aquamax two years ago. I fed for one year with the Purina fish chow. Really big difference in how the fish prefer the Aquamax.
> 
> .


Is the Aqua Max the better food for growing fish? Ive been using the Fish Chow for a few years. Where can the Aqua Max be bought?


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## [email protected]

JIMS SVT said:


> Is the Aqua Max the better food for growing fish? Ive been using the Fish Chow for a few years. Where can the Aqua Max be bought?


Yes it's quite a bit better. Get a bag and you'll be able to tell as soon as you open it. GFC is fine but you'll get better growth in most fish with the higher protein AM.

Go to the aquamax website and punch in your zip code. I get mine at the feed store in Plain City. Any Purina dealer can get it special order. If they get it added to a regular shipment it shouldn't cost any extra.

I started off using a 42% protein trout diet from the now defunct Freedom feeds in Urbana. My 3-5" bluegill I stockedhave were over 10" a year later. The Aquamax grower 400 has a similar profile but has fishmeal and fishoil which drives up the price compared to the more grain based diets but it's closer to more natural food even if you only order 1 bag.


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## PapawSmith

Lundy said:


> The feeding program is working. They have grown a lot in the last 2 years. Josh netted this one last night when he was feeding them just to see what one weighed. 1lb, 1 oz. Not bad.
> 
> Heck, I'm built just like that damn fish and all I do is feed myself a reqular diet of eggs, bacon, ciabatta toast, and beer. Nothing to it.
> Seriously, what Aquamax feed are you using, is it the Grower 400? Also, how do you feed, manually or do you have timed feeders? I'm on my third pond now and, like you, really want to try to produce some big gills in this one. This pond is one year old and I have only bass, gills, and stupid amounts of fatheads and goldens. I never gave serious thought to feeding but the bruiser in your pic has me now thinking different. Let me know on the feed and I will try it, thanks.


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## [email protected]

Hey Lundy, I just caught 10" girlfriend for that bull of yours.


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## Lundy

PapawSmith said:


> Seriously, what Aquamax feed are you using, is it the Grower 400? Also, how do you feed, manually or do you have timed feeders? and I will try it, thanks.




We feed by hand once each evening. 

Used the Fishchow for a couple of months and switched to Aquamax 500. The fish ate the Fishchow but went crazy for the Aquamax. Feed the balance of that year with the 500. Last year went to a 50/50 mix of the 500 and 600 and the size really started to increase. The bigger gills like the 600 no problem.

When you first open a bag of Aquamax you will immediately see the difference from the Fishchow. I know the fish sure appreciate the difference.

It is more costly for sure but the cost is small compared to all of the other costs associated with a pond. If I am going to spend all of the time and money on this pond and fish I certainly am not going to limit the fish potential by saving a few bucks on the food. That would be like buying a boat rated for 300 HP and putting a 150 on it. It will work but not like it could or should.

My pond is not anywhere near where I want it to end up. I still have some more channels and crappie to remove. It is a slow, but fun process.

Good luck with your pond


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## JIMS SVT

So whats the recommended Aquamax? I feed fish chow now. Have BG,bass,crappie and cats.


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## Lundy

I have been feeding a 50/50 mix of the 500 and 600 for the last year.

They are both floating pellets. The 500 is I think 3/16" and the 600 is 9/32". These sizes cover all of the fish preferences. I have some gills that prefer the smaller size 500 and some that gobble up the larger 600. I also have one bass that eats the 600 and and a few of the largemouth pellets each feeding.

Don't really know if this is recommended, just is what I am doing.


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## JIMS SVT

None of my bass eat pellets. Is this because they didnt come from a fish farm that raised them on pellet food?


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## Lundy

I know you can get pellet trained bass from a fish hatchery.

I have only one bass that decided on his own to eat pellets starting when he was around 8" long. He is now a 15-16" bass and still eating them every evening.


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## [email protected]

Bass generally need to be trained on pellets from the hatchery. If you're starting to feed in previously unfed pond, it is likely than only a couple will eat pellets. I have several generations on pellets, some from my intitial stocking of feed trained bass and many that have been produced in my pond. I think having some feed trained bass encourages non pellet trained to learn to eat pellets but I can't say this for sure. The bass that are on pellets tend to grow a lot faster than those that are not. Since I have been actively culling underperformers for many years, I have been selecting for bass that take pellets.

I like using the Aquamax 400 in the mix because it is 46% percent protein. It is the highest protein in the Aquamax line that floats (well most of it floats) It is about half the size of the 500 giving the young fish and early boost and the bigger fish still eat it too.


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## Lundy

1.5 lbs, yesterday


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## KaGee

(cough) Photoshop (cough) 

Sent from my EVO 3D via Ohub Campfire


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## Lundy

Yes, Keith, before you ask, we know how to zero the scale with the basket hanging before we weigh the fish


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## Dana.Birrell

I was originally lurking, but I haven't seen a bluegill that pretty since I was young fishing in Michigan.


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## papaperch

A guy that used to run a 3 pond operation strictly for huge gills. He sold these fish to individuals and to organizations that did fish fries as fund raisers.

His ponds were about 250 yards from his office/house. His " fish farm " was an ex-dairy farm. He fed his fish the purina stuff also. BUT the one big difference. In each pond there were a pair of homemade feeders. They were nothing more than metal fence post with an expanded metal 1" diamond pattern about 5' square maybe 6'.

On top of these he placed the fish offal that he got from harvesting his fish. He and his wife cleaned and wrapped the orders themselves. After he was done cleaning the buckets of fish remains were placed on top of these feeders. Flys would come to these thing in droves and lay their eggs. Which of course hatched into maggots. In their squirming around they fell thru the opening and became instant fish food.

Watching from shore on a still day it looked like it was raining around these feeders. Tell tale swirls revealed that these maggot had a life expectancy of 3 second or so after they hit the water.

In his office ( this was in the day way before the internet ) was a whole wall of books about aqua farming and raising fish. From his constant reading he was of the opinion that maggots were a prime food for fish. A maggot contains about 90% protein and it is the protein that is utilized the best by fish.

Now for someone who has a pond close to his house this might not be a great option. But with someone who has a pond with a little distance it is the cheapest and best food source I could imagine. By the way when he caught these fish for market. He fished with close proximity of these maggot feeders. So the smell could not have been toooooo
awful. Another of his claims backed up by years of growth log books for his fish.

His harvest size was 10-1/2 to anything over that. His records showed a faster growth rate to that size and a slowing afterward. This guy kept the most detailed info I have ever witnessed in my long life. He was in his 70's when I talked with him in 1974.
His fish operation was covered by "Sports Afield " that year. I looked him up to get advice about what to do for my pond. Trouble is I never did get to build that pond.


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## [email protected]

The maggots are an ideal food and they have been studied to supplement chicken feed (I find that a lot about growing chickens relates to fish for some reason). Anyway, maggots are about 64% protein so about 30% higher than high quality pellets and in no doubt more nutritionally complete. Chickens fed 15% percent maggots inplace of grower feed yielded 5% higher muscle mass without additional fat. I would expect alesser difference in fish since typical broiler feed is around 25% compared 40%+ fish food.....so how many pounds of dead critters will I have to scrape off the road to equate 100lbs of pellets per month?

I wonder if I can get Febreze by the drum.


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